Injuries threaten to leave Notre Dame frontcourt shorthanded down the stretch
The first seasons at Notre Dame for forwards Ven-Allen Lubin and Dom Campbell took divergent paths not long after they arrived. They will spend at least part of the stretch run in the same place, though.
On the sideline.
Lubin and Campbell did not play in Saturday’s loss to Wake Forest due to injury, head coach Mike Brey said postgame. Brey described both as if he expected them to miss more time. Campbell will be down for “about two weeks” due to an aggravation of a lingering Achilles injury in practice Friday. He did not play against Wake Forest. Lubin, whose Saturday absence was his second straight, is without a firm timetable for return after tweaking a prior ankle sprain Jan. 24 at North Carolina State.
“About halfway through practice, just started flaring up,” Brey said of Campbell’s injury. “It’s been an issue with both Achilles tendons. One is really swollen, and we want to be really safe because we don’t want a rupture. That’s probably two weeks.”
Brey’s description of Lubin’s timeline, though, was less concrete. Notre Dame (10-13, 2-10 ACC) has eight regular season games left.
“Ven, who knows?” Brey said. “We’ll see where we are Monday with Ven.”
Lubin (6-foot-8, 226 pounds) is averaging 5.7 points and 4.3 rebounds in 16.7 minutes per game this season. The Irish coaching staff identified him as a starting-caliber player during summer practices, even though he didn’t ultimately earn that designation this season. He has been the backup “five” to Nate Laszewski and part of the strict seven-man rotation when healthy. He missed two games and part of a third earlier in January with an ankle injury. He missed time in the preseason when he was poked in the eye during practice.
Campbell (6-foot-9, 268), meanwhile, has totaled six points in nine games this year. He has logged 29 minutes in what Notre Dame’s staff foresaw as a year for physical and basketball skills development. Brey considered jump-starting that process by having him enroll for the spring 2022 semester instead of the summer term.
A frontcourt that Notre Dame couldn’t enhance in the transfer portal last offseason had little room for injury. Something too close to the worst-case scenario is now here, albeit at a point where the season has long been reduced to playing for pride and the NCAA tournament goals evaporated long ago.
Lubin and Campbell’s absence clears the path for little-used junior Matt Zona to jump into the rotation. Zona played 14 minutes Saturday against Wake Forest, totaling 4 points and 4 rebounds. He had played 34 minutes all year before Saturday. All told, he has scored 29 points in 35 career games. He has played 143 minutes, 77 of which came in 2020-21.
“Matt Zona, I love you,” Brey said. “We’re going to play you. Get on in there and play.”
