Notebook: Notre Dame will start season with Marcus Hammond injured

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Mike Brey started listing schools Wednesday before providing the context.

“Radford, Central Michigan, Loyola Marymount, Indiana State, Ball State, North Dakota State — those will be on my gravestone,” said the Notre Dame men’s basketball head coach. “Those are the mid-majors that have come in and got us in my 22 years.”

Forgive Brey for failing to mention Miami (Ohio), which was the first mid-major program to win a Notre Dame home game during his tenure in his first season (2000-01). Brey nailed the rest of them, though not in order: Central Michigan (2003), Loyola Marymount (2009), Indiana State (2013), North Dakota State (2013), Ball State (2017) and Radford (2018).

The loss to Radford was recent enough that Brey didn’t have to be the only one to remind his players about prior to Thursday’s season opener against 0-1 Radford (8 p.m. EST on ACC Network). Graduate seniors Dane Goodwin, Nate Laszewski and Robby Carmody were all freshmen on that 2018-19 team that lost to Radford, 63-60, as part of the Gotham Classic.

“They actually mentioned it a little bit the other day in the training room,” Brey said before transitioning into a brief preview of the current Radford team set to visit Notre Dame. “Good guards, transfer portal, all of a sudden they’re old. They can really score. They play fast.”

The Highlanders lost their season opener at Marquette on Monday by a 79-69 margin. Radford shot 41.3% from the field and scored 25 points on fast breaks.

The Irish will start their season without an expected starter, Brey shared Wednesday. Niagara grad transfer Marcus Hammond, one of four guards in the starting lineup for ND’s exhibition with Xavier (La.) last week, suffered a sprained MCL in his knee. Brey said Hammond would likely be re-evaluated next Friday, Nov. 18. Which means Hammond would miss at least the next three games against Youngstown State, Southern Indiana and Lipscomb as well.

Graduate senior Trey Wertz will take Hammond’s spot in the starting lineup. Hammond totaled nine points, seven rebounds and two assists in the exhibition against Xavier. Wertz scored 12 points with four rebounds and two assists in 24 minutes off the bench.

The 6-foot-5, 193-pound Wertz came off the bench in all 34 of his game appearances for the Irish last season. He averaged only four points with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.1. He only played more than 20 minutes in one of Notre Dame’s last 10 games.

The rest of Notre Dame’s starting lineup is expected to be freshman guard JJ Starling and a trio of graduate seniors: guard Cormac Ryan, guard Goodwin and forward Laszewski.

“We’re a little thinner on the perimeter,” Brey said, “and that does concern me, because Marcus has been very good for us through 30 practices and the two exhibitions/scrimmages.”

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Even with Hammond’s injury, Brey intends to move forward with the plan to keep sophomore J.R. Konieczny sidelined for a redshirt season.

“We’ll put him in street clothes (Thursday), because I don’t want to burn a year of eligibility,” Brey said. “It's something we’ve kind of looked at and talking about a little bit with him even through the summer when he was hurt.”

The 6-foot-7, 202-pound Koniecnzy was dealing with an ankle injury in the summer. Brey discussed a five-year plan for Koniecnzy similar to the one that was successful for former Notre Dame forward Tim Abromaitis. Like Koniecnzy, Abromaitis played sparingly as a freshman in 2007-08 before being redshirted as a sophomore. Abromaitis went on to be a three-year starter, though his graduate senior season was cut short by a knee injury. He was the team’s second-leading scorer as a junior and senior.

“Why wouldn’t we think of him as a three-year starter instead of a two-year starter?” Brey said of Konieczny, a local South Bend Saint Joseph product. “So to save the year. Abro’s been kind of the test case.

“I said to him and his family, you know who Abro’s workout guy was on game day? (Current associate head coach) Anthony Solomon. We’ve come all the way full circle. We know you’re going to be in the Anthony laboratory and working out on game day. That’s where we’re moving with him.”

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Freshman forward Ven-Allen Lubin (6-8, 226) will be the first player off the bench. To get to a seven-man rotation without Hammond, Brey will have to turn to either junior forward Matt Zona (6-9, 242) or freshman forward Dom Campbell (6-9, 268). Zona scored 19 points and grabbed 29 rebounds in 23 games his first two seasons with the Irish.

Rivals ranked Campbell as the No. 14 power forward and No. 110 overall in the 2022 class as a four-star prospect from Exeter (N.H.) Phillips Academy.

“He gives you that wide-body, powerful guy,” Brey said of Campbell. “He’s hard to keep off the board. You can feed the low post there, and he has some footwork and hands and stuff. He’s done a great job getting himself in shape. Still has a ways to go there running and changing ends.

“Over at DePaul (in a scrimmage), we started him, because Ven and Nate were down. We’re throwing it into the post and he’s playing one-on-one post defense against a fifth-year guy, and he’s pretty good. He bounced off his chest a little bit. Keep him engaged.

“Zona’s played. We’ve put Zona in games, and he’s played. It’s still a little crowded for him.

"Ven has really established himself. We want to get him in there and play him and Nate together like we played Paul (Atkinson Jr.) and Nate. We want to get into some of that two big, high-low stuff that Paul and Nate gave us last year.”

The contract extension Brey signed in April 2018 is set to expire after the 2024-25 season, which means it would end before the three recruits Brey signed on Wednesday finished their college careers. Naturally, the topic comes up in recruiting conversations.

“The question always is, ‘Well, how long are you going to go?’ from everybody. I said, ‘Well, I think I’m good till I’m 70, man. Let’s roll.’

“My only way to respond to that a lot of times is, ‘Look at my track record of never really being interested in coaching anywhere else. Stability. We have to be one of the more stable, predictable, what you see is what you get.’

“You’re always taking a leap of faith when you sign with anybody. Whether he has a 10-year deal or three years left. I still have a lot of energy. Really, recruiting these young guards that we signed (Wednesday), I’m kind of like, ‘God, that’s going to be exciting to work with those guys and watch them grow.’”

Brey said he’s had initial talks about a contract extension with deputy athletic director Jim Fraleigh and athletic director Jack Swarbrick.

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