Notre Dame PG Matt Farrell Out Indefinitely
After missing three-and-a-half games due to a sprained ankle, Irish senior point Matt Farrell returned to action Jan. 16 for Notre Dame’s matchup against Louisville.
Farrell toughed out 48 minutes in an 82-78 double-overtime loss to the Cardinals scoring 23 points. Then this past Saturday, the senior played 33 minutes putting up six points on 2-of-11 shooting loss to Clemson (67-58).
It was a gutsy two-game stretch for Farrell during a time his team needed his play and leadership to put the Irish in a good position moving into the heart of ACC play.
Notre Dame went 2-2 without Farrell on the court taking down NC State (88-58), when Farrell was injured in the first half, Syracuse (51-49) before losing back-to-back contests to Georgia Tech (60-53) and North Carolina (69-68).
The plan was to rest Farrell for a few days given the team had a week off between Clemson and Virginia Tech to allow his ankle to continue healing and push closer to 100 percent.
Instead of Farrell playing Saturday against the Hokies a little more healthy, Mike Brey is shutting down his star guard indefinitely. Brey announced the news before the team’s practice Thursday afternoon.
“We didn’t make any progress with that thing healing up through Sunday and Tuesday,” Brey stated. “He was really sore Wednesday morning in practice. We MRI’d it and we got a bone bruise in that thing.
“Obviously, it was pretty violent sprain. The swelling is down, but the bone bruise is there. Definitely out the next two maybe more. We’ll come back and reevaluate him next Wednesday.”
Farrell rested Sunday and Monday before going through light drills on Tuesday, but Brey mentioned the 6-foot-1, 175-pounder “wasn’t moving well.”
The Irish won’t rush the senior back until he’s completely ready.
“You were really hoping you were making progress,” Brey stated. “But, you know the Louisville and Clemson game, he’s not there. He’s kind of dragging that leg … My feeling was we can’t keep massaging it where he’s going to playing at 80 percent the rest of the way.
“We cannot bring him back until he’s healthy. If that means four games or five games, that’s the way it’s going to be. It’s not just fair to him …”
Notre Dame sits at 13-7 overall and 3-4 in league play with a pivotal home matchup versus Virginia Tech on Saturday with a road game at Duke looming.
ESPN’s latest Bracketology has the Irish as a No. 11 seed and “last four in.” The Irish will now again be without 15.7 points and 5.3 assists per game in a key league play stretch.
Brey is confident his group won’t be down on themselves and will continue battling through adversity.
“We’ll battle, we’ll compete and that’s who we’ve been,” Brey explained. “Since Georgia Tech we’ve had to deal with all of it. We’re putting ourselves in positon. I have every reason to believe we’ll put ourselves in position Saturday night again playing a team that has some momentum with a win over North Carolina.”
Eight scholarship players will be available on Saturday which includes former walk-on Matt Gregory. Brey and his staff will likely roll out a starting five of senior big man Martinas Geben, sophomore forward John Mooney, junior guard Rex Pflueger, sophomore guard Nik Djogo and sophomore guard TJ Gibbs.
Djogo is expected to make his first career start. Junior big man Elijah Burns and senior big man Austin Torres will come off the bench.
“I think we want to keep John in the starting lineup,” Brey said. “He gives you a scorer and a guy who can make shots. He holds his own on the backboard. Nik goes into the starting lineup now with Matt out. Both those guys can make shots, so that would help us a little bit.”
Notre Dame has been no stranger to adversity this season and that continues for at least the next several days.
----
• Talk about it inside Rockne’s Roundtable
• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, Blue & Gold Illustrated.
• Follow us on Twitter: @BGINews, @BGI_LouSomogyi, @BGI_CoachD,
@BGI_DMcKinney and @BGI_CoreyBodden.
• Like us on Facebook.