Irish Preparing To Play Without Demetrius Jackson
A new-look Irish squad could take the floor on Thursday night at Syracuse.
Star junior guard Demetrius Jackson — a fixture in the Notre Dame lineup this season — pulled a hamstring in the opening minutes of the game against Boston College on Jan. 23. According to Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey, the team is approaching Thursday night’s game as if they will not have Jackson available.
“His hamstring issue is something as we all know is tricky to read, and you don’t want to bring him back too soon,” Brey said. “So I think as we prepare for Thursday, we are preparing like we will not have him. But, of course, we had to play most of the Boston College game without him, and I thought Steve Vasturia and Rex Pflueger really filled in well in the guard slots for us.”
The severity of the pulled hamstring is a “moderate pull,” according to Brey. Regardless, there’s no reason to rush Jackson back now — following Thursday night’s road tilt against the Orange, Notre Dame returns home to host very beatable Wake Forest Jan. 31.
After that, though, they travel to Miami Feb. 3 in what starts a brutal month-long stretch of challenging contests. Notre Dame can shut Jackson down for its upcoming two-game stretch, and try to split 1-1 — placing them at 6-3 in the ACC — before seeing where he’s at entering the stretch that they will need him most.
“We’ll do a MRI this afternoon to kind of confirm things, and it’s one of those things where I want to make sure we get him healed up,” Brey said. “I don’t want to bring him back too quick.
“And I know how guys are with, ‘I’m ready, I’m ready.’ We have to be really careful with this because you want to get it healed. You’re looking at three or four days here, and you’re just not thinking he’s going to be available on Thursday. He was in for treatment for yesterday and he’s been great about it. You’re kind of day-to-day with these things.”
Without Jackson in the rotation, freshman guard Rex Pflueger could jump to the forefront of the lineup. Luckily for the Irish, things had already been trending that way anyway.
Pflueger did not play in Notre Dame’s ACC opener at Virginia. Then the following three games, he logged single-digit minutes. Now in the last three (at Duke, versus Virginia Tech and versus Boston College), he clocked in the double digits, including a career-high 32 minutes in Saturday’s win over the Eagles.
“We’re in a much better position because of how Rex has emerged,” Brey said. “I’m really thrilled with what he’s given us.
“We always knew he could defend, and he has certainly done that. Sometimes it’s like having two Vasturias on the floor with the way he’s played, and I think that’s powerful. On Saturday the way he played, he made some progress in finding his role and his way in our offense.
“It’s kind of a Bonzie Colson-type of jump. The one thing we love about Rex is he has a toughness about him. He has an edge. He loves to compete and he can guard anybody. And really loves to defend. I think the areas where he really needed to understand how to play for us was to be better with the ball; he was a little loose with the ball. We take such pride in taking care of the ball and our assist-to-turnover ratio, and that was kind of new territory for him. He has come a long way there. And his shot selection; where he fits in our offense … he is a key for us, and really a key with Jackson down.”
Tipoff for Notre Dame’s tilt at Syracuse is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET. The game will be televised live on ESPN2.