Notre Dame Basketball: D.J. Harvey’s knee-injury not as bad as feared

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish will be without their top freshman for the next month following a knee injury.

Since Mike Brey took over at the turn of the millennium, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish have missed postseason play just once, including three straight trips to the NCAA Tournament.

Continuing that streak grew increasingly more challenging this week.

During Tuesday night’s double-overtime defeat to Louisville, freshman guard D.J. Harvey suffered a knee injury. The wing took to Twitter on Wednesday afternoon to announce his diagnosis and timeline going forward.

Harvey, the only true freshman on the roster, averages 5.8 points and 2.9 rebounds per game. He plays 18.2 minutes a game, which includes five starts. He played a career-high 37 minutes against North Carolina just last Saturday, scoring nine points and grabbing eight rebounds.

Without trivializing his injury, it’s important to note that the team misses preseason All-American Bonzie Colson the most. The star is just two weeks into his initial eight-week injury timeline. Harvey’s injury knocks out another contributor and leaves Brey an even thinner roster.

The Fighting Irish are 13-6 this season; if they alternate wins and losses going forward, they could make a solid NCAA Tournament case. Unfortunately, they’ve dropped their past three games, with three of their next four coming on the road at Clemson, Duke, and North Carolina State.

According to our latest bracket projection, Notre Dame is squarely on the bubble, listed as one of the “Last Four In.” That was before the loss to Louisville and the loss of one of the team’s key players for four weeks.

Next: Justifying a winless ACC campaign for Pitt

The road to the NCAA Tournament is always filled with potholes. For Notre Dame, there may be one too many to overcome.