Basketball was over for new Notre Dame center Logan Duncomb. Here's how he got it back

The kids at Xavier’s recreation center must have been stunned.

Imagine you’re an ordinary college student during the 2023-24 school year, trying to run five-on-five on the basketball court. You might be 6 feet tall, or if you’re anything like this writer, you might not. You lace up your shoes, stretch if you have to and in walks a 6-foot-10 giant whose wingspan, by some accounts, stretches all the way to 7-foot-4.

He tells you his name is Logan, and by the way, he spent the previous year practicing against consensus All-American Trayce Jackson-Davis at Indiana. All of a sudden, pickup basketball doesn’t sound like a de-stressing activity anymore.

If it makes you feel any better, it was weird for Logan Duncomb, too.

“I was like, ‘Ugh, this is not the same,'” Duncomb told Blue & Gold. “Playing basketball against guys who aren’t Division I basketball players or at least college basketball players, it’s not very fun. It’s just not the same. But I had to do it.”

Duncomb was playing his way back into basketball shape, and he had to do it alone. After transferring from Indiana to Xavier, he stepped away from the sport in the fall, citing health reasons. Specifically, he said during a phone interview on Tuesday, his mental health had failed him. He was miserable, and he lost his love for the game.

But when that season began, the itch returned. Watching from the stands killed him. He decided to attempt a comeback, which included working out by himself, playing one-on-one with the Xavier players he still talked to and yes, dominating ordinary students at the rec.

Somewhere along the way, Duncomb found himself again.

“I just fell in love with the game again,” Duncomb said. “Playing basketball just became my favorite thing again. It’s like a hobby. When I want to do something, I want to play basketball because it’s fun. I found that joy for the game again.”

He would bring that joy to Winthrop, where he finally broke out in 2025-26. He averaged 18.3 points and 8.9 rebounds per game, earning Big South Player of the Year honors along the way. Now, more than five years after signing with the Hoosiers as a four-star recruit, Duncomb earned a second high-major opportunity with the Irish.

It’s been a long time coming, and Duncomb, a sixth-year center who transferred to Notre Dame on Tuesday, doesn’t plan on wasting his chance.

“I don’t really have any quit in me now, because I know how bad I want it,” Duncomb said. “Going through the things I did really showed me that.”

How Duncomb found his purpose again

There has always been, those close to him agree, a dominant big man in Duncomb. But circumstance, and briefly personal demons, failed him until he reached Winthrop.

Duncomb signed with an Indiana program led by head coach Archie Miller, who was promptly fired before he played a game for the Hoosiers. He stuck with his pledge, a decision he admits now was naive. New head coach Mike Woodson didn’t recruit Duncomb, and it showed in his minutes. Playing behind Jackson-Davis also left few opportunities for the young center, who helped Cincinnati Archbishop Moeller win a state championship his sophomore year.

“At that point, my mental [health] was pretty bad, because I’m a basketball player,” Duncomb said. “Always been a basketball player. Always been a really good basketball player, and all of a sudden, I can’t see the court.”

At Xavier, he quickly realized things wouldn’t be much better.

“What I expected to happen isn’t what happened,” Duncomb said. “Basketball still wasn’t on the way. I just kind of lost what my purpose was, because I wasn’t playing basketball. I was like, ‘Is this even for me?'”

Duncomb had to do some soul searching, he explained, and that meant temporarily giving up basketball. Sometimes he regrets it, but deep down he knows he needed it. Not only because stepping away made him realize how much he missed it, but because it led him to Winthrop.

He credited his coaches there — head coach Mark Prosser and assistants Tony Rack, Monty Sanders and Mitchell Hill — with creating an environment that allowed him to thrive. They played to win, but they stressed making basketball fun and enjoying the game. They built Duncomb’s confidence back and believed in him when he might not have believed in himself.

“I really needed that,” Duncomb said. “Because once I felt like I had it back, I felt like there was no stopping it.”

In his first year with the Eagles, Duncomb was once again stuck behind an established starter. This time it was three-time first-team All-Big South forward Kelton Talford, whom he called one of the best players in Eagles history. He played 8 minutes per game that season, but this time, he believes it was good for him as he got back up to speed.

His head coach at Moeller, Carl Kremer, wasn’t surprised — but he was incredibly moved — by what happened next.

“Logan had such a great career here at Moeller High School, and so to see him actually play with the passion and the dominance that we got to see him play with,” Kremer said. “He went through a tough time, but he battled himself out of that and into where he is right now.”

Duncomb dominated the Big South. In addition to winning the league’s Player of the Year award, he led Winthrop to a 23-11 season and a 13-3 mark in Big South play. The Eagles made it to the conference championship game, where they fell to eventual first-round NCAA Tournament winner High Point.

It took a few games for Duncomb to get used to being a centerpiece again, something he hadn’t experienced in since high school. But a 28-point performance in an overtime win over Long Island on Dec. 2 told him once and for all that he was back.

“I realized, like, can dominate every game,” Duncomb said. “If I can go for 30, I can do this every night. That game gave me a lot of confidence, and then I kind of just felt like I kept it rolling from there.”

‘Until I can’t go’

There’s something about the way Duncomb plays that speaks to his bumpy road.

That’s a Marcus Freeman-ism, but it applies to the Notre Dame’s newest big man. He takes absolutely nothing for granted on the court, outworking his defender for position in the post and working the glass with physicality and effort. He was one of the best offensive rebounders in the country during his breakout season, finishing 28th in O-board percentage.

Moeller assistant coach Mike Sussli — who, like Kremer, is a Notre Dame fan —  said that’s always been a hallmark of Duncomb’s game.

“He’s just passionate, relentless, one of the hardest workers I’ve ever been around,” Sussli said. “You know that Marcus Freeman thing, get 1% better every day, team glory? He really does that every day. … He’s a gym rat. He’s in the gym. He knows his strengths and he just makes sure that he gets better and better and better at those strengths.”

His greatest strength might be drawing fouls, which he did better than anyone in Division I last season. He finished first in KenPom’s fouls drawn per 40 minutes metric with 9.5, and he made his free throws at a 73.5% clip.

His secret, he told Blue & Gold, is doing the work before the ball is in your hands.

“Once you bury people, if you got them behind your back, they know they’re screwed,” Duncomb said. “And then they foul, trying to fight over. I’ve always been pretty good at sealing, but I got much, much better at Winthrop. That was one thing that they helped me develop.”

Because he’s such a high-effort player, Duncomb played just 24.3 minutes per game this past season, despite being the best in the conference. That’s the expectation at Notre Dame, with redshirt freshman center Tommy Ahneman taking the other 15.7. He has no plans to change a thing about his play style when he gets to South Bend.

“I just want it so bad,” Duncomb said. “Games, they just mean so much to me that you’re not gonna outwork me. That’s one thing I won’t ever let someone do, is outwork me. There’s been bigger guys than me, faster guys than me, but I make up for that by going as hard as I can when I’m on the court. I’ll be going 100% until I can’t go.”

Anything less would be a disservice. Duncomb owes that to everyone who helped bring him back, but most of all, to himself.

That’s what drove him throughout his Player of the Year campaign, which completed his road back from the abyss. It was one of his goals at the beginning of the season, even when most in the college basketball world had written him off.

Looking back, he doesn’t even know if he would’ve expected it.

“Realistically, that’s hard to do,” Duncomb said. “But I thought I could. I honestly thought I could.”