Injuries hit top teams
Four teams in the Top 25, and one that was ranked earlier in the season, were hit with injuries to key players last week.
Three of the players already had returned after missing games with an injury this season. All the injuries will have an impact on teams expected to be in the NCAA Tournament.
D.J. White had a stress fracture in his left foot in one of Indiana’s exhibition games and missed the first seven games of the season. He returned during the ninth-ranked Hoosiers’ six-game winning streak as they reached their highest rank since Dec. 16, 2002. But White, the Big Ten’s freshman of the year last season, broke the same foot – not in the same place – and is expected to miss four to six weeks, and possibly the rest of the season.
White was averaging 9.2 points and 6.0 rebounds, and he helped give the Hoosiers a strong post presence with Marco Killingsworth. He was injured in Saturday’s win over Ohio State, and the Hoosiers lost 87-73 to Michigan State in their first game without him.
“It was devastating to him, and some of his teammates,” Indiana coach Mike Davis said. “When he came back, we were a top-five team, that’s what (the players) were saying and feeling.”
UCLA forward Josh Shipp will be sidelined for the rest of the season because of increasing pain and discomfort in his right hip. The 6-foot-5 sophomore had an arthroscopic procedure on Sept. 28.
After missing the first 11 games of the season, Shipp started the 11th-ranked Bruins’ first four Pac-10 games and averaged 11.3 points and 4.8 rebounds in 29.8 minutes.
Shipp, who averaged 9.3 points and 5.2 rebounds as a freshman, said, “I just decided I couldn’t do it the whole year, there was just too much pain.”
Cincinnati forward Armein Kirkland will miss the rest of the season after tearing the ACL in his left knee. He was injured in a 70-59 loss to No. 4 Connecticut on Monday, the day the Bearcats entered the Top 25 for the first time this season.
Kirkland twisted the knee while shooting. He was expected to have surgery at the end of the week. Kirkland, a senior leader for first-year interim coach Andy Kennedy, has averaged 9.7 points and 3.4 rebounds.
Alabama senior forward Chuck Davis tore both the ACL and MCL in his right knee and will miss the rest of the season.
He was averaging 17.8 points and 5.3 rebounds for the Crimson Tide, who were ranked as high as 15th before falling out of the poll.
Davis, whose mother died unexpectedly last spring, graduated with a degree in consumer marketing in December. He said he wasn’t going to let the injury make him feel sorry for himself.
“Stuff happens. Life throws you a curveball sometimes, and it’s just another obstacle that I have to get through,” he said.