The good news is that Arizona starting forward Bennedict Mathurin does not have a broken ankle, but the Wildcats knew that by the end of their win over Arizona State on Monday night. The X-rays came back negative revealing that the UA freshman only had an ankle sprain, the first of his career according to head coach Sean Miller.
Mathurin's injury is serious enough that it has put a scare into him leaving his status for Thursday's game against Stanford up in the air. Miller does not plan to let the UA win practice before Thursday's matchup, but he is not completely ruling out Mathurin for that contest.
"He's making progress," Miller said Wednesday afternoon during his weekly press conference. "Like I mentioned after the game we got him X-rayed and the X-rays were negative. Then you really start to look at the severity of the ankle injury, and I think it's more grade-1 than a high ankle sprain or grade-2 or grade-3. Which that's the second bit of good news.
"The hardest part is it's a quick turnaround. It happened in a game on Monday night, and now here we are preparing for a game on Thursday night and Saturday afternoon. So, in fairness to whoever would get that injury it's very difficult. This is the first time Benn's experienced this, so I think at first it just kind of scares you. You don't really know where you're gonna go from here. But I believe that every day that goes by moving forward, which includes from today to tomorrow, he's gonna make significant progress just because it's a soft tissue injury and it's not as significant as it could have been."
At this point the Miller and the team's medical staff will have to figure out where Mathurin's health is come Thursday. It has not been decided whether or not he will play against Stanford and Miller said it is unclear how much he would play should he be able to take the floor.
"We're just right now letting him rest, rehab and allowing him to watch our game plan and be a part of everything we're doing to prepare for the game," Miller said. "But, he himself right now it makes no sense to put him out there and make him go leading to the game."
Should Mathurin not be available for the Wildcats it only shortens the rotation even more for a team that is already dealing with plenty of absences on the perimeter. Shooting guard Jemarl Baker Jr. is out for the season after breaking his wrist while freshman guard Kerr Kriisa is still a week away from being eligible to take the floor.
That could mean some more movement for the healthy players available to Miller and his staff with the possibility of power forward Azuolas Tubelis being used some on the wing.
"We're gonna do the best that we can," Miller said. '... You only have so much depth and so many guards. Tibet (Gorener) is gonna get called upon. Matt Weyand, one of our walk-ons, could get called upon. Then we're just gonna ask Dalen Terry, Terrell Brown and James Akinjo to do more and push through.
"We have one player, Azuolas, who I think in a pinch could slide over and maybe play the small forward for a brief period of time. All that isn't something that's gonna make us the best we can be. It's just a holding pattern and that would be the best we can do in tomorrow night's game based on everything that we're going through right now."
Terry has put together a couple of impressive performances after recently being moved to the bench with last Thursday's game against ASU being one of his best. The injury to Mathurin, if it does hold him out of the game against Stanford, could present an opportunity for Terry to move back into the starting group. For now he's focused on just helping the team however he can in whatever role Miller has for him.
"I've been working hard every day in practice just waiting for my time," the versatile freshman wing said. "I still play a lot every game, so in my head I'm just always gonna be ready. With coach Miller's decisions I just do whatever he asks me to do to the best of my abilities to make sure my team wins the game."
The tip off for Thursday's game was moved up an hour, Arizona announced Wednesday, meaning it will now begin at 8 p.m. MST. ESPN2 is still scheduled to broadcast the matchup between UA and Stanford.
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