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Arizona Wildcats coach Sean Miller said in his postgame press conference that starting junior point guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright will miss a “considerable amount of time” because of a high ankle sprained suffered against Texas Southern in an 85-63 win on Wednesday night.
Parker-Jackson’s injury after playing only six minutes at McKale Center matched with the uncertain status of Allonzo Trier, who has not played in the first seven games, leaves Miller’s team with only seven healthy and eligible scholarship players.
“It will be interesting to see how the players handle their roles changing with Parker out,” Miller said during the postgame radio show on the IMG Network.
The situation appears bleak with the 16th-ranked Wildcats playing No. 8 Gonzaga on Saturday at the Staples Center. The Bulldogs feature the deepest talent of the Mark Few years with seven different players leading in scoring in Gonzaga’s first six games.
The number is seven players in six games because two of them — forward Johnathan Williams and forward Zach Collins — each had 13 points to lead the Bulldogs in a win over Quinnipiac last week.
Expect freshman Kobi Simmons, who had four assists and only one turnover in 33 minutes Wednesday, to start in Jackson-Cartwright’s place although senior Kadeem Allen has experience running the point from last season.
Miller said in the postgame press conference that his team might add another walk-on for depth reasons in case of foul problems and the potential for other injuries.
He lamented about Jackson-Cartwright’s injury: “That’s life at Arizona right now.”
The football team’s injury bug started with Scooby Wright III out for most of last year in addition to most of the middle linebackers. Injuries also plagued Arizona’s team on the defensive line and with the quarterback and running back positions this year.
With the hoops team, Allen missed a start and part of another game earlier this season with a knee sprain. Freshman forward Ray Smith suffered a career-ending knee injury — his third ACL tear in three years — during a preseason exhibition game.
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon.
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