The undermanned Arizona State men’s basketball team might be even more undermanned moving forward.
Freshman standout Jayden Quaintance’s status was not clarified Tuesday morning. It was feared he would be out for the season with a knee injury suffered late in the second half of Sunday’s 66-54 win over Kansas State at Bramlage Coliseum in Manhattan, Kansas.
Coach Bobby Hurley provided an update on Arizona Sports 98.7 during his weekly radio appearance Tuesday morning but said the team got back late Sunday and that Quaintance was still going through the process of tests and evaluations.
Quaintance was injured driving to the basket at 4:47 left, and ASU was up 57-45. He was down for several minutes and eventually helped to the bench. He did not return and left the arena on crutches.
The injury is unrelated to a sprained ankle that sidelined him for three games. Quaintance, who is averaging 9.4 points and 7.4 rebounds, was just returning from that injury. He made his return a week ago against Houston, but Hurley didn’t think he looked right, so he shut him down early.
That appeared to pay off, as Quaintance had a stellar game on Sunday before being injured. He scored 18 points, marking his first time in double digits since managing 15 in a win at West Virginia on Jan 21. He was 8-for-11 from the field, which included a pair of 3-pointers. He also had seven rebounds, two steals, two assists and a block.
The Sun Devils (13-14, 4-12) have four games left in the regular season, the next being a 7:30 p.m. showdown against No. 25 Brigham Young (19-8, 10-6) on Wednesday at Desert Financial Arena. The Cougars are one of the hottest teams in the Big 12, with a pounding of Kansas, followed up by a win over Arizona at McKale Center.
It is just the latest setback for Hurley, who was without another freshman star, Joson Sanon, for five games with an ankle injury earlier this season. Junior center Shawn Phillips missed two games.
Junior Austin Nunez, who would have been the backup point guard, was lost four games into the season due to a foot injury.
Hurley has been operating much of the season with a rotation of eight players. He is down to six now with Quaintance’s injury coming the day news broke about leading scorer B.J. Freeman being dismissed from the team after a series of misconduct incidents. Sunday’s game was the first ASU played since his departure.
Quaintance, 17, isn’t eligible for the NBA draft in June. His options include returning to ASU, transferring during the offseason or opting to play in Australia or Europe. He is the youngest player in college basketball by six months over Duke’s Cooper Flagg.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Status of ASU’s Jayden Quaintance still up in air with No. 25 BYU next
