Nash injures MCL, likely out for season

By Gary Bedore     Mar 13, 2001

Kansas University’s basketball team heads into NCAA Tournament play with just seven healthy scholarship players.

Freshman forward Bryant Nash suffered a sprained MCL (medial collateral ligament) in his right knee during a halfcourt scrimmage situation at practice on Monday.

“It looks like he’s out for the rest of the season,” KU coach Roy Williams said Monday night, noting an official announcement on Nash’s status would be made today after an MRI is taken.

“It’s a sprained MCL which is not nearly as significant or dangerous as the ACL (anterior cruciate ligament),” the coach said. “It’s something we hate (to happen). It’s been a tough, tough time for us with the injury problems we’ve had this year.”

Nash, a 6-foot-6 forward from Carrollton, Texas, went down during the first hour of practice.

“We don’t have a lot of guys to have out there,” Williams said of true scholarship players Drew Gooden, Nick Collison, Kirk Hinrich, Jeff Boschee, Kenny Gregory, Jeff Carey and Eric Chenowith, plus Brett Ballard and Chris Zerbe, who were given scholarships just for this school year.

Walk-ons Todd Kappelmann and Lewis Harrison complete the NCAA tournament roster. Luke Axtell is out with a back injury, Mario Kinsey is off the team to concentrate on studies and football and John Crider has settled at his new school Washburn.

“It reminds me of my first year here. We had eight guys dressed,” the coach said.

Nash, who has played in 24 of KU’s 30 games, averages 5.1 minutes a game. He’s scored 16 points with 29 rebounds.

“It is something we’re concerned about,” Williams said of depth in the tourney. “Bryant we got him into action against Kansas State on Friday night. We hoped to continue to be able to do that. We are going to be a little more limited. We’ll just have to wait and see, try to get Drew Gooden a little more time at the 3 spot as a backup to Kenny (Gregory).”

Fogler out at South Carolina

Eddie Fogler, who is one of Williams’ good friends if not his best friend, stepped down as South Carolina coach on Monday.

“Not a day goes by I don’t do something in the manner Eddie Fogler taught me,” Williams said of Fogler, who like Williams assisted Dean Smith at North Carolina. “He’s one of my mentors. He is a fantastic, fantastic coach on the defensive end particularly. He does as well as anybody. I’m sad but Eddie feels good about it. It was his decision. He feels good so I’ll feel that way for him now.”

No dissension

Williams addressed perceived “team dissension” on his Hawk Talk radio show.

“We had a great practice today,” WIlliams said. “We’ll have two more great practices (before heading to Dayton, Ohio on Wednesday night). All the chatrooms we heard today were people talking about dissension. We have no dissension. A couple of kids said some things they shouldn’t have said that’s never happened to one of my teams. I got after their rear ends. We’re not having any more of that. We’re good. We feel good about each other. We’re gonna go.”

Seating plan

KU athletics director Bob Frederick recently indicated a new seating plan would be implemented at Allen Fieldhouse to increase revenues for KU sports. Specifics have not been announced.

“I am concerned. I tell you, it touches me more than anything,” Williams said. “The people who come to our games make this the best place there is to play college basketball.

“In saying that, the procedures we’re going to go through it’s not going to be just the amount of money somebody comes in and plops on the table. There will be credit given for the number of years people have been coming to the games and I think credit given for the number of years they’ve had season tickets.

“I think it cannot be how much money are you gonna give us, if you give us X amount of dollars you can have those seats right behind coach Williams or in the middle of the court. I don’t think it’s going to be like that.”

The move simply has to be made, the coach noted.

“I do think we have to understand in today’s times in college athletics we’ve got problems,” Williams said. “We can’t put any more rear ends in the fieldhouse. We only have 16,300 spots, but we perhaps might be able to get some more money. I don’t like it in one way. I don’t like basketball being like the old Southern expression, ‘How much blood can you squeeze out of a turnip?'” he added.

Williams noted that KU hoops made about a $4 million profit last year “after phone calls, postage stamps, my salary, Coca Colas in the locker room, everything.”

“We’re the only one that makes a lot of money,” he continued. “Football does very well when you consider the amount of money brought in by the conference TV package. There’s some money there but that’s it and we’re trying to support a wide assortment of programs. That’s what college athletics should be. There’s no easy answer.”

Not taking Northridge lightly

It’s easy to see why Bobby Braswell has been mentioned as a candidate for the head men’s basketball coaching opening at UNLV.

Braswell, Cal State-Northridge’s fifth-year coach, this season directed the Matadors to a 22-9 record, Big Sky regular-season and postseason tourney championships, and the school’s first-ever NCAA Tournament berth.

His No. 13-seeded Matadors, who meet Kansas in a first-round Midwest Regional game at 6:40 p.m. Friday in Dayton, Ohio, shocked the nation by beating UCLA, 78-74, in November at tradition-rich Pauley Pavilion.

“It was a quite a significant win for our program when it happened,” Braswell said. “It’s as if our fellas believed from the very beginning they could win. We might have been the only ones who believed it.”

You better believe the Matadors, who have seven seniors on the roster, believe they are capable of making a splash in the NCAA Tournament.

“The last two years, our team has stepped up and won some big games,” said Braswell. “Last year we beat the University of Oregon at Oregon with over 11,000 there. Oregon was a tournament team.

“We beat Fresno State at Fresno before 11,000 and they were a tournament team. This year we went on the road and beat UCLA. We beat Kent State and lost to USC in a close game at their place (99-90). Our guys have had to play big games throughout their careers. Those games hopefully will help us. It’s why we play those games.”

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