Will injured Jalen Wilson redshirt? Self says KU won’t make a decision right away
There is still a chance Jalen Wilson will be able to contribute to Kansas’ basketball team during games his freshman season.
“We’re not going to make a decision now, because it’d be his decision every bit as much as mine and probably more (his),” KU coach Bill Self said Tuesday on his Hawk Talk radio show.
KU’s 17th-year coach was referring to possibly redshirting the 6-foot-8, 215-pound small forward., who had surgery Monday to repair a broken left ankle sustained in Friday’s KU-UNC Greensboro game at Allen Fieldhouse.
“Ten weeks minimum of being back … that puts us into late January, so we’d be about five games into the Big 12 then,” Self stated. “You know you won’t be able to just step in and do it (without some practice time). It will take some time. There’s no reason to put him out there to waste a year if you are going to play five minutes a game.
“But if he could be a guy that could play 15, 20 (minutes a game) it may be discussed. Right now I don’t think that’s probably the percentage play.”
Self remains surprised that Wilson was injured on a noncontact play.
“It was a weird deal. He did nothing. He was in the game 10 seconds. He jogged down the floor then sidestep jogged to the side with no contact and broke his ankle there,” Self said.
“Obviously he had something going on with it (ankle prior to Friday) that wasn’t symptomatic from a soreness standpoint. It didn’t hurt, but obviously there was something there that allowed it to break.
“If it hadn’t happened then, I hate to say it was going to happen soon with what he had. If we had been able to catch it if he had symptoms, we could have put him in a boot and sat him out three or four weeks.”
Instead, he’s out 10 to 12 weeks, Self said.
The first part of recovery will be especially trying for Denton, Texas native Wilson, Self said.
“You have to have it elevated. You can’t put any weight on it for six weeks,” Self said. “He’ll have the little scooter deal (in which) you have one knee on it that you ride around with. It’ll be a pain in the rear end to get to class especially now that it’s colder. Six weeks he’ll be like that. After that he’ll be able to walk and do everything,” Self added.
Self said Wilson was in “great spirits” on Monday after surgery.
“I told our guys (players and coaches) and our guys all agree that’s a big loss for us,” Self said. “By conference play I thought he would be a guy that would probably be the best fit to be a pick and pop stretch guy. He’s definitely part of our plans.”
One other injured Jayhawk, Isaiah Moss, is now 80 to 85% healed from a hamstring injury, Self said. Moss, who scored eight points in 25 minutes against UNC Greensboro after missing the Duke opener, could be 100% by the upcoming Maui Invitational (Nov. 25-27), Self indicated.
“More on the offensive end than defensive end,” Self said of Moss’ value against UNC Greensboro. “He can’t move yet. If fans look out there … he got beat a couple times defensively, but he can’t push off yet. He is not close to 100%. Even though they (doctors) say he’s out of danger range, he is an 80 to 85 percent guy now.
“Hopefully in the next week or so he can be a guy close to 100 percent when we get to Maui because he is a guy we need him to stretch it.”
“If we are tough enough, we can play Christian (Braun), Marcus (Garrett), Tristan (Enaruna) … can play them and play four guards as long as one is tough enough to defend the 4 and rebound the ball. I like what Isaiah gave us though,” Self indicated
Recruiting talk
Self cannot comment on Tuesday’s commitment of 6-4 Tulsa (Oklahoma) Booker T. Washington combo guard Bryce Thompson until Wednesday, when Thompson’s letter-of-intent arrives in KU’s compliance office. The early week-long signing period begins Wednesday.
KU also has received commitments from small forward Tyon Grant-Foster, a preseason juco All-American out of Indian Hills Community College as well as big man Gethro Muscadin of Aspire Academy in Louisville, Kentucky.
Self could speak in generalities on recruiting on Hawk Talk.
“We did have a good day today, that’s about all I can say about recruiting,” Self said to host Brian Hanni. “Hopefully tomorrow we will be able to receive the actual letter-of-intent. When you do that we can officially comment.”
Self said that “it’s been a tougher year than most to recruit (ostensibly because of KU’s alleged infractions case with the NCAA). That’s not an excuse either. Sometimes you are recruiting to a lot of different things that could maybe cost you a little bit of momentum. It could be not winning. It could be whatever it is. Certainly we’ve had some challenges. I think our staff has done a tremendous job and players have done a tremendous job.”
KU, which is currently one under the scholarship limit of 13, loses a pair of seniors — Moss and Udoka Azubuike after this season. Also, several players could turn pro.
“We’re not done (recruiting),” Self noted. “We’ve still got a couple more we’d like to get, maybe even one more during this period. We’ll wait and see how things go.”
Javonte Brown-Ferguson, a 6-11 big man from Ontario, Canada, will commit to either KU, UConn or Texas A&M at 7 p.m., Wednesday. Recruiting analysts have speculated KU will not be Brown-Ferguson’s choice. UConn is believed to be the leader.
Also, Kyree Walker, a 6-5 forward who recently left Hillcrest Academy in Phoenix, has said he will enroll at a college at semester. He told Tipton Edits on Tuesday he will attend either KU, Arkansas, Memphis or Michigan.
