Kansas basketball guard Kyle Cuffe Jr. will miss time after knee injury in practice
Kansas redshirt-freshman combo guard Kyle Cuffe Jr. suffered a torn MCL (medial collateral ligament) and PCL (posterior cruciate ligament) in a knee at practice on Saturday and is expected to miss 10 to 12 weeks of basketball, KU acting head coach Norm Roberts said Sunday.
“Doctors are really, really confident surgery is not needed,” Roberts said at a news conference held in advance of Tuesday’s Champions Classic game against Duke (8:30 p.m. Central, Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Indianapolis). “He really wants to play. He’s a great kid and will be back.”
Cuffe, listed at 6-2, 185 pounds, from Harlem, N.Y., did not score while playing four minutes in KU’s 82-59 win over North Dakota State on Thursday and two minutes in an 89-64 win over Omaha three days earlier. He was 0-for-2 shooting and 0-for-2 from the line combined in those games.
He suffered the injury on a non-contact play while running the court at practice. Roberts could not clarify which knee was injured.
Cuffe played high school basketball for Blair Academy in Blairstown, N.J. His dad, Kyle Cuffe Sr., played at St. John’s.
Zach Clemence listed as day-to-day
KU sophomore forward Zach Clemence, who took a hard shot to the nose during the second half of the North Dakota State game, was not expected to practice on Sunday, Roberts said.
His status for Tuesday’s game against Duke is not known at this point.
“He’s doing OK. It’s day-to-day, getting better; it just takes some time. He got hit in the nose pretty hard,” Roberts said.
Roberts was asked if the 6-10, 230-pound Clemence would have to wear a mask to protect his face in upcoming games.
“Hopefully no. They are saying no now,” Roberts said. “We’ll see what happens, It’s a day-to-day thing.”
Self to travel to Indy
Roberts said KU coach Bill Self will make the trip to Indianapolis on Monday with the team.
Roberts will coach the team against Duke. Self is sitting out the first four games of the regular season as part of the school’s self-imposed sanctions in response to the NCAA’s three-year investigation into KU hoops.
“We’ll practice here Monday and then we go (via charter),” Roberts said. “We’ll get there, have dinner with meetings at night, have the shootaround (Tuesday) like always.”
Self has conveyed his feelings about KU’s first two victories at practice.
“I think he likes our potential probably the most, but we are not there yet,” Roberts said. “I think he liked (that) we had a pretty good competitive intensity in that first half (of the NDSU game). It wasn’t as good in the second.
“He wants us to pay more attention to detail on both ends of the floor, be it screening offensively, running sets the right way or being on defense and everybody doing their job and being connected.
“The other thing we talked a lot about is: When the ball is shot, everybody should be in motion. Everybody should be moving. We are either getting three, four, five to the glass and one, two getting back. Everybody should be moving. That was a point of emphasis at practice,” Roberts added.
