Kansas Jayhawks’ next NCAA Tournament opponent suffers injury to key player in win
Creighton, which emerged as Kansas’ second-round NCAA Tournament opponent on Saturday, suffered what appeared to be a significant injury to a key starter in the Bluejays’ 72-69 overtime victory over San Diego State on Thursday night at Dickies Arena.
Ryan Kalkbrenner, a 7-foot-1 sophomore center from St. Louis, went down with a left knee injury early in overtime of the first-round game.
He had to be helped off the court to the locker room.
“We had a devastating loss with Kalkbrenner going down. So this is a little bittersweet, I think, for all four of us at the table because of what he’s meant to this team this year and has meant to the run that we went on starting in early February to get us here,” Creighton coach Greg McDermott said after the game. “He’s been a key component of that. And, you know, it’s unlikely that we’re going to have him on Saturday.
“We won’t know until we do further testing. But it was a knee injury. So it doesn’t appear to look great but, you know, we’ll wait and see what the tests show.”
On Friday, McDermott said on Twitter that Kalkbrenner would miss the rest of the tournament.
Kalkbrenner started and played 40 minutes versus San Diego State.
He scored 16 points with 10 rebounds and three assists. Creighton’s McDermott used just seven players on Thursday.
The Bluejays’ five starters all scored in double figures, including freshman guard Trey Alexander, who had 18 points in 29 minutes. KU showed some interest in Alexander in the recruiting process. He is a 6-4, 185-pound native of Oklahoma City.
For Creighton, Ryan Hawkins played 45 minutes; Arthur Kaluma 44 minutes, Alex O’Connell 41 minutes. The substitutes used were KeyShawn Feazell (one point, six minutes) and Rati Andronikashvili (no points, three boards 20 minutes).
Tipoff for KU-Creighton will be approximately 1:40 p.m. Saturday. The game will air on CBS.
This story was originally published March 17, 2022 at 9:44 PM with the headline "Kansas Jayhawks’ next NCAA Tournament opponent suffers injury to key player in win."
