College basketball's deepest bench just got thinner with the news Friday that UK forward Alex Poythress has been sidelined for the remainder of the season with a knee injury.
Here's the official news release from UK Athletics:
University of Kentucky men’s basketball junior Alex Poythress will miss the remainder of the season after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in practice on Thursday.
“When you’re coaching other people’s children and these children have high aspirations and unlimited potential – not only to do things for themselves but for other people – I can’t begin to tell you the feeling when someone gets hurt,” head coach John Calipari said. “My own son, Brad, tore his ACL last year. All I can tell you is I was physically sick when it happened to him. I feel exactly the same way now that it’s happened to Alex.”
A date for surgery has not been set yet. The normal timetable following ACL reconstructive surgery is six to eight months.
“Our team was devastated for Alex when I told them,” Calipari said. “There were tears throughout the room because this hurt them to the core. How they will respond I really don’t know, but I will do my best to be there for each of these kids.
“I told them, this is a big blow to our team. No one will be able to replace Alex and what he did for this team. I go back to last year’s NCAA Tournament. Without Alex, we don’t win those games. No one will be able to replace him, but now everybody has to do a little bit more as we try to circle the wagons.”
Poythress, a 6-foot-8 forward from Clarksville, Tenn., was averaging 5.5 points and 3.8 rebounds in his third season for Kentucky. He has played in a team-high 80 career games with 38 starts.
