Houston advanced in the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship tournament, but the Cougars may be going forward without one of their key players.
Graduate forward J’Wan Roberts, the program’s all-time winningest player, left Thursday’s 77-68 quarterfinal win against Colorado early in the second half with an injury to his right ankle. He went to the locker room to get treatment and returned to the bench several minutes later, but did not play again.
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Roberts told the Houston Chronicle after the game that the X-rays were negative, and that he will seek advice from the coaching staff on whether Roberts will play the rest of the Big 12 tournament.
The injury happened two minutes into the second half. Roberts was driving to go in for a basket before he stepped on the foot of a Colorado defender.
He went to the sideline to get his ankle looked at before going on into the locker room. While waiting to get an X-ray, Roberts watched the game from a TV monitor.
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Roberts was gone from the court for a few minutes before returning. But he sat on the bench the rest of the game as Houston held off a Colorado squad that was seeking to pull off its third straight upset in the Big 12 tournament despite being seeded No. 16.
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The injury to Roberts came on the heels of a similar injury suffered by Duke’s freshman standout, Cooper Flagg, in the first half of the Blue Devils’ Atlantic Coast Conference quarterfinal win against Georgia Tech. Flagg sprained his left ankle and hobbled off the court; then returned in the second half and sat on the bench.
Afterward, Duke coach Jon Scheyer said that X-rays showed no fracture on Flagg, who averaged more than 19 points and seven rebounds during the regular season. It’s very possible Flagg could sit out the remainder of the ACC Tournament.
Duke came in ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press and USA Today coaches poll, with Houston ranked No. 2 in both polls.
The Cougars had been relatively injury-free for the most part this season, though junior guard Emanuel Sharp missed a week during conference play with a similar ankle injury. Roberts’ injury also stirred memories of nearly a year ago, when then-point guard Jamal Shead sprained his right ankle in the second half of the Cougars’ eventual Sweet 16 loss to Duke.
With Thursday’s win, Houston (28-4) has now won 11 straight and 24 of its last 25 ballgames. The Cougars move on to Friday night’s semifinals, where they will take on BYU, which has won nine straight games.
