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Arizona freshman suffers leg injury in exhibition win

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Ray Smith, courtesy Arizona athletics

Arizona redshirt freshman Ray Smith left Tuesday night’s exhibition win over the College of Idaho with what appeared to be a serious leg injury.

Twice before that incident, Smith left the court and returned to the locker with an injury. On the third incident, Smith signaled to the bench almost immediately when he landed. Smith, who was seeing action in his first college game after suffering ACL tears in each of the previous two years, tweeted this the night before the game:

“Tough night for us, watching Ray go down. It certainly didn’t look good; we’ll know more in the next couple of days,” head coach Sean Miller said. “I think that trumps everything else tonight.”

“It’s heartbreaking. I don’t have any words to really couch it, make it better than it really is, it’s just awful.”

It was an all-around awful day to be an Arizona fan. Allonzo Trier was in street clothes after warming up with the team as the Wildcats deal with concerns about his eligibility for the upcoming season. Miller declined to comment on Trier’s status in a Monday press availability and after Tuesday’s exhibition. He did, however, comment on Chance Comanche’s absence, saying in a statement that it was Comanche’s “lack of academic responsibility” that got him benched.

All told, in the last six months, Arizona has lost Justin Simon to transfer, Elliot Pitts to suspension, Comanche to academics, Terrence Ferguson to Australia and, potentially, Trier. That’s a lineup that’s good enough to make a run at an NCAA tournament berth, and it has left the Wildcats with just seven scholarship players available.