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Syracuse shot at getting to the NCAA tournament hampered by mounting injury problems

Jimmy V Classic

NEW YORK, NY - DECEMBER 05: Tyus Battle #25 of the Syracuse Orange drives down the court in the second half against the Connecticut Huskies during their game at Madison Square Garden on December 5, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images)

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Syracuse is in the middle of a fight for a spot in the NCAA tournament, and it isn’t getting made any easier by the fact that no one on the team seems capable of remaining healthy.

The good news is that the Orange got Matthew Moyer back on Wednesday night. Moyer had been out for a couple of week battling a sprained ankle, but, according to a reporter from the Syracuse.com, Moyer was limping badly after a loss to N.C. State last night.

But at least he played 28 minutes.

Bourama Sidibe played just five minutes for the Orange on Wednesday as he battles a case of tendonitis in his knee. Sidibe is the team’s back-up center, playing behind Paschal Chukwu, who played just seven second half minutes last night after he “felt something pop” during the game. With Howard Washington, one of the three scholarship guards on the Orange roster, out for the season, that means that three of the seven scholarship players on this roster are limited by injury right now.

That’s not ideal for a team that needs to win three or four more games just to have a shot of being on the right side of the bubble come Selection Sunday.

And that’s why Tyus Battle, the leading scorer for the Orange, is averaging 40.7 minutes per game since the start of December.