Kansas head coach Bill Self said that he is “hopeful” that the injury to Marcus Garrett’s right ankle will not keep his starting guard out of the lineup for an extended period of time.
“He’s our toughest kid. So if he says he can’t play, it’s probably not good,” Self said. “I don’t think that it is going go to be something that, hopefully, drags out to conference play, but we don’t know yet.”
Garrett landed awkwardly on a drive in the first half of Kansas’ loss at Villanova on Saturday afternoon, injuring his right ankle. He was helped off of the floor and did not return to the game for the Jayhawks.
Garrett is averaging 9.0 points, 4.5 assists and 4.0 boards for the Jayhawks this season and has developed into a critical piece for the Kansas rotation. He’s a secondary ball-handler that takes some of the pressure off of point guard Devon Dotson, he is shooting 38.9 percent from three, he is their best perimeter defender and, perhaps most importantly, he is the piece that allows them to play with four guards on the floor. It’s tough for the Kansas coaching staff to trust Ochai Agbaji, Tristan Enaruna and Isaiah Moss to be able to guard when one of them is forced onto a bigger player.
“Seeing him go down in the fist half kind of brought our team down,” Agbaji said. “It’s hard, our leading defender. He was talking to us throughout the second half. It was a tough loss.”
Last season, Garrett missed time after suffering a high ankle sprain in his left ankle.