Jackson’s injury not deemed to be serious
But knee remains swollen; he’ll likely sit vs. UNLV
LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Thursday was a good news/bad news sort of day for the UNM Lobos.
While an MRI on the injured knee of 6-foot-9 junior forward Vance Jackson didn’t show anything the team feels will be a long-term issue, the swelling in the knee after his awkward fall in the first half of Wednesday’s loss at Colorado State hasn’t gone down enough for him to be expected to play Saturday at UNLV.
“Vance’s MRI on his left knee came back clean of anything serious,” Lobos coach Paul Weir said after the team’s practice Thursday night in the Thomas & Mack Center. “In the meantime, he will rest and rehab to bring down the swelling and hopefully return to action at some point soon. We are so happy it was nothing serious and wish for a speedy recovery.”
Instead of flying back to Albuquerque after Wednesday’s game in Fort Collins, Colorado, the Lobos, who don’t resume classes until next week, traveled directly to Las Vegas on Thursday. Jackson, however, flew back to Albuquerque where he got an MRI on his knee after falling awkwardly on it about 15 minutes into Wednesday’s game. Jackson did warm up with teammates before the second half before he and the team trainer made the call to hold him out for precautionary reasons. Jackson instead sat at the end of the Lobos bench the entire second half with ice wrapped around his leg.
In three games in the Thomas & Mack Center last season — one vs. UNLV and two in the Mountain West Conference Tournament — Jackson averaged 22.3 points, 6.7 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 3.0 steals.
His expected absence on Saturday leaves the Lobos with just one scholarship player taller than 6-7 (6-9 Corey Manigault) after the dismissal from the team of 6-10 Calrton Bragg Jr. after his Sunday arrest on a charge of aggravated DWI in Albuquerque.
While UNM (15-4, 4-2 Mountain West) will surely miss having the size advantages it enjoyed much of the season, Saturday’s UNLV game, at least on paper, might not be the matchup that exploits that.
The Rebels are sitting in second place in
the league standings at 5-1 after a 5-8 nonconference showing. And while they’ve been playing well of late, winners of six of their last seven, they are like the Lobos in having just one player on the roster taller than 6-7 averaging more than 14 minutes a game in 6-11 Cheikh Mbacke-Diong. UNLV’s 6-9 Vitaliy Shibel averages 13 minutes a game overall, but just 10 in the past five games.
Walk-on Jordan Arroyo, who got minutes last season and has practiced at the “5” spot all season behind Manigault
and Bragg, is still expected to see an increase in minutes, though he played just four minutes Wednesday at CSU.
Seldom used, at least to this point, Emmanuel Kuac, a 6-7 freshman forward, might be in line to get the minutes now available in Jackson and Bragg’s absence. In 12 minutes on Wednesday, the highly athletic Kuac, the winner of the team’s dunk contest in October’s Cherry/Silver game, scored eight points, hit a pair of 3-pointers and grabbed three rebounds.
Of course the high-energy Kuac also picked up four quick fouls, but earned the praise of his coach for making the most of a bad situation in Wednesday’s blowout loss.
“I told a lot of those guys in those last I think three media (timeouts), ‘Hey, this is your chance, man. This is your chance to show me, to show your fans or your family or whoever doesn’t like your playing time, this is your chance to really go and do stuff,’” Weir said. “And quite honestly, I thought Emmanuel is the only one really went out there and didn’t feel sorry for himself — wasn’t pouting. Just went out and really played hard and active and I’m so happy for him and hopefully that’s gonna mean more minutes for him going forward.”
RECRUITS: Earlier in the week, two of UNM’s prep signees for the Class of 2020 — forward Bayron Matos and point guard Nolan Dorsey — were nominated in their home states for the McDonald’s High School All-American game.
The third high school signee for 2020 — Colorado Springs Cheyenne Mountain High School wing Javonte Johnson — this week became his high school’s all-time leading scorer Tuesday night, reaching 1,321 points. On Wednesday night, he followed the record up with a 50-point game in his team’s 78-66 win to move to 11-0 on the season.