Brown to undergo foot surgery
MIAMI HURRICANES BASKETBALL
CORAL GABLES – With 10 games left in the regular season, the Miami Hurricanes men’s basketball team knows it needs a late push to improve its résumé ahead of the NCAA Tournament.
That push will have to come without help from Bruce Brown, who is having surgery on his left foot on Thursday, Hurricanes coach Jim Larrañaga said Tuesday.
Brown, a sophomore guard, left Monday’s practice after dealing with some discomfort in his foot. Joined by a member of Miami’s athletic training staff, Brown went to see a team doctor for X-ray. Later, surgery was recommended.
The injury is expected to sideline Brown for up to six weeks, meaning he could miss the rest of the regular season and the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, though Larrañaga said his standout guard is optimistic he could be back before that.
Without Brown, though, the Hurricanes (15-5, 4-4) know they’ll face a challenge as they move through the latter part of conference play.
“I don’t think there’s anybody on our bench that’s like him,” Larrañaga said. “The closest thing we have, and we’ve played them both together for 30 minutes in recent games, each, is Lonnie Walker and Bruce. They’re somewhat similar in size, athletic ability, versatility, the ability to score, the ability to defend different-sized guys. But without Bruce, we don’t have someone similar to him. Chris Lykes is not similar, DJ Vasiljevic is not similar. And those would be the likely, you know, choices. So, we’ll have to see. We had a good practice [Monday] and Bruce didn’t practice, so I’m hoping that will continue.”
Barring any setbacks in his recovery, Brown — who is averaging 11. 4 points and is Miami’s second-leading scorer behind fellow sophomore Dewan Huell — could rejoin the Hurricanes in time for postseason play.
The first round of the NCAA Tournament begins March 15, while the NIT begins March 13. Both are six weeks away.
Though he has struggled to score in recent games and may have been limited by his injury when he went 5-of-14 in Sunday’s 103-94 loss to Florida State, Brown has been a defensive presence for Miami. He has averaged a team-high 7.1 rebounds, 4 assists and 1.3 steals on the season.
And Larrañaga doesn’t expect that it will be easy to fill the void left by Brown’s absence.
The coach said Tuesday he expects the Hurricanes will be tinkering with their lineup in the coming days, with Miami set to host Pittsburgh tonight before traveling to Virginia Tech on Saturday.