Bill Self gives update on Kansas Jayhawks basketball injuries after Iowa State win
Kansas freshman forward Zach Clemence showed up for Tuesday’s men’s basketball game against Iowa State wearing a bulky boot on his right foot.
“I don’t believe it’s broken but he did something to his toe that will require him to probably be out a little bit of time. I don’t know if it’s significant. He couldn’t walk on it today. He’ll be in a boot another day or two,” KU coach Bill Self said of the 6-foot-10 freshman from San Antonio, Texas.
Far from a healthy team, the Jayhawks managed a 62-61 win over the Cyclones at Allen Fieldhouse.
Senior guard Remy Martin reaggravated his right knee injury before the game, did not play and is listed as day-to-day.
Meanwhile, senior transfer Jalen Coleman-Lands was hit in the face by Iowa State’s Robert Jones and suffered a cut that required stitches to close with 11:02 left. Coleman-Lands, who had three points and three boards in 15 minutes against his former team, did not return to the game, but figures to be able to play in Saturday’s 1 p.m. home game versus West Virginia.
“He got cut. He got stitches,” Self said. “It’s hard to put a guy back in the game even though he’s the best shooter on the team when he has a patch over his eye. That was the reason he didn’t come back in.”
Freshman guard Bobby Pettiford returned to play eight minutes after missing the last seven games because of an abdominal strain and also a bout with COVID.
“Bobby practiced maybe an hour in the last six weeks. He didn’t have a chance tonight,” Self said of the 6-1 Durham, North Carolina native, who had zero points, zero assists and two turnovers in eight minutes.
“I thought he did enough to allow Juan (Harris) to rest, especially in the second half. Our team needs to piece together now until we figure how we are going to play. I don’t mean it negatively.
“The way you score in preseason sometimes and practice isn’t the way you score against top ten defensive teams in the country. The way we can throw to David (McCormack, one point, four rebounds 10 minutes) and have him turn around and shoot the jump hook, it doesn’t play like that because they’ll have two guys around him. We’ve got to figure out some things.”
Freshman KJ Adams started at power forward in place of McCormack and Mitch Lightfoot (four points, four boards, three blocks 21 minutes) and finished with three points and two boards in 10 minutes.
“It was fine. KJ did well,” Self said, when asked to comment on Adams’ performance. “I actually thought Mitch did some good things.”
KU also played Tuesday’s game without assistant coach Norm Roberts, who recently tested positive for COVID.
This story was originally published January 11, 2022 at 7:09 PM with the headline "Bill Self gives update on Kansas Jayhawks basketball injuries after Iowa State win."
