Auburn’s Okeke done for season
Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said Friday he hoped for the best and feared the worst when it came to Chuma Okeke’s knee injury sustained against North Carolina.
The news was bad. Okeke has a torn ACL and has surgery scheduled for Tuesday.
Pearl announced the injury on Saturday during media availability for the Midwest Regional championship game against Kentucky. Tipoff on Sunday at the Sprint Center is 1:20 p.m. Central time.
Okeke went down under the basket during the second half of Auburn’s 97-80 victory over top-seeded North Carolina on Friday. He crashed to the floor while going up for a layup with 8:08 remaining.
Players from both teams went to where Okeke had fallen.
Okeke finished with 20 points and 11 rebounds. In Auburn’s three victories, Okeke is averaging 15 points and seven rebounds.
“It’s another reason for our team to come even closer,” Auburn junior guard Jared Harper said.
Duke’s Reddish questionable: Freshman forward Cam Reddish will be a game-time decision for Duke’s Elite Eight NCAA Tournament game Sunday against Michigan State because of a knee injury.
Coach Mike Krzyzewski updated Reddish’s status Saturday before the Blue Devils’ practice, saying there was no structural damage. Reddish was a late scratch for the Sweet 16 victory against Virginia Tech.
Reddish said his left knee has been bothering him for some time and that he tweaked it before the game. Reddish said he considers himself hour to hour as he gets treatment for the injury.
Top-seeded Duke beat Virginia Tech without Reddish thanks in large part to Alex O’Connell filling his spot. Reddish is Duke’s third-leading scorer behind stars RJ Barrett and Zion Williamson, averaging 13.6 points this season.
Layups: Fred Hoiberg, the former NBA player who coached Iowa State and the Bulls, was hired Saturday to coach a Nebraska team that had big hopes this season but finished with a 19-17 record. Hoiberg, dismissed by the Bulls in in December, agreed to a seven-year contract paying a total of $25 million. Hoiberg, 46, was born in Lincoln and grandfather Jerry Bush was the Cornhuskers coach from 1954 to 1963 . ... Kansas G Charlie Moore has decided to transfer after an uneventful season with the Jayhawks. Moore began his career at California. Jayhawks coach Bill Self said Moore, who is from Chicago, indicated he wanted to transfer closer to his family.