STORRS — The UConn men’s basketball team will be without its starting point guard for at least a few weeks, head coach Dan Hurley said Friday.
Stephon Castle, who slipped on the XL Center court in the second half of the Nov. 11 game against Stonehill, suffered a right knee injury that required a “minor procedure,” according to Hurley.
“He’s looking anywhere from early December to after that, it’s like a two-, three-, four-week thing. It was a very minor procedure and it was best case scenario for him. He looks better already today,” Hurley said. “And great athletes tend to recover better and quicker.”
Hurley clarified that the procedure was “to get a little bit of clean-up,” and that Castle “didn’t tear anything.”
The McDonald’s High School All-American and Big East Preseason Freshman of the Year, a projected lottery pick entering the season, averaged 14.5 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and two steals through the Huskies first two games. He was a relatively late scratch for Tuesday’s game against Mississippi Valley State, as the team continued to gather information.
“It hurt (hearing about) Steph, he’s such a key player to our team and he makes us so much better when he’s out there on the floor,” redshirt sophomore Alex Karaban said. “We’re just trying to support him right now, we know he’s gonna come back better than ever, but at the same time next man’s got to step up for us and we’ve got guys in our locker room that can do that.”
Castle will miss this weekend’s Empire Classic games against Indiana on Sunday and either No. 19 Texas or Louisville on Monday at Madison Square Garden. The Huskies then have two buy games before the much-anticipated trip to No. 1 Kansas on Dec. 1 and a return to the Garden for No. 20 North Carolina on Dec. 5.
Freshman classmate Solo Ball stepped into Castle’s starting role on Tuesday and finished with 10 points, three rebounds and an assist while shooting 3 for 12 from the field.
“It’s a chance for some of the more talented freshmen to get more of a chance, it’s a chance for Hassan (Diarra) to show his value even more,” Hurley said. “Everyone moves up a spot. It’s never good to lose a player of his caliber, but we went through something like this early last year and it did help – it hurt to go through but it did help.”
The Huskies began last season without Andre Jackson Jr. after he broke his pinky finger in an offseason practice, and then lost both Jordan Hawkins (concussion) and Samson Johnson (foot) in last year’s season-opener, ironically also against Stonehill at the XL Center.
“We put a lot of work in with (the freshmen) since June to prepare them for these types of moments, that’s how we’ve been able to get our freshmen ready to help us,” Hurley said. “They’ve got some really good older players – Tristen, Cam, Alex, Donovan, Samson, Hass – that have got to make it easier on them by playing really well and supporting them.”