Any debate about how Washington basketball coach Lorenzo Romar was going to divide up playing time between his three outstanding shooting guards – Terrence Ross, C.J. Wilcox and Scott Suggs – will be tempered for the next two months.
The team announced that Suggs, a senior from St. Louis, underwent surgery for a stress fracture on his right foot on Friday.
“He is having surgery as we speak to get a screw put in,” Romar said Friday. “We anticipate a full recovery within eight weeks.”
The Huskies took no chances and opted to have surgery instead of letting Suggs try to play through it and possibly making it worse.
“Usually in those situations, you could gimp through it,” Romar said. “But one wrong move, and now you have a clean break, now you can’t play through that. So it’s better that he got it taken care of now without the risk of breaking it.”
Suggs played in 31 games last season, averaging 7.4 points and 1.9 rebounds per game. But he was one of the Huskies’ best long-range threats, shooting 45 percent (49-109) from 3-point range. He is just one of two seniors on the UW roster on scholarship, along with Darnell Gant.
“He’s one of the veterans that have done a great job of helping, teaching and leading our young people in our system, and learning our system,” Romar said. “Some of the drills we do when fatigue sets in, he’d be one of the guys that is just going to fight through it and set that example. Show the others how to it that way. You miss that.”
While Romar hadn’t named his starting five since practice started on Friday, it was clear that Suggs had worked hard enough in the offseason to be a likely starter.
“He was playing well,” Romar said. “He was playing awfully well. It’s moot now to anoint him as a starter, but was playing as well as anybody.”
Even though Suggs will miss up to two months, there was no talk of redshirting him.
“We’ll talk redshirt under one condition, (if) the season is lost it seems,” Romar said.
While suffering an injury as a senior is always frustrating, the good news for Suggs is that he already knows the Huskies’ defensive and offensive systems.
“He won’t have to learn anything we are doing,” Romar said. “He knows it. It’ll take him a few days. Because when you come back from an injury like that, it’s not like the eighth week you start to condition. He’ll start conditioning in several weeks. So when he comes back, it won’t take him long.”
Perhaps one of the most frustrating aspects for Suggs is that he won’t be able to play when Washington travels to his hometown to play the University of St. Louis.
“The only reason we’re playing that game is for him,” Romar said. “I know a lot of people were excited to see him play. It’s amazing, the timing of it.”
While Ross and C.J. Wilcox were going to play regardless, the absence of Suggs could mean extra minutes for freshmen Tony Wroten and Hikeem Stewart.
“We do have depth, fortunately,” Romar said. “But you’re talking about a senior captain, and he was playing his best basketball... You lose a guy who’s experienced with know-how and was playing really well. In spite of our depth, that’s still losing a lot as far as I’m concerned.”
Ryan Divish: 253-597-8483 ryan.divish@thenewstribune.com
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