University of Washington power forward Shawn Kemp Jr. will miss six to eight weeks after suffering a slight tear of the patellar tendon in his right knee Oct. 30.
The sophomore is expected to be back by the time Pacific-12 Conference play starts Jan. 5 at Washington State.
After having soreness in his knee throughout the summer, the son of the former SuperSonics star was hurt in practice when he jumped for a rebound, landed and heard a pop in his knee. He had a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) that showed a tear.
Kemp is unable to do any rehabilitation work for a week. After that, he’ll progress to using a stationary bike, then jogging. No surgery will be necessary.
His loss is a blow to an already thin frontcourt that is expected to have difficulty rebounding. The 6-foot-9, 255-pound Kemp was expected to compete for the starting power forward position. Kemp averaged 1.6 points and 0.8 rebounds in just more than six minutes per game last season.
The injury means more time for sophomore Desmond Simmons – also a candidate to start at power forward – redshirt freshman Jernard Jarreau and sophomore Martin Breunig.
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