By Jackson Posey | Sports Writer
Starting center Josh Ojianwuna has been ruled out for the season with a knee injury, he announced on Instagram Sunday. The junior center was having the best season of his career, averaging 7.4 points and 6.4 rebounds per game in his first year as a starter.
“Unfortunately, my injury suffered in the game yesterday will require surgery, ending my season,” Ojianwuna’s post read. “We do not always know why God gives us trials in our lives, but I do know he gives us the strength to get through them, and he will do that for me.”
https://twitter.com/BaylorMBB/status/1888727457496182948
Five minutes into Saturday’s matchup against UCF, Ojianwuna took a hard foul and immediately grabbed for his left knee. He left the Foster Pavilion to get an MRI and never came back.
“Obviously [the injuries are] really frustrating for us,” head coach Scott Drew said after the 91-76 victory. “We finally got eight together, we outscored them on the bench 40-14, and you have this happen.”
Baylor fans had circled Saturday’s game as a beacon of hope in an injury-riddled season: for the first time since Dec. 31, the Bears’ entire eight-man rotation was healthy. That lasted four minutes and 50 seconds before their 6-foot-10 center went down.
Ojianwuna had been in the midst of a career year, taking massive strides on both sides of the court. He posted the third-highest box plus/minus (7.6) of any player on the team, behind only fifth-year big man Norchad Omier and freshman wing VJ Edgecombe.
With Ojianwuna out for the season, five of the Bears’ eight rotation players will have missed multiple games due to injuries; only Omier, freshman guard Robert O. Wright III and senior guard Jayden Nunn have avoided the injury bug.
Baylor, meanwhile, will have to scramble to find a way to replace his 25 minutes per game. The tallest remaining rotation player is Omier, a 6-foot-7 power forward who also serves as the backup center. Possible options to supplement his time are true freshman reserve center Marino Dubravcic (22 total minutes played) and 6-foot-6 fifth-year wing Jalen Celestine, who spent two minutes as a super-small-ball center against UCF’s 7-foot-2 big man Moustapha Thiam.
“I’ll have to get with the staff and figure some things out,” Drew said. “If Josh is out for the year, it’ll give an opportunity for someone to step up, and we’ll figure out who that is.”
The Bears will have a short recovery time before heading to the Fertitta Center Monday to take on the No. 5-ranked Houston Cougars. The game will be broadcast on ESPN.
