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Early on in Sunday’s game against Xavier, Marcus Zegarowski appeared to have injured his hand swiping down on a ball, leading to visible discomfort and an absence from warm-ups after halftime.
Zegarowski eventually made his way back on the bench and into the game with a splint on his right hand, adjoining his ring finger and pinky finger.
According to Matt DeMarinis from White & Blue Review, Zegarowski will likely miss the next two games for the Jays - against Villanova and Seton Hall - before being re-evaluated for the Xavier game in Cincinnati on February 13th.
#Jays freshman PG Marcus Zegarowski will be in a cast for 7-10 days while the bone in his hand heals up. He could miss all three games on Creighton’s upcoming road trip, but will be re-evaluated before the team travels to Xavier.
— (@mjdemarinis) February 4, 2019
This adds to the list of injuries that the Bluejays have succumbed to in this 2018-19 season, with the first blow coming early in the non-conference when sophomore big man Jacob Epperson injured his knee, and eventually his back, leaving him in a position to apply for a medical redshirt.
Forward Damien Jefferson hit the injury bug early on in the Marquette game in early January. He underwent knee surgery and his timetable for return is sort of up in the air, though the best prospects had him coming back within the next couple weeks.
Guard Connor Cashaw just recently injured his shoulder against St. John’s and his timetable for a return is also up in the air, though it appears that the initial MRI came back with pretty good news as surgery isn’t imminently needed.
UPDATE: According to Jon Nyatawa from the Omaha World-Herald, both Cashaw and Jefferson returned to practice today:
#Jays injury update today:
— Jon Nyatawa (@JonNyatawa) February 4, 2019
• Marcus Zegarowski’s right hand will be in a cast for 7-10 days. They’ll then reevaluate after that
• Damien Jefferson & Connor Cashaw returned to practice but they’re still limited
This leaves Creighton awfully thin, though they’ve got a rock to lean on in Kaleb Joseph, who has played sparingly throughout the year as the third option off the bench for the ‘2’ role. He’s heady, can slash to the bucket, and has played some pretty tight defense as of late. He’s can occasionally splash a three but certainly has the athleticism to work well in the Bluejays’ offense.
Freshman forward Christian Bishop has excelled at times as well and will see an uptick in minutes after Zegarowski’s injury. McDermott’s newfound propensity to play dual-big lineups has been a boon on the offensive end but it doesn’t match-up well with teams looking to play smaller, more athletic lineups. With Bishop and Krampelj’s athleticism it’ll be simply experimental to see how often the two play in tandem with the roster stretched thin and more minutes to be allocated.