Michigan State G Lucas injures ankle
February 3, 2010
MADISON, Wis. (AP)—Michigan State’s Kalin Lucas injured his right ankle in thesecond half of the fifth-ranked Spartans’ 67-49 loss to No. 16 Wisconsin onTuesday night and had to be helped off the court.
Lucas, last season’s Big Ten player of the year, went up for a jump shotwith just under 11 minutes to play and landed on the left foot of Wisconsinforward Keaton Nankivil.
“I went to move to shoot the ball, came down on his foot and my ankle justrolled over,” Lucas said. “When it first happened, it was hurting a lot, but Istill don’t know what’s wrong with it right now. I think it’s just a sprain tothe ankle, I’ll know tomorrow.”
Lucas immediately crumpled to the court, clutching the ankle. After severalminutes with the trainer and coach Tom Izzo, Lucas was helped to his feet, butdidn’t put any weight on the leg as he was carried to the locker room.
Izzo said Lucas’ status wouldn’t be known until after the Spartans returnedhome.
“He’s limping bad,” Izzo said. “It’s not a good sprain, but it’s notbroke or anything like that—at least it doesn’t seem to be. I think the issueis whether he’s a fast healer or not. I can’t say I know that because he hasn’treally been hurt. It’s not good, that’s for sure.”
Lucas, averaging 16 points a game, was 3 of 9 from the field for sevenpoints with two rebounds and two assists, snapping a streak of 33 straight gamesscoring in double figures.