The Arizona State men’s basketball team will be down big man Jayden Quaintance in the Big 12 Tournament, head coach Bobby Hurley told Arizona Sports’ Bickley & Marotta on Tuesday.
His season could be effectively over if ASU can’t find its way into an NCAA Tournament berth.
The news comes a day after the young center was named to the Big 12’s All-Defensive Team and All-Freshman Team.
“He won’t play in the Big 12 Tournament. He’s not with us on the trip,” Hurley said. “We spoke yesterday and I was excited for him (making the) All-Freshman Team in the Big 12 and First Team All-Defense. He had an outstanding season. For a 17-year-old player to do what he did is remarkable.”
Quaintance hasn’t played since going down with a right knee injury suffered in Arizona State’s 66-54 win over Kansas State on Feb. 23. He’ll now miss his fifth straight game with the injury.
The injury came during one of Quaintance’s best games as a Sun Devil, registering 18 points, seven rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block in 26 minutes of work. He was 8 of 11 from the field and 2 of 4 from long range.
Coincidentally, Arizona State’s first-round opponent in the Big 12 Tournament is Kansas State, the last team the Sun Devils beat in the regular season.
This time around, though, both sides are going to look different after splitting two games in the regular season.
“That was a game I’ll never forget. We had just gone through what we went through with BJ (Freeman), and we appeared to finally be whole,” Hurley said. “That was the best game that we played in a long time. Unfortunately, JQ got hurt in that game. The personnel is certainly going to be different. They didn’t have Coleman Hawkins in that game, so the complexion of the game will be different.”
Despite dismissing Freeman due to conduct detrimental to the team, ASU put its best foot forward in the victory.
It will need to know where Hawkins is at all times, though. The guard is fourth on the team in points (10.4), second in rebounds (6.7) and assists (4.5) and first in blocks (1.3) and steals (1.9) per game.
Jayden Quaintance out, Adam Miller going to give Big 12 Tournament a shot
Quaintance isn’t returning for the Big 12 Tournament, but it sounds like senior guard Adam Miller is after missing the Texas Tech loss and almost all of the Arizona game with a strained oblique after dealing with a hip pointer previously.
“Adam went through practice yesterday. It wasn’t a lengthy practice, but he was able to go,” Hurley said. “I think he’s going to give it a shot today.”
Miller left with the strained oblique less than a minute into Arizona State’s 113-100 loss to Arizona last week. He attempted one 3-pointer before exiting.
The Sun Devils take on the Wildcats at 5 p.m. MST. Catch all the action on the Arizona Sports app, ESPN 620 AM and 98.7 HD-2.
