Alabama lost their starting point guard for the rest of Friday’s opening-round game before the game had reached the first media timeout. In the first few minutes of the Crimson Tide’s 78-64 loss to Notre Dame in the NCAA Tournament, Jahvon Quinerly hurt his left knee. He was subsequently ruled out for the rest of the game.
Enable was needed to get Quinerly off the floor and into the locker room, where he received a brace for his knee and crutches to help him make his way back to the Viejas Arena bench to rejoin his teammates.
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Alabama Head Coach Nate Oats Gave an Update on the Guard After their First-Round Exit.
“I have sympathy for Jahvon,” Oats remarked. There’s some kind of serious knee injury, but I can’t say for sure what it is. From my perspective, he was totally game-ready. As far as I could tell, he’d put in some excellent work during the past few weeks.
This man was the only one who showed up to last night’s voluntary shooting deal and actually shot it well. I believed he was good to go, but then three minutes into the game he goes down with a knee injury and has to leave. Adversity is a part of life, and you just have to learn to deal with it when it arises.
When asked why Quinerly wasn’t present during the shootarounds on Wednesday night and Friday morning, Oats explained that other players did indeed attend. According to Oats, most teams scrapped mandatory 20-minute shooting windows and made them optional, whereas the Crimson Tide’s “major men” turned up.
The Head Coach also Gave an Update on Quinerly’s Prognosis and Treatment Options.
“He’s going to need an MRI,” Oats added. We’ll bring him back safely. It looks like we’ll be heading back to the States to get him into an MRI facility as soon as possible. In time, they will determine its nature. He was hoping to graduate this spring, so this news was particularly disappointing for him.
He plans to put the draught to the test. Going into the workforce full-time was on his agenda. Obviously, this will throw a major wrench into such preparations.
He’s a great child. The couple that raised him are wonderful people. Unfortunately, his parents were in there during halftime. Yet the physician had doubts about its efficacy. We really don’t want to make any assumptions until we get an MRI done.
Despite not scoring, Quinerly did record the first of the Tide’s 16 assists, setting up a dunk by Charles Bediako. A freshman named JD Davison came off the bench to replace the redshirt junior and ended up playing 36 minutes, scoring 11 points (including the first six points of the second half for UA) and dishing out nine assists in his first appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
JD “performed good in his 36 minutes,” Oats added. As an example, “Nobody imagined he would have played 36 minutes as good as Jahvon was playing in practise, but hey, he had nine assists, 11 points, and a good game for a freshman in the NCAA Tournament.”
Last Words
Alabama’s leading scorer and senior guard Keon Ellis shared Oats’ thoughts and described the impact of losing Quinerly so soon after the game’s opening tip.
What happened was “certainly a major loss,” Ellis added. He is an integral part of our team as the starting point guard. When he left, it was noticeable to everyone. No one saw that coming just three minutes into the game, so it was all on JD to carry the load. You can never predict when your moment will come, because life is unpredictable. Without a doubt, this was a major setback for us.
