Unfortunately, one of the stories of this Texas Tech basketball season has been the uncertain health of key Red Raiders. It has felt like hardly a game goes by without one of the most important players on the roster having to deal with some type of sprain, bump, bruise, or other injury that limits what this team can accomplish as a whole.
That was again the story this week in the Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City. Starting guard Chance McMillian played in only the first half of Thursday's game against Baylor before sitting out the second half of that contest as well as Friday's semifinal matchup with Arizona. He is reportedly dealing with an upper-body injury.
What's more, starting forward Darrion Williams was unable to play against Arizona as he was in a walking boot Friday night. With those two players not in the lineup, Tech was down 28.5 points, 9.3 rebounds, and 5.6 assists.
Naturally, the concern from Red Raiders fans after Friday's 86-80 defeat to the Wildcats centered on the status of both missing starters ahead of next week's NCAA Tournament. When head coach Grant McCasland met with the media for his postgame press conference, he addressed the situation with both players.
"Starting with Chance," he said, "he obviously didn't play the second half of the game yesterday. And I have no expectation other than, let's just do everything we can to put ourselves in position to win...and let's see if we can play. So Chance, last night, was in some pretty severe pain and this morning, he woke up and was like definitive that he could not play. And our hope is that we do get him back for the NCAA Tournament, though."
McMillian did not score a point against Baylor as he was 0-3 from the floor. Still, with him in the lineup, Tech put up 52 first-half points, the most the team has scored in any half this season.
After the break, though, Baylor shifted to a zone defense, and without McMillian, Tech's best shooter from 3-point range, offense was hard to come by. The Red Raiders mustered only 24 points in the second half of the 76-74 win.
As for Williams, he toughed out 33 minutes against Baylor, scoring 14 points and grabbing eight rebounds. However, it was obvious that he was not moving as well as he normally does when he's fully healthy.
"And then, Darrion Williams was in a similar boat," McCasland said. "I mean, if you saw him last night, he was limping pretty much the entire second half and trying to play through it. And then, when he got up this morning, he didn't do much in the walk-through and tried to warm up and said he couldn't go."
Now, the Red Raiders are faced with the task of trying to help both players heal before starting the NCAA Tournament on either Thursday or Friday of next week. McCasland said that he expects both to give it a go when the madness begins.
"So it wasn't like it was a master plan," he said. "I mean, honestly, we just tried to prepare them as best we could to play today, and then if he and the training staff didn't feel like they could go, they couldn't go. So, we weren't holding them out, to be honest.
"We just really felt like those guys, if they could play, they would, and neither one of them felt like they could do what they needed to do in order to put themselves in position. But they also know that we need to be healthy for next week. And so our hope is that we get both of them back, and that's the expectation."
Certainly, McCasland's remarks were not definitive but they were a reason for guarded optimism for Red Raider fans. However, until we know for certain that both McMillian and Williams will be able to play next week, there will be plenty of concern around Raiderland.