Nick Richards suffers injury; Hagans thinks he’s fine

UPDATE 2

Ashton Hagans offered a much more encouraging update on Richards’ status:

That certainly makes it sounds like it’s not going to be a long-term issue, but with the season-opener just over a week away, it’s going to difficult for Richards to be ready for Michigan State.

UPDATE

After the game, head coach John Calipari offered a minor update, saying Richards’ ankle was swollen but is unsure how long the junior center will be out.

I imagine we’ll know the full extent of the injury sometime tomorrow.

The Kentucky Wildcats cannot afford another injury, especially in the frontcourt.

So of course, it took just one exhibition game for that to happen, as Nick Richards sustained an ankle injury vs. Georgetown College.

The injury came when Richards was attempting to contest a Georgetown shooter and turned his ankle coming down.

After being on the ground for about a minute, Richards had to be helped off and walked off the court very slowly as he entered the locker room for further testing.

Kentucky has since announced that Richards will not return to the game. Hopefully this is nothing serious and the team is just being precautious, but it will put his status for Game 1 in doubt, as Kentucky will play Michigan State one week from Tuesday.

If Richards is out, Kentucky is left with EJ Montgomery, Keion Brooks, Nate Sestina and Ben Jordan in the frontcourt, though I imagine we’d see Kahlil Whitney start playing there more.

We will update this story if anymore details come out...