Nick Richards has injury scare on dirty play by ACU

The Kentucky Wildcats’ opening round game against the Abilene Christian Wildcats went about as well as you would hope.

The blue Wildcats won in dominating fashion, especially on the defensive end. Reid Travis, Tyler Herro, and especially Keldon Johnson showed up and made up for the absence of star PJ Washington.

However, with around two minutes remaining Nick Richards went down hard and it looked as though Kentucky’s front court depth had suffered yes another loss.

As Richards went up for an offensive rebound, ACU’s Hayden Farquhar came across the lane to undercut the Kentucky big man. He made no play on the ball, and it was obvious that he had only one thing in mind: injuring Richards.

Nick came down on his left shoulder and was on the floor for quite some time, slapping the court in pain. Your mind immediately starts going to a possible dislocated shoulder, broken arm, or even broken collar bone.

Thankfully, Richards was able to get up and take the free throws Kentucky was awarded due to the appropriately issued flagrant 1 foul against Farquhar.

Richards looked fine for the rest of his time in the game, finishing Kentucky’s 79-44 victory with eight points and four rebounds in 23 minutes. So, unless there is an injury that is detected after the game, Richards is expected to be fine moving forward.

However, that was a very scary moment for Nick Richards and all of Big Blue Nation.