It really comes as no surprise, but as first reported by CBS Sports, Marquette center Chris Otule will undergo surgery Tuesday on his injured ACL and miss the remainder of the season.
CBS Sports’ Jeff Goodman put out this tweet Saturday night after Marquette lost to Syracuse, 73-66: “Buzz Williams told CBSSports.com that big man Chris Otule is having surgery Tuesday and is done for the season.” Williams confirmed Goodman’s tweet after the game and had been rather pessimistic about Otule’s potential return the past few weeks so this announcement seemed inevitable.
It still comes as a huge blow for a thin Marquette front line especially since Otule’s replacement, sophomore Davante Gardner, cannot stay on the floor because he always finds himself in early foul trouble. As a result, the Golden Eagles have been forced to use a smaller frontcourt featuring Jae Crowder and Jamil Wilson or even with Crowder playing center and Jamail Jones or Juan Anderson at the four.
That under-sized line-up is very similar to what MU put on the floor two seasons ago when 6-6 Lazar Hayward would often have to play center. Coincidentally enough, Otule suffered a season ending injury that season as well.
David Kay is a senior feature NBA Draft, NBA, and college basketball writer for the Sports Bank. He also heads up the NBA and college basketball material at Walter Football.com and is a former contributor at The Washington Times Communities. David has appeared on numerous national radio programs spanning from Cleveland to New Orleans to Honolulu. He also had the most accurate 2011 NBA Mock Draft on the web.
You can follow him on Twitter at DavidKay_TSB.