Zach Freemantle's injured. How does Xavier move forward without one of its stars?
Entering the final month of the regular season and tied for first place in the Big East Conference standings, Xavier's men's basketball team caught a bad break on Tuesday.
Senior forward Zach Freemantle will miss four weeks with a left foot injury, the same foot that required surgery at the start of the 2021-22 season, Xavier head coach Sean Miller said Tuesday during a press conference ahead of Wednesday's visit from Providence.
"At the moment, it doesn't require surgery," Miller said. "He's going to be out for what we estimate about four weeks, one month.
"I don't think it's possible for him to be back with us playing before that, simply because of the healing process and just us making sure that if, in fact, he's able to join us at that point that he's been able to have enough recovery time and healing."
Miller said he's optimistic Freemantle will be able to rejoin the team in or around that one-month period.
"If you kind of do the math on that, I think late February, early March ... if all goes as we expected, then we can have him back with us down the very, very home stretch of our season," said Miller.
There's never a good time for injuries, but with everything riding on the last month of the season, this is terrible timing for a Xavier team that's 17-5 overall and 9-2 in the Big East Conference.
"I don't want to make light of the fact that he's not with us, it's a significant change in our team. It's a significant change in our offense," said Miller. "I mean, he's a guy that right now is averaging 18 points and nine rebounds per game (in conference play) and I think settled in to play maybe his best basketball of his career, especially on the offensive end. Without him, it's not like next-man-up and we're good. I think we're gonna have to do a number of different things to make up for his absence."
Without Freemantle, Xavier will be leaning heavily on Jerome Hunter, who's played really well off the bench as Xavier's sixth man.
The Musketeers will also need Cesare Edwards to be ready to play as a backup big man.
"I think the first thing when somebody gets injured and is out for a period of time, it's not the one player that all of a sudden has to become so much different than he already is," said Miller. "That's sometimes where a team veers off in the wrong direction."
Miller used Hunter as an example.
"A lot of the things that make Jerome such a good player is he knows his role and he does it every game. I think Jerome's going to play more minutes now, but if he plays more minutes at the same level and the same way that he's played, that's going to be not only in his best interest but our teams," said Miller.
Xavier's used a smaller lineup quite a bit this season.
"We've shown that (smaller) lineup," said Miller. "With Zach available, we don't do it nearly as much. But with him not available, I think we look to do that a little bit more."
Miller also mentioned that Desmond Claude, KyKy Tandy and Kam Craft are going to have more of an opportunity.
"I would say my biggest concern without Zach is defensive rebounding," Miller said. "He has virtually double the defensive rebounds as anybody on our team in Big East play. There's a couple candidates, Colby Jones, Jack Nunge, certainly Jerome as he plays more. Then really everybody who plays, our guards, it's not easy to make up for somebody who gets that many defensive rebounds per game."
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Xavier's Zach Freemantle will miss four weeks with a foot injury
