01-10-2006, 12:06 PM
[quote]HARTFORD, Conn. -- Now what?
Really, where does Cincinnati interim coach Andy Kennedy go from here? With senior forward Armein Kirkland suffering a potentially season-ending knee injury on Big Monday, how is Kennedy going to patch together a team of nine players, only seven of whom have played significant minutes this season?
As much as Kennedy wanted to make light of his misfortune after learning of Kirkland's injury following the Bearcats' gritty 70-59 loss to Connecticut, he couldn't spin this one too positively.
"Be careful when you say what's next?" said Kennedy, who coached the Bearcats to 10 consecutive wins -- among them at Vanderbilt, versus LSU in Las Vegas and at Marquette after the Eagles rocked UConn -- before their loss to fourth-ranked UConn. "It's just been incredible, like a black cloud.
"But you keep going on," Kennedy said. "I saw the commissioner (the Big East's Mike Tranghese) here and he didn't say, 'Andy, OK, we're going to cancel the rest of the games.' We go home and regroup and we do what we have to do. And, as I walk on campus [Tuesday], I'll be looking for tall guys. I don't know what else to do."
The 6-foot-8 Kirkland was having his best game of the season, scoring 14 points in 12 minutes, before jumping up and hearing a "pop" in his knee near the midway point of the first half.
Kirkland hobbled off the court, to the bench, and then to the locker room. He wasn't seen again until well into the second half when he emerged from a Hartford Civic Center tunnel on crutches. The initial report from Cincinnati: a sprained left knee. But Kirkland said UConn doctors told him that it was likely an ACL injury. He said he will be seen by an orthopedic surgeon Tuesday in Cincinnati.
Really, where does Cincinnati interim coach Andy Kennedy go from here? With senior forward Armein Kirkland suffering a potentially season-ending knee injury on Big Monday, how is Kennedy going to patch together a team of nine players, only seven of whom have played significant minutes this season?
As much as Kennedy wanted to make light of his misfortune after learning of Kirkland's injury following the Bearcats' gritty 70-59 loss to Connecticut, he couldn't spin this one too positively.
"Be careful when you say what's next?" said Kennedy, who coached the Bearcats to 10 consecutive wins -- among them at Vanderbilt, versus LSU in Las Vegas and at Marquette after the Eagles rocked UConn -- before their loss to fourth-ranked UConn. "It's just been incredible, like a black cloud.
"But you keep going on," Kennedy said. "I saw the commissioner (the Big East's Mike Tranghese) here and he didn't say, 'Andy, OK, we're going to cancel the rest of the games.' We go home and regroup and we do what we have to do. And, as I walk on campus [Tuesday], I'll be looking for tall guys. I don't know what else to do."
The 6-foot-8 Kirkland was having his best game of the season, scoring 14 points in 12 minutes, before jumping up and hearing a "pop" in his knee near the midway point of the first half.
Kirkland hobbled off the court, to the bench, and then to the locker room. He wasn't seen again until well into the second half when he emerged from a Hartford Civic Center tunnel on crutches. The initial report from Cincinnati: a sprained left knee. But Kirkland said UConn doctors told him that it was likely an ACL injury. He said he will be seen by an orthopedic surgeon Tuesday in Cincinnati.