Even though the Cincinnati Bearcats beat the South Florida Bulls 63-58 last night, worry fell over the fan base when freshman sensation Gary Clark went down in the second half with a knee injury.
When he first limped off the court, the trainers immediately applied tape to his knee and returned him to the game a few minutes later. It was certainly encouraging at the moment as a tear or break certainly wouldn’t have resulted in Clark going anywhere near the floor. But the pain was too much for the freshman to handle and he limped back to the bench after only a couple of possessions.
Clark’s night was done when a bag of ice was placed on his knee as the fan base held its collective breath. But, according to interim head coach Larry Davis, he should be good to go against the Temple Owls on Tuesday.
That’s obviously incredible news, for sure!
The true freshman has been one of the AAC’s best rebounders, averaging 7 per game to go along with his 7.5 points. Clark’s also in the running for the conference’s Rookie of the Year honors. So it goes without saying that Cincinnati will need him down the stretch as they scratch and claw for positioning in the AAC standings.
Long term, though, this could pose a bit of a problem for Clark. The fact that this is a recurring injury, and one to an area of the body that takes such a beating like the knee, could lead to more issues down the road. Hopefully Clark isn’t nagged by this over his career like Cashmere Wright was.