Freddie Riley will replace Morgan in the starting lineup, but Kellogg said no options are off the table when it comes to lineup combinations.
Jesse Morgan yells in pain after suffering a knee injury during Thursday's loss to Saint Louis.
Now that the initial sting of losing guard Jesse Morgan to a sprained right knee has worn off, University of Massachusetts basketball coach Derek Kellogg has to figure how to replace his second-leading scorer.
It won’t be easy — Morgan was averaging over 15 points per game, was the team’s best defender and provided Kellogg with lineup flexibility and the ability to play three guards.
All of that is gone indefinitely while Morgan recovers from the injury he suffered in the Thursday's loss to Saint Louis.
“It’s really kind of a triple-edged sword in a weird way of not having him available,” Kellogg said. “One is that three-guard option, and that was a group that in the second half of a lot of games was able to extend our lead or give us some good minutes. Even more importantly than that, I think we lose 15 points per game and a kid who, on the floor, was becoming a little bit of a leader and really was probably our best defender.”
Kellogg will turn to senior Freddie Riley to replace Morgan in the starting lineup. Riley isn’t a stranger to the starting five — he started the team’s first three games before Kellogg opted to go to Morgan after Riley got off to a rough start.
But Riley’s been undoubtedly better over the past five games, averaging 11.2 points and displaying a new commitment to team defense that Kellogg said wasn’t present in previous years.
“He’s making a commitment on the defensive end of the floor to being the player that we need him to be. He’s paying attention to detail, and just his energy in general on the defensive end of the floor has been much better,” Kellogg said. “He’s actually asked me to take on the challenge of taking on the other team’s best player. For instance, in the East Carolina game, he wanted to cover the kid Kemp on a couple different occasions. He’d say, ‘I got him, I can take this guy.’”
Kellogg said he will also experiment with a couple of different combinations that fans haven’t seen much of this season. One is to play freshman Trey Davis at point guard and move Chaz Williams off the ball — something Williams mentioned after the Saint Louis game that he thought could be a good option.
Freddie Riley, pictured here against Eastern Michigan on Jan. 5, will replace Morgan in the starting lineup.
“It might relieve some pressure from Chaz having to handle the ball all game with teams all over him,” Kellogg said. “I think it’s something that we’re definitely going to have to look at.”
Ultimately, Kellogg said he will consider every potential solution to replacing Morgan’s 28.7 minutes per game.
“No options are off the table at this point — from maybe moving Putney down to the two a little bit and playing Tyler some to playing Trey more either at the point or off the ball — I think every option has to be explored and looked at,” he said.
Morgan, who’s official status was deemed “day-to-day” by trainer Dave Maclutsky, will be re-evaluated when the team returns to campus, though Kellogg seemed to rule out the possibility of a return for next week’s games at the Mullins Center against Duquesne and George Washington.
“Him being ready for Sunday and probably into the next week is a moot point at this point with the way he’s moving around and also how he’s feeling,” Kellogg said. “He’ll be evaluated on Monday or Tuesday, and we’ll kind of go from there and see the severity of it. … There’s a small chance that it could be more serious than a sprain when he gets back and gets reevaluated.”