Worst-case scenario for the freshman phenom and the Orange will look to fill his role ASAP.
Chris McCullough came into the 2014-2015 Syracuse Orange basketball season with huge expectations and massive potential. Unfortunately for him and for Orange fans, he won't get the chance to see it all the way through.
Syracuse Athletics announced Monday that McCullough has a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his right knee and will miss the remainder of the season.
McCullough injured his leg during the Florida State game on Sunday when he reached to catch a cross-court pass from Michael Gbinije.
Another look at Chris McCullough landing on that knee. Ouch. https://t.co/fGoxYASPds
— Jared E. Smith (@JaredSmithCNY) January 12, 2015
The loss of McCullough means the Orange will spend the rest of the season without two presumed starters. Chris joins fellow big man and fellow injured player Dajuan Coleman on the bench.
McCullough's season ends with a stat line of 9.3 PPG, 6.9 RPG and 1.1 APG, though he had been struggling to score since early December. As for what this means as far as McCulllough going pro or returning for his sophomore season, it's waaaay too early to get into that discussion or even know for sure.
As for what this means for the SU line-up, Boeheim has already said Tyler Roberson will get the start tomorrow night against Wake Forest. Chinonso Obokoh is in the backup center role. You can also expect to see B.J. Johnson pick up more slack as the depth chart shrinks. And those concerns you have about what Syracuse does when Rakeem Christmas gets into foul trouble, well, those aren't going anywhere.
Boeheim on whether he's concerned about playing without Chris McCullough: "You can't worry about something you can't do anything about."
— Donna Ditota (@DonnaDitota1) January 12, 2015
That's basically the mantra for Orange fans from here on out. Let go of the fact that McCullough and all of his promise is done for the season and see what we can do moving forward. We'll find out more about what that looks like on Tuesday.
