Syracuse center Dajuan Coleman appears to be on schedule while recovering from a knee operation in January.
Syracuse Orange big man DaJuan Coleman is right on schedule in his recovery from knee surgery according to a report from Syracuse.com's Mike Waters.
Coleman recently began working outside of a pool, but hasn't been able to return to basketball activities. Head coach Jim Boeheim said in September that the team wouldn't know what Coleman's status would be for the season until at least November or December.
The big man underwent an OATS procedure in January and trainer Brad Pike described the operation in Waters' story.
The procedure performed on Coleman is known as osteoarticular transfer system or OATS. The surgery is designed to treat defects in the cartilage. During the procedure, the surgeon takes cartilage from an undamaged, non-weight-bearing area of the knee and moves it into the damaged area.
Pike likened it to moving the hole on a golf course, removing the plug of green to create a hole and inserting the plug into the previous hole.
He played in 24 games as a freshman and made 12 starts last season before injuring the knee a second time.
The Orange will face a huge loss if Coleman is unable to return this season. Currently, senior Rakeem Christmas is the only true center to play regular minutes for the Orange. Chinonso Obokoh, a 6-foot-9 sophomore, is expected to play minutes at center this year while backing up Christmas. Obokoh played just three minutes in SU's exhibition game against Carleton University on Sunday.
