Reports of the Tyrone Wallace injury, a fractured non-shooting hand, came out late Wednesday night but did not truly pick up steam until Thursday morning. From then on, questions swirled about his availability for the NCAA Tournament.
But later on in the afternoon on Thursday, Cal reported that Wallace would be out 3-5 weeks, ending his senior season and his career with the Bears without the chance to help out Cal in the Big Dance. Wallace averaged 15.3 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 4.4 assists per game on the season but missed five games earlier this season, in the middle of conference play. Cuonzo Martin and company went 3-2 over that stretch.
The news comes on the heels of assistant coach Yann Hufnagel being suspended from the team while the program pursues termination proceedings due to accusations of sexual harassment of a local, female reporter.
Junior point guard Sam Singer is expected to shoulder the starting duties in Wallace’s absence. While his statistics are certainly not gaudy, many outside of the program felt like the Bears’ offense actually ran more smoothly with Singer in the lineup, at least handling the ball, compared to Wallace. Since Singer doesn’t need to look for his own offense, expect freshmen Jaylen Brown and Ivan Rabb–along with veterans Jordan Mathews and Jabari Bird–to receive extra attention from their point guard.
Cal, the No. 4 seed in the South Region, takes on No. 13 Hawai’i later today.
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