DRAKE Hemphill injury

[KillerB]

Broke his foot and probably done for the year

[KillerB]

Probably their best player.. sets the table for Loyola

[elmerb]

Helps our table too.

GO BRADLEY

[Da Coach]

Until this latest bad news, Drake was positioned well for an at-large bid if they don't win the auto-bid. Loyola's NET is currently #13, and Drake's NET is #30-
https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/basket...l-net-rankings

Drake has 7 games left in the season-
Sat. Feb. 13- home vs. Loyola
Sun. Feb. 14- home vs. Loyola
Web. Feb. 17- at UNI
Sun. Feb. 21- at Evansville
Mon. Feb. 22- at Evansville
Fri. Feb. 26- at Bradley
Sat. Feb. 27- at Bradley

I think they might be able to lose twice to Loyola and still get an at-large bid, but they would probably need to win all 5 of their other games. That would be a difficult task even if they had all their players healthy. But if Hemphill can't play, it seems almost impossible. This injury could knock them out of the NCAA Tournament unless they win in St. Louis.
ShanQuan Hemphill, a senior transfer from UW-Green Bay, is their leading scorer & 7th in the MVC (14.1 ppg), their 2nd leading rebounder & 7th in the MVC (6.3 rpg); his FG% of 58.7% is 7th in the MVC and tops among non-post players, and he is probably their best defensive player.

This afternoon, head coach Darian DeVries said that Hemphill "could possibly return this season. But .... Drake will most likely have to advance beyond the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament to have enough time for Hemphill to get healthy and return."
Drake announced Friday that Hemphill underwent surgery on Thursday to repair a fracture in his foot. He's expected to resume activity in two weeks and could return to competition in four weeks.
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/st...ed/6743979002/

Hemphill injured his foot late in the 2nd half of their game Wednesday against UNI, and already had surgery to repair the broken bone on Thursday. He will miss their final 7 scheduled games, and would also miss the MVCT. Really tough luck for Drake, though other than their Covid pause, they seem to have been pretty fortunate with injuries to key players this season.