Houston basketball star Jamal Shead suffered an ankle injury in the first half of the team’s Sweet 16 matchup with Duke and didn’t return.
To make matters worse, the Blue Devils defeated Houston, 54-51, advancing to the Elite Eight for the first time under second-year head coach Jon Scheyer.
Shead, a consensus All-American honoree for his play during the 2023-24 season, saw his right foot take an unnatural turn on a drive to the rim with just over six minutes left in the first half.
While agonizing in pain on the court, Shead covered his face with his jersey.
He walked slowly toward the locker room to get an instant evaluation.
X-ray revealed that the ankle injury was not a fracture but was diagnosed as a bad sprain, according to the team, indicating that it still would’ve likely kept Shead out for the remainder of the tournament had the Cougars been victorious on Friday.
“I hate that it ended like this,” Shead said. “I wish I could have got back out there and at least been in the fight. It would have been different if I could have at least limped around a little bit and fought a little bit. Just been in the fight with them until the end. It didn’t happen that way.”
Houston led Duke 16-10 at the time of Shead’s injury.
“It doesn’t feel like a fair fight,” Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said after the loss. “You would have to take maybe two of theirs to equal one of Jamal. That’s how good he was. You don’t have another one of those. You don’t have the best defensive player in the Big 12. You don’t have a guy that made all the big shots at the end.”
Shead had two points on 1-of-5 shooting with three assists and two steals while playing the first 13 minutes.
Before tonight, the 6-foot-1 senior guard averaged 13.2 points, 6.4 assists and 2.2 steals per game this season.
He also collected a laundry list of awards for his play on the No. 1 seed Cougars, including Big 12 Player of the Year and Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year.
After the game, Duke players went over to Shead, who was sitting on the bench, giving him high-fives in a sign of respect.
— with AP
