Kansas basketball coach Bill Self’s weekly update on the status of injured guard Remy Martin brought no new clarity to the situation.
Asked on Tuesday night’s “Hawk Talk” radio show whether he thought Martin could be back on the court in the next week, Self said he did not know.
“I would hope so,” Self added. “He does some individual work and things like this, but he’s still experiencing pain. I’d like to see (him back in uniform) because it’s getting so late and you’re probably going to put yourself in a position that it’s going to be hard for him to be 100% (effective) if he doesn’t have a chance to practice and play with the guys. But, right now, he’s not ready. I don’t know if there’s a time frame on it at all. It’s just whenever he feels it.”
Martin has missed the last five games entirely and was limited drastically in a handful of games before that because of a bone bruise in his right knee. He suffered the injury in a Dec. 29 win over Nevada and Self has said that repeated examination has shown no structural damage.
With Martin sidelined and freshman point guard Bobby Pettiford battling through an abdominal injury, the Jayhawks have had to play starting point guard Dajuan Harris Jr. more than 35 minutes per game in most games during the past several weeks. Self has said he would like to lighten Harris’ workload and believes Martin’s return would help make that possible.
“Hopefully we can get Remy back at some point in time so he can be the guy that does that,” Self said after Monday’s win over Oklahoma State.
Lightfoot still a factor
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Self said on “Hawk Talk” that the decision to use freshman forward Zach Clemence as the first big guy off the bench in Monday’s win over Oklahoma State had nothing to do with anybody else.
“Don’t read into (it) that Mitch (Lightfoot) didn’t play much (Monday) night,” Self said of KU’s sixth-year senior and the primary back-up to David McCormack. “I wanted to see what Zach was like and give him an opportunity so we can kind of have an idea moving forward how we can utilize him.”
Clemence played a second straight solid game, finishing with with two points, two blocks, two assists and six rebounds in nine minutes.
While that kind of production excited Self and Clemence’s teamamtes, the KU coach said it did not mean Lightfoot would automatically be pushed down the bench.
“Mitch is in the same place he’s always been with us,” Self said. “He gives us a chance to win. He’s so supportive of everybody else, but he didn’t get a chance to play (Monday) because David (was) playing well and we wanted to give Zach a chance and you don’t give Zach near as big a chance if you try to split the time with Mitch.”
