Kansas will have to wait and see about Graham’s availability

Freshman PG could be out four weeks or longer

Kansas guard Devonte Graham watches warmups with a boot on his right foot on Saturday, Dec. 13, 2014 at Sprint Center. It has been reported that Graham will be out four weeks with a toe injury.

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Kansas City, Mo. ? Kansas University point guard Devonté Graham, who suffered a severely sprained right big toe in Wednesday’s win at Georgetown, will miss at least a month of basketball and perhaps the rest of his freshman season, coach Bill Self said Saturday.

“We hope we can get him back. There’s no guarantee he’s going to come back, though. We’ll play it by ear and evaluate him again in four weeks,” Self said of Graham, who had his foot stepped on by 350-pound Joshua Smith with 10 minutes to play Wednesday.

KU could seek a medical red-shirt for Graham, and will likely do so, if in a month it is determined the healing is not satisfactory. No surgery is planned at this time.

“It’s a bad case of turf toe, a badly sprained big toe,” Self said. “He’s on his toes and then you’ve got a 350-pound guy stepping on the back of his foot smashed under his big toe.

“It is unfortunate. I thought he was really coming and starting to get it. He’s going to be out a significant time. The doctors feel he can come back but also say he may not come back. We’ll have to make a decision before the first half of the season is probably over so we can obviously utilize a medical red-shirt if we need to, but we’re not thinking like that.

“We’re thinking like, ‘Hey, let’s look at it in three to four weeks, get it re-evaluated.’ If he’s making positive progress we can get him back out there. They say you can play on it, but he’s not near to the point that’s possible yet.”

Self said it’s the same injury that former Duke player Kyrie Irving had in his only season in college.

“He elected to have surgery. He had surgery Dec. 4 and played in the NCAA Tournament. This is different. You knew he’d be one-and-done,” Self said. “There’s no exact time frame on how long it takes to heal. It could be three weeks, four weeks, six weeks, seven weeks,” Self added.

Of the surgery option down the line, Self said: “Not yet, no. We’re hoping it heals. Doctors say there’s no guarantee on anything. They’re optimistic we’ll learn more in three or four weeks.”

Self said walk-on Evan Manning could be used at the point to go with Wayne Selden Jr. and even forward Jamari Traylor in some situations.

“I meant to play him today,” Self said of Manning. “But when we’re playing well, don’t sub; playing badly you can’t put him in that situation. We’ve got to have a ball-mover back there.”