A broken finger on the shooting hand of Gophers junior guard Gabe Kalscheur will require surgery.
Head coach Richard Pitino announced Friday that Kalscheur will undergo surgery on the broken index finger of his shooting hand and miss 3-4 weeks. Kalscheur suffered the injury during Minnesota’s road loss to Indiana on Wednesday.
The recovery timeline gives Kalscheur an outside chance of returning for the Big Ten tournament Mar. 10-14, which will be followed by the NCAA tournament.
Right now, the Gophers are on the bubble to make the tournament. Despite wins over potential No. 1 seeds Michigan and Ohio State, not to mention victories over Iowa, Purdue and Saint Louis, the Gophers have lost all nine of their road games this season.
ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has the Gophers as one of the last four teams in, in his Friday bracket projection. That means Minnesota could easily slip outside Lunardi’s projected field of 68 teams.
The Gophers host No. 5 Illinois at 2:30 p.m. Saturday.
