Iowa State had little trouble defeating Kentucky without injured forward Joshua Jefferson in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
With with a trip to regional final at stake against 6 seed Tennessee, the Cyclones would obviously prefer to play Friday’s Sweet 16 game with their All-America forward on the court.
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As of Thursday, Jefferson’s status with a sprained left ankle is still unclear. And ultimately, per head coach T.J. Otzelberger, the decision will be Jefferson’s.
“It’s really Joshua’s decision,” Otzelberger said Thursday, per ESPN’s Pete Thamel. “We’re going to support him and love him and have his back in whatever he decides to do.”
Jefferson takes court Thursday
Jefferson injured his ankle early in Iowa State’s first-round win over Tennessee State. The second-seeded Cyclones then rolled to an 82-63 win over 7 seed Kentucky despite Jefferson’s absence.
Jefferson’s now officially a game-time decision for an Iowa State team seeking to advance to the program’s first regional final since 2000. He was able to take the floor for shootaround on Thursday.
Iowa State will go through another shootaround on Friday. How Jefferson responds will likely determine whether he’s able to play Friday night.
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Jefferson told reporters Thursday that he’s still dealing with “a good amount of pain.”
“Still a good amount of pain,” Jefferson said before shootaround. “If I can just play through hurt, I can play through hurt.”
He clarified that the decision will come down to whether he’s still injured or just hurt ahead of tip-off.
“Throughout my career, definitely had to play hurt a lot, but I think there’s a difference between hurts and injured,” he said. “So just trying to get to that hurt point right now.”
If Jefferson doesn’t play and Iowa State manages to beat Tennessee without him, he sounds optimistic about playing in a regional final on Sunday.
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“Three more days would definitely help,” he continued. “I think we’re capable of getting to that Sunday game. Just handle this first one, and we’ll get there when we get there.”