Boston College men’s basketball guard Donald Hand Jr. will miss the Eagles’ game against the Cal Golden Bears on Saturday afternoon, according to the ACC Initial Availability Report.
Hand Jr. exited the Eagles’ game against Stanford on Wednesday night with 7:45 remaining in the opening half.
He went down on the court after Stanford blocked his jumper attempt. After being down for a moment, he walked off with assistance behind him and went straight into the locker room.
He did not return to the game and was ruled out by the radio broadcast shortly before the start of the second half. He joined the team on the bench in street clothes early in the second half.
Boston College men’s basketball head coach Earl Grant stated after the game that Hand Jr. was walking around in the locker room, but the severity of the injury was unknown post-game.
“Obviously, we’re praying for Donald Hand,” said Grant. “He missed 30 minutes of the game and so we don’t know what the situation is. We’ll find out tomorrow. He walked around pretty good in the locker room at the end.”
The fifth-year Eagles head coach did not have a time frame for the redshirt junior either.
“I don’t know [about a potential time frame],” said Grant. “I’m not a doctor. He looked good just now when I saw him in the locker room moving around. And he’s got an MRI tomorrow, so we’ll find out more.”
Hand Jr. is one of two players listed as out for BC’s game against Cal on Saturday. Guard Nick Petronio, who has missed the entire season, is also unavailable.
As for the Eagles’ opponent, Cal will be without a number of players. The Golden Bears have six players listed as out- guard Jovani Ruff, guard Luke Butler, guard BJ Fisher, Stephon guard Marbury, forward Rytis Petraitis, and forward Lee Dort.
The team also has forward Sammie Yeanay listed as probable.
theacc.com
Both Boston College and Cal are looking to snap skids in the matchup and are hoping to maintain or improve their spots in the ACC standings.
The Eagles are riding a five-game losing streak with defeats to Notre Dame 68-64, No. 15 Virginia 73-66, No. 4 Duke 67-49, Miami 74-68, and most recently Stanford 70-64 on Wednesday night.
The Golden Bears are on a two-game losing streak with losses to No. 20 Clemson 77-55 last Saturday and Syracuse 107-100 in double overtime on Wednesday night.
Boston College takes on Cal on Saturday afternoon. Tipoff is set for noon ET on ACC Network.
