The Pitt basketball team suffered a major loss on Sunday when it was announced that redshirt sophomore Durand Johnson would be lost for the season with a torn ACL and meniscus injury.
The injury happened late in the second half of Saturday’s win against Wake Forest. Johnson drove to the lane and went down quickly, possibly stepping on a Deamon Deacons players’ shoe. While Johnson was down the look on guard Cameron Wright’s face gave away that something could be serious.
Johnson got up, made both free-throws and then came out of the game.
He is expected to undergo knee surgery sometime within the next week and will likely require a 9-12 month rehab period.
His loss is a huge one for the Panthers as he brings instant scoring off the Pitt bench.
Johnson is averaging 8.8 points per game off the Panthers’ bench, good for fourth on the team and has knocked down 22 three-pointer, second most on the team. He’s been blossoming as Pitt’s sixth man and has averaged 14.0 ppg. over his past two games.
He may be Pitt’s best pure shooter and as one NBA scout told me last season, Johnson could be the Panthers best long-term NBA prospect.
That of course was before the injury.
He has also grabbed 3.0 rebounds per game, made 33.8 percent (22-65) of his three-point attempts, and is one of Pitt’s better free-throw shooters, making 85.3 percent (29-34) of his free throw attempts on the season.
The good news is that this Pitt team is pretty deep, but someone is going to have to step up and replace Johnson’s production. He has averaged 19.8 minutes per game and while those minutes will be distributed to other people, you have to expect freshman Chris Jones, a guy Jamie Dixon is very high on, to see a big increase in minutes.
Dixon summed up Johnson’s situation by saying “We are thoroughly heartbroken for Durand.”
Photo Credit: Charles LeClaire/ USA Today
