The Long Beach State men’s basketball team may be without senior guard Larry Anderson on Thursday against UC Davis in the first round of the Big West Conference tournament.
Anderson left last Saturday’s contest against Cal State Fullerton about five minutes into the game with an undisclosed injury. After the game, LBSU head coach Dan Monson confirmed that the injury was to Anderson’s knee.
An MRI on Monday confirmed that Anderson has a sprained medial collateral ligament (MCL) in his right knee.
Monson said that Anderson would do everything he can to get back onto the floor for the Big West tournament.
“Larry has a sprained MCL and is doubtful to play on Thursday,” he said. “Larry’s competitive and will try to give it a shot. The positive prognosis is he should be able to play next week, whether it’s the NIT [National Invitational tournament] or the NCAA tournament.”
Monson also said that it’s a good guess that freshman guard Mike Caffey will get the start against UC Davis on Thursday.
“[Mike] Caffey will probably start against Davis, because they’re perimeter oriented,” he said. “One of the knocks on this team is that we’re not deep, but we just have a coach who is stingy with playing time.”
This news comes on the same day that Anderson was named a First Team All-Big West selection for the third time in his career. Anderson was also named Big West Defensive Player of the Year.