Kentucky big man Nerlens Noel, among the frontrunners to go first overall in the 2013 NBA draft, went down with a left knee injury in Tuesday night’s game at Florida.
It has been confirmed that the injury is indeed a torn ACL.
Russell Steinberg of SBNation has the breakdown of what happened:
Just when it looked like the Kentucky Wildcats were starting to come back on the road against the No. 7 Florida Gators, Kentucky suffered a loss that might derail its rally and even its season. Star forward Nerlens Noel went down with a frightening looking injury with about eight minutes left in the game after going up for a block on defense.
Noel, who remained on the floor for several minutes, appeared to injure his knee after crashing into the basket support. He was eventually helped off the floor, but it does not seem likely that he will return to the game.
The 6’10 freshman is averaging just over 10 points per game to go with nearly 10 rebounds per contest and is a contender for the top pick in this year’s NBA Draft. He is also one of the main reasons why the Wildcats have overcome early season struggles to re-enter the national rankings and compile an 8-2 record so far in the SEC.
Here’s a link to the video of the injury.
And here’s what Twitter was saying following the injury:
