Nick Sherod, a redshirt senior on the men’s basketball team, tore his right ACL during an official team practice on Oct. 15. Sherod will miss the entirety of the 2020-21 season.
Sherod, a guard on the team, was a starter last year and averaged 12.7 points, 5.4 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game during the 2019-20 season. He was set to be one of the five players with four years of starting experience returning this season.
“Right when it happened, I knew what it was right away because I’ve felt that sensation before,” Sherod said.
Sherod missed the final 27 games of the 2018-19 season because of a previous ACL tear. This is Sherod’s second ACL injury.
“I was upset,” Sherod said. “I was probably more angry than anything because I felt like I had worked really hard to come back from my first injury and put myself in a position to have a good year.”
Jon Rothstein, college basketball insider for CBS Sports Network mentioned Sophomore Tyler Burton as a potential replacement for Sherod in the starting lineup. Sherod believes Burton is more than capable of filling his role, he said.
“He’s super talented and got a good amount of minutes as a freshman,” Sherod said. “He’s good now, he’s going to be really good in the future and I think he’ll bring a different dimension to the team.”
Burton noted that Sherod continues to contribute to the team despite not being able to play.
“He’s a spiritual leader for us,” Burton said. “He’s at practice every day he can be. He’s always teaching us, telling us what we need to do better and just cheering us on from the side.”
However, Sherod doesn’t want his injury to loom over the team or serve as a distraction, he said.
“I texted the team the very next day after I tore my ACL and told them ‘the job’s not done, we still got a season to go,’” Sherod said. “They’re not going to take games off the schedule or anything like that because I’m not playing. Guys aren’t going to go easier because I’m not out there.”
Burton echoed similar sentiments, saying Sherod’s injury has not changed any of the team’s goals.
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“Obviously, [Nick’s injury] changes the way we’re going to get to those goals because we have to play a different way, have a different game plan,” Burton said. “But at the same time, we all want to win and we all want to reach our goal of getting to the NCAA tournament and making some noise.”
Contact sports writer Marco Barcenas-Consuelo at marco.barcenasconsuelo@richmond.edu.
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