Williams Updates Cole Anthony's Injury Status

Roy Williams updates Cole Anthony's injury status
(Friday, Jan. 31, 2020)

"Yesterday we allowed him to go five-on-five, and he probably went 25 to 35 percent of practice. I didn't time it or anything, I'm just giving you my gut feeling. If he feels alright today, we'll probably let him do at least that [in practice Friday], and if he feels alright tomorrow when we come in for shootaround there's a probability that we play him tomorrow.

"All the stuff he's been doing has been one on zero. He's shot a lot, I've given him some shooting drills challenging him how long it takes him to make 125 threes, so he's really worked it. We'll just have to wait and see how he feels today. We're at almost the six-week point, so I feel a heck of a lot more comfortable than I did before.

"He's dying to try to play, so we'll see what happens. If he comes in today and says he's sore, then he's not going to play. If he comes in today and says he feels great and handles it well then I'd say it's a probability I'll play him."

On if there might be a limit on Anthony's minutes if he does play:
"I have no idea. I'll watch how he runs up and down the court, how well he's playing. He's not going to play 40 minutes. It just depends on how he looks, how rusty he looks, how clean he looks, how sharp he looks and of course his conditioning.

"Of course with his conditioning, they've been working him pretty doggone hard, whether it's in the swimming pool or the weight room. He's a pretty highly conditioned athlete anyway."

On how Anthony has handled wanting to play but being unable to do so:
"I think he's been responsible, I think our trainer [Doug Halverson] has been responsible, I think everybody has tried to look at the big picture and see what's best. He's an athlete I have a tremendous amount of respect for and trust in what he's saying about how he feels. It hasn't been easy for him, he wants to play, he likes to play – but he's been very cooperative in every situation we've possibly had."

On if sitting next to coaches during games could help Anthony:
"We'll see. I think he's seeing things differently. I told a story about Drew Gooden about 20 years ago—it helped him. We'll see with Cole."

On potential challenges of teammates adjusting him back into the lineup:
"Nobody knows. We've got good kids who look at the big picture and look at the team. He looks at the team. Ryan Kelly [of Duke], who sat out a long time, came back and had 36 points in his first game. Raef LaFrentz sat out an extra week for me [at Kansas], came back and had 32 his first game. I've had other guys come back who didn't play very well in their first game. We'll just have to wait and see on all of that.

"He's a good teammate, his teammates care about him and understand what's going on. I'm not saying it's going to be the smoothest ride, but nobody knows until you get into it."

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Cole Anthony

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