It can hardly ever be labeled as "good news" when a player is ruled out with an injury, but considering what could have been, the Bruins are likely breathing a sigh of relief.
No. 2 UCLA men's basketball (1-0) forward Cody Riley, who left Tuesday night's season opener with an injury, was diagnosed with a sprained left MCL on Wednesday. A UCLA Athletics spokesperson told All Bruins that Riley will be out for the remainder of the week, including the team's high-profile matchup with No. 4 Villanova on Friday, and that he will be re-evaluated by the medical and training staffs next week.
The injury itself occurred when Cal State Bakersfield guard Grehlon Easter dove for a loose ball near Riley and went careening into the UCLA big man's left knee. Riley let out a quick scream and Pauley Pavilion collectively gasped and fell instantly silent as he lay on the floor grabbing his leg in visible pain.
"He said it all happened so fast that he doesn't even know what happened," said coach Mick Cronin in his postgame press conference. "When I asked him, he was like, 'I don't know, somebody ran me over.'"
Riley had three rebounds and had not attempted a field goal or recorded another stat of any kind in the four minutes he had spent on the court Tuesday prior to the injury. Riley walked off the court mostly under his own power with 12:08 left to play in the first half and eventually made his way back to the locker room.
UCLA went on a 34-10 run to end the first half without Riley, who wound up coming back to the bench in the second half to watch his team close out the 95-58 victory over the Roadrunners.
Riley averaged 10.0 points and 5.4 rebounds in 23.3 minutes per game for the Bruins last season, drawing the start in 31 of UCLA's 32 contests. He has been on the roster longer than any of his current teammates, first joining the blue and gold ahead of the 2017-2018 season.
With new word on the timeline, the best case scenario for Riley and the Bruins is that the redshirt senior gets back on the court Monday against Long Beach State. The next game after that is against North Florida on Nov. 17, followed by neutral site contests in Las Vegas against Bellarmine and No. 1 Gonzaga on Nov. 22 and 23, respectively.
In the meantime, Rutgers transfer Myles Johnson is set to make his first start for UCLA on Friday night against Villanova. Johnson picked up three quick fouls and was limited to just 18 minutes on the floor Tuesday, scoring two points and hauling in five rebounds in that limited time.
One of Riley, Johnson or Kenneth Nwuba were out on the court at every point in Tuesday's season opener, as Nwuba set or tied regular season career-highs with 18 minutes, four points, two blocks and two rebounds. Last year's surprise early enrollee Mac Etienne was supposed to pick up some minutes at the post as well this season, but he suffered a potentially season-ending knee injury in practice a few weeks back and remains unavailable.
So for at least one more game and possibly a handful more, Johnson and Nwuba will be holding down the fort beneath the basket while Riley gets some time to recover.
More must-reads: