Creighton's Kalkbrenner to miss rest of tourney with knee injury

Creighton Bluejays center Ryan Kalkbrenner (11) inured his knee during the second half against the San Diego State Aztecs in the first round of the 2022 NCAA Tournament at Dickies Arena. Chris Jones-USA TODAY Sports

Creighton center Ryan Kalkbrenner to miss rest of NCAA Tournament with knee injury

By Victor Barbosa | Last updated 3/18/22

Creighton's task in the next round of the 2022 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament was already going to be a tall one facing off against top-seeded Kansas. It's going to be a lot more difficult without one of the Bluejays' best players, who was announced as out for the rest of "March Madness" on Friday afternoon.

Creighton's Ryan Kalkbrenner (knee) will miss the rest of the NCAA Tournament, per Greg McDermott's Twitter page. Recovery time is 2-3 months.

Averages 13.1 PPG and 7.7 RPG.

Jays face Kansas on Saturday.
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) March 18, 2022

While Big Ryan will be out the rest of the tournament, his knee injury was not as significant as originally thought. We expect a full recovery in the next 2-3 months. Our were answered! #RDJ
— Coach McDermott (@cucoachmac) March 18, 2022

The Bluejays' starting center suffered his knee injury during the nine seed's nail-biting 72-69 first-round win vs. No. 8 San Diego St. on Thursday. The 2021-2022 Big East Defensive Player of the Year was Creighton's second-leading scorer (13.1 points per game) and second-leading rebounder (7.7 rebounds per game) this season, while finishing second in the entire conference in blocks (89) and blocks per contest (2.6) as well.

Kalkbrenner also paced the entire Big East in offensive rebounds (134) and field goal percentage (64.6%). The big man played in and started all 34 games for Creighton this season.

He finished the first-round overtime win against the Aztecs with 16 points and 10 rebounds in 41 minutes played.

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