During Pitt’s recent game against Syracuse, guard Ishmael Leggett suffered a shoulder injury which sidelined him for one game.
Leggett played through the pain against No. 8 North Carolina the next game, but this past Saturday, he sat out due to the injury in the win over Louisville. Now, as Pitt prepares to face No. 14 Duke on Tuesday night, head coach Jeff Capel offered a small update on Leggett’s status.
**UPDATE 3:30 p.m. Monday — Capel gave another update on Leggett after practice during a press conference
“He was able to do some things in practice today. We were trying to keep him out of a lot of contact, he was able to do some today. We’ll see how he feels later today after treatment, and I’m pretty sure he’ll be a game-time decision tomorrow, but it depends on how he responds to going through it. He did all of the drills, he did some of the contact today, not a lot, but he did a little bit, so it all depends on how he feels from there and how he feels when he wakes up.”
“Not sure,” Capel said. “He’s going to try to practice today. He didn’t do anything yesterday; he’s going to try parts of practice today. We’ll see how that goes, we’ll see how he feels afterwards. We’ll probably have a better idea sometime tomorrow.”
Leggett has played in 14 games this season, and is averaging 12.6 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 2.6 assists per game for the Panthers. The Rhode Island transfer, a 6-foot-3 guard, has hit 41% of his field goals and 30% of his three-point attempts.
In Leggett’s absence, freshman guard Jaland Lowe earned his first start of his collegiate career. Lowe posted a nine-point, six-rebound, three-assist stat line in the win over the Cardinals, going three for six from the field and two for three from three-point range.
“I think Jaland has played well over the last four or five games,” Capel continued. “His assist-to-turnover ratio is outstanding over that stretch, the last five games. He gives us something that no one else does, as far as a guy that can penetrate, that can probe, and find guys. He has a really good feel. So even before Ish went down the last game, which was the only game he didn’t play, Jaland was still getting minutes. Against North Carolina, we went with three guards at times. But a big part is just that Jaland is just playing better, and he provides something that we feel like no one else does.”
