The Arizona Wildcats started off the season 13-1 and looked every bit the favorite in the Pac-12 that everybody thought they were. Since that start though, Arizona has lost two straight games including Saturday night's four-overtime thriller against USC but that wasn't the only bad news from that night. The Wildcats' leading scorer, Allonzo Trier, suffered a broken hand in the game and is expected to miss at least a month of action, according to Myron Medcalf of ESPN.
Trier broke the hand in the fourth overtime but decided to stay in the game. The injury is to Trier's right hand, which is his shooting hand, and he was seen clutching the hand multiple times during the final overtime. Trier was having a great game for the Wildcats as he had a season high 25 points in 53 minutes, and the game was extremely close so he didn't want to have to come out.
On the season the 6-foot-4 freshman guard from Seattle, Washington is averaging a team best 14.8 points per game on 52 percent shooting from the field and 35 percent from three. The loss of a Trier is a big one for Arizona and it won't help of them end their current losing streak. Trier's injury is just the latest in what has been an injury-filled season for Arizona so far.
Prior to the season the Wildcats lost fellow freshman, Ray Smith, to a torn ACL. Smith was ranked the 29th best recruit in the 2015 class and was expected to contribute immediately. More recently, Arizona played eight games without starting center Kaleb Tarczewski who was dealing with a foot injury. Tarczewski is back now, but Arizona has still not been fully healthy for much of this season.
Recently head coach Sean Miller has been going with an eight man rotation for Arizona but this injury may force him to shorten his rotation even more. In Trier's absence the Wildcats will look for Parker Jackson-Cartwright and freshman Justin Simon to step in and make up for at least some of the scoring that will be missing while he recovers.
