Gophers starting guard Amir Coffey and reserve center Gaston Diedhiou will miss Tuesday night’s game at Iowa.
Coffey, a 6-foot-8 sophomore and the team’s third leading scorer, tweaked his previously injured right shoulder in last week’s 77-69 loss against Northwestern. Diedhiou, a 6-10 senior, injured his right ankle in practice.
The Gophers are down to eight scholarship players with senior center Reggie Lynch also missing his eighth straight game with an indefinite suspension.
Richard Pitino said Monday that Coffey is day-to-day. Coffey, who averaged 14 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.3 assists, played the last two games after being out for a five-game stretch with the shoulder injury.
The Hopkins native had 15 points, five turnovers and four rebounds in 32 minutes before fouling out in last week’s loss against Northwestern at home. He tweaked his shoulder on a dunk that brought the Gophers within 66-63 with 4:15 left in the second half.
“I don’t want to say re-injured it without knowing the specifics of what exactly it is,” Pitino said Monday. “But you could tell that hurt him a little bit. So we go day-to-day with all this stuff … there’s a protocol with what you do. You never want to rush guys back. You want to make sure they’re 100 percent. We’ll continue to do that and see where it goes.”
Coffey’s left handed, so the injury doesn’t affect his shooting arm. He has worn heavy tape on his right shoulder the last two games.
After a Jan. 3 victory over Illinois, Coffey was diagnosed with a humeral avulsion glenohumeral ligament (HAGL) lesion, which is a ligament tear near the front of the shoulder.
Coffey is scheduled to have a doctor appointment on Friday to re-evaluate his shoulder. The Gophers play 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Michigan.
Junior guard Dupree McBrayer, who suffered from a lower left leg injury earlier in the season, will play Tuesday against Iowa. McBrayer had to leave for the locker room after hurting his leg in the first half against Northwestern, but he returned to play in the second half.