Replacing Medder Won't Be Easy

The sophomore didn't leave his mark on the stat sheet this season, but Donte's second major knee injury leaves a huge dent in the Golden Hurricane's guard rotation going forward.

Thursday, May 26th 2011, 12:05 pm

By: News On 6

Originally Published: Dec 9, 2010 9:18 PM CDT

Bobby Lewis
Oklahoma Sports Reporter

TULSA, Oklahoma – Replacing a guy that hadn’t really played much this season may not seem all that necessary or important. After all, what’s there to miss?

But, that’s not the case with the Golden Hurricane. Tulsa head coach Doug Wojcik now has to figure out a way to replace Donte Medder after the sophomore tore the ACL in his right knee for the second time.

In the second half of a blowout loss to Oklahoma State, Medder’s knee gave out on him as he was closing out on the Cowboys’ Ray Penn. Medder hobbled off the floor almost nine months to the day after his first injury. Medder’s outstanding freshman season came to an end in the team’s final regular season game of the year. Tulsa lost to then-No. 21 ranked UTEP 75-61 in the Conference USA tournament.

The list of players available to replace Medder is long, but inexperienced. Of the nine remaining guards on the roster, three of them have 32 career minutes or less of college experience.

The leading man to pick up the most slack is a guy who’s arguably already stretched beyond expectations to begin with. Freshman point guard Jordan Clarkson will have even more responsibilities now that another available sub has been sidelined. Earlier this season, Glenn Andrewsreinjured his knee and was excused from the team. Clarkson is averaging 28.5 minutes per game this season.

Clarkson is a reliable ball-handler but after him, there are few guys that have the ability to run the offense like Medder did in 2009. Star guard Justin Hurttcan manage the offense, but can’t run off screens for open jumpers if he’s calling out plays near midcourt. Scottie Haralson could assume a pseudo-point guard role if he had to, but he’s more of a 3-point specialist and spot-up shooter than a lights-out dribbler.

That leaves only a handful of guys who could spell Clarkson at the point position when the work load starts to wear on his freshman legs. Senior Shane Heirman seems to be up to the task, but doesn’t have much experience. Through the first eight games this season, he’s played 66 minutes. Last year he only saw 67 total minutes of action.

Tim Peete is another freshman with tremendous upside and a lot of promise, but hasn’t seen very much of the floor this year.

Yet.

Peete will probably be counted on more and more as he becomes more comfortable with the ball in his hands at this level. He has shown the ability, in limited minutes, to distribute the ball well. He only has five turnovers so far this season.

Turnovers are the reason why Bryson Pope won’t be called upon to run the offense. The sophomore from Jenks High School has eight assists and seven turnovers.

The remaining two choices are Barrett Hunter and Will Sanger, who have a total of 50 minutes played between them in 42 career games.

Without Medder in the lineup, the Golden Hurricane stumbled to a 4-3 start while struggling to get consistent play from the guard position. They lost the home opener at Appalachian State by three points. The team lost to UNLV two weeks later in the 76 Classic and then dropped its first true road game to UALR, 69-67.

Tulsa hosts Princeton (6-3) Sunday at 1 p.m.