Fears of UW fans were realized this morning when it was confirmed that redshirt sophomore forward Jernard Jarreau tore the ACL in his right knee Sunday, ending his season just as it began.

Jarreau was injured as he went to the basket following a steal and was fouled. He landed awkwardly and was unable to even attempt his shot.

Reading this tweet from Marshall Cherrington made me cringe:

I'm in the stands and after that awkward fall, Jernard Jarreau looked up to Andrew Andrews and said "It's broken." Not a good sign. — Marshall Cherrington (@mcherrington22) November 11, 2013

Now, his knee is broken in the sense that it doesn't work, but it is highly unlikely that there is a broken bone within his leg, but what is called a "tibial plateau fracture" is possible. I will be breaking down what goes on with ACL injuries sometime this week.

His loss comes as a big blow to the UW lineup, as Jarreau was poised to take a huge step forward within the offense, becoming a focal point out of the high post. He was poised to have a breakout year.

I really hoped that I was wrong when I said that it was an ACL tear, but if there is any injury that I know what it looks like when it happens, that is it. When the tibia (shinbone) moves forward relative to the knee, it is the obvious sign for an ACL tear.

The starting lineup as it stood was Andrew Andrews, Nigel Williams-Goss, C.J. Wilcox, Jarreau and Perris Blackwell. With Blackwell missing the victory against Seattle U with a concussion, Shawn Kemp Jr. slid into a starting role. I would expect him to retain that role with Jarreau out.

Washington went into the season with frontcourt depth being the least of their worries, having Blackwell, Jarreau, Kemp, Desmond Simmons and Gilles Dierickx all looking like potential contributors. As it stands now, Jarreau is missing for the year and Simmons is out until mid-December after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery before the season. Simmons had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee before redshirting in his first season at UW.

Dierickx did little more than provide a big body inside in his time on the court against Seattle U, which is not a good sign considering he will be the third healthy "true" big man tomorrow against UC Irvine, assuming Blackwell does return. Romar said that there is a "good chance" that he returns.

Offensively, the loss of Jarreau really hurts. This will mean that Kemp will need to continue to show the improvement scoring towards the end of last season. He drilled a mid-range jumper against Seattle, a good sign that teams will have to respect him from the high post, opening up more room for Blackwell on the block. The pairing of Kemp and Blackwell on each block could prove difficult to defend, as each are very capable from scoring down low.

Because Jarreau already used his redshirt year, he cannot take a medical redshirt for this season. They only way that he would be eligible for an extra year would be if he got hurt again, and missed almost an entire season. He would then be eligible to apply for a sixth year. Let's hope it does not come to that.

EDIT: Lorenzo Romar says in live chat with the Seattle Times that he expects Jarreau to be granted a medical redshirt. I don't know the precedence for something like this, and Todd Dybas tweeted this:

In college basketball, you do not get a definitive answer on a sixth year medical redshirt the day the MRI results come back. #UWHuskies — Todd Dybas (@Todd_Dybas) November 13, 2013

We all wish a quick recovery for Jarreau, and hopefully he can return by the start of next season.

I will have more up on ACL injuries this week, as I have been researching them quite a bit recently.

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