If Serious, Gavin Ware's Injury is Demoralizing for Mississippi State

MSU's depth was already running thin in the post. After a left knee injury forced Gavin Ware out of the game Wednesday night in the second half against Florida State, that depth may have taken an even bigger blow.

Coach Howland said Ware would meet with team doctors early Thursday morning and have an MRI. As of this writing, no info has been released regarding the results of the scan.

If Ware's injury turns out to be a serious one and the senior center misses an extended period of time, or even worse the entire season, the rest of basketball season could go south in a hurry. State was already struggling and those struggles continued Wednesday in the team's 90-66 loss to the Seminoles.

But Gavin Ware has been one of the few bright spots and the heart and soul of the team. No player has improved more under coach Howland than Ware. Ware is shooting just under 70 percent from the floor and averaging over 18 points per game. More importantly, he is far and away the Bulldog's most proven rebounder.

Ware was playing more minutes than any player on the team due to the lack of depth in the post. Despite playing just 19 minutes against FSU, he still managed to dish out 13 points.

Travis Daniels, who moved to power forward this season, also missed Wednesday's game with a concussion. He shouldn't be out too many games but they'll bring him back slowly. Extra caution is always used with those types of injuries. Daniels was already playing out of position at the four and Ware is not a natural five. These injuries complicate matters even more.

MSU simply can't afford Ware's injury to be serious. Expectations for the season may no longer be high at this point, but if nothing else Ware at least makes MSU competitive against some SEC teams assuming guard play keeps improving.

I'm not sure why MSU basketball has been snake bitten with injuries as often as they have. But Rick Ray never could catch a break and it looks like that bad luck was handed over to Ben Howland.