Texas got a tough break this week as fall practice opened, and the news centered on Mikey Lewis.
The Longhorns announced Wednesday that the Saint Mary’s transfer guard will be sidelined for an “extended period of time” after fracturing his right foot during practice. Lewis has already had surgery and is now in recovery. The injury is not expected to end his season, but it still lands as a hit for a Texas team that was counting on his presence off the bench.
Lewis wasn’t projected to start, but he was expected to give Texas real value as an unofficial sixth man. His scoring and experience made him a useful piece, and now the Longhorns will have to sort out those minutes without him for the time being.
Freshman guard Joe Sterling said the team felt the loss immediately.
"It's terrible what happened to him on Monday, obviously, I wish him the best in the recovery," Sterling said.
Sterling also made clear that Lewis’s absence opens the door for someone else to take on a bigger role.
"Someone has to step up and take those minutes that he was going to get," Sterling said. "So yeah, it definitely is an opportunity.
But I think first and foremost, we just want to be there for him right now, and eventually, like you said, he'll come back. But while he's gone, it's just filling that void of him being gone."
Bo Ogden, another Texas freshman guard, struck the same note.
"Mikey's a big piece of the team, and we're gonna be with him while he's recovering that foot, and we'll get him back, and that'll make us an even better team," Ogden said. "But in the meantime guys got to step up and fill that fill that gap."
For Texas, the injury is a setback. For the freshmen, it also creates a chance to absorb more responsibility sooner than expected.
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