Hubert Davis shares details of ‘freak accident’ which injured Jalen Washington in shootaround

North Carolina secured their 13th win of the season on Tuesday defeating Boston College 72-64 at home. The Tar Heels got forward Pete Nance back from injury and back into the lineup Tuesday, but unfortunately lost another forward in Jalen Washington prior to the game, which head coach Hubert Davis spoke on following their win.

“It was great, we need Pete and he’s another big that can do a number of things out there on the floor on both ends so I was very happy he was back in the lineup,” Davis said. “The disappointing thing was Jalen, he twisted is ankle at shootaround.”

Nance had missed the Tar Heels previous three games with an injury, scoring six points and five rebounds in his return against the Eagles. And the freshman Washington was fresh off of playing the most minutes of his young career in Nance’s absence, earning himself double-digit minutes for the first time ever in back-to-back contests for North Carolina.

Davis elaborated on how uncommon Washington’s injury was, even drawing back on his own playing experience as a framework.

“And I told the guys there’s some things as a player that I’ve never experienced, I said I’ve never experienced like coming out of my shoe during practice or during play. I wasn’t the most athletic or fast guy, but I did tie my shoes. I never stepped out of bounds, and our guys practice and they step out of bounds. I never turn the ball over in shootaround where there was no defense, and I’ve never seen somebody get hurt in shootaround,” Davis explained.

There’s no question that an injury at shootaround is a rarity, but so is the lineup potential with Washington and Nance playing together. Nance stands at 6-foot-11 and Washington at 6-foot-10, who paired with their dominant center in Armando Bacot create an exciting big man lineup that Davis was looking forward to seeing on Tuesday night.

“You know it was just a freak accident of him stepping on someone’s foot and him twisting his ankle and I was just really excited about having Pete back alongside Armando and Jalen,” Davis said. “And so I was happy and I was also disappointed from the standpoint that Jalen could not play tonight.”

Hopefully for the Tar Heels, Washington’s ankle injury will warrant a speedy recovery, and Davis and North Carolina’s fanbase can see their frontcourt at full strength sooner than later.