Richard expected to miss season for Siena men's basketball

PHOTOGRAPHER: File Photo

Khalil Richard will miss the 2018-19 season.

LOUDONVILLE — A day after the Siena College men’s basketball team was picked to finish last in the MAAC preseason coaches poll, the Saints took another tough hit Wednesday.

That is when the program announced that junior Khalil Richard is expected to miss all of the 2018-19 season with a “significant partial tear of the quadriceps tendon in his right knee.” Richard suffered the injury in Saturday’s scrimmage at UMass, but a full diagnosis wasn’t available until Wednesday.

“He just made a cut and we were hoping to get some good news today on it, but, sometimes, things like this happen,” Siena head coach Jamion Christian said. “He’s a guy that’s worked really hard this year, and I’d say he had his best offseason since he’s been in a Siena jersey and really had an opportunity to play for us this season. That’ll have to wait another year.”

Richard’s immediate path forward is unclear, as more medical visits are ahead of him.

“But I’d think he’d need to have surgery,” Christian said.

Richard averaged 9.2 points per game last season and shot 43.8 percent from 3-point territory. For a Siena program that had a number of players transfer after the coaching switch from Jimmy Patsos to Christian, Richard was the top returning scorer.

“But we’ve got a lot of guys here that can really play,” Christian said.

Siena’s season starts Nov. 6 at Providence. Christian hasn’t revealed a starting lineup or plans for his rotation, but the loss of Richard will require Siena to likely make ample changes to what it had planned.

“That’s our job as the coaching staff,” Christian said. “We’ll get the guys to the right places.”