No. 5 Nebraska men’s basketball’s starting center, Rienk Mast, missed Tuesday’s 75-72 loss at No. 3 Michigan.
The 6-foot-10 senior traveled with the team to Ann Arbor on Monday. After the team arrived in Michigan, he started feeling ill. Monday night and into Tuesday before the game, Mast didn’t sleep much and was throwing up for a good portion of the overnight hours.
“He gave himself every opportunity to be out there,” Fred Hoiberg said in his media availability on Friday. “He got out and stretched, got a couple shots up and he had nothing in the tank.”
The most alarming thing about the Mast illness, which Hoiberg described as a different strand of the flu, was the physical toll it has taken on Mast.
“He couldn’t even keep water down and the decision was made to not put him in that situation (playing against Michigan), “Hoiberg said. “Got home that night (Tuesday) and the following day, Wednesday, Rienk had to go to the ER with severe dehydration.”
Mast is still battling the illness. After the emergency room trip in which he received intravenous fluids, Mast got home at roughly 2:30 in the morning Thursday, according to Hoiberg.
“Felt better (Friday) morning and was able to come in and watch film with us, “Hoiberg said. “We took him through non-contact portion of our practice. So we went through stations and got up and down a little bit in some non-contact drills, did our shooting drills and then we got them off the floor.”
Mast will likely be officially listed as questionable in the availability report for Sunday’s top-10 matchup against No. 9 Illinois in Lincoln.
“If he responds well the rest of the day and has a good day tomorrow, we anticipate him being out there Sunday, not knowing exactly what he’s going to be able to give us,” Hoiberg said. “Obviously, he’s lost a ton of weight. He’s still very weak, but it was good to see him. It was good to see him back in the gym today.”
Ugnius Jaruševičius, who has played just one game due to a back injury, will be out with the flu for Sunday’s game.
“We are deciding to keep him home,” Hoiberg said. “Obviously, he’s not playing right now, but we’re doing everything we can to stop the spread of it. We’re all battling some form of it but Rienk, whatever he got was nasty.”
Redshirt freshman Braden Frager’s status is still uncertain. Initially, the ankle injury was thought to be sideline him for two to four weeks. If Frager is available on Sunday, that would be 10 days and clearly ahead of schedule.
“He was back on the court today for a portion of the contact drills,” Hoiberg said of Frager. “He went through stations yesterday and did a little bit of work on the floor today. We got him out about halfway through, but it was good to get him some live reps. We’ll see how he responds to it.”
Should Mast and Frager be unavailable for Sunday, expect to see a similar starting lineup the Huskers used at Michigan with Cale Jacobsen sliding into the starting lineup. Jared Garcia was the first off the bench for the short-handed Huskers in Ann Arbor and logged 10 minutes, but freshman 7-footer Leo Curtis was next and gave the team 13 impactful minutes, scoring six points.
