Redhawks lose guard Nutt for season

~ The freshman broke his foot during Friday's practice

The promising freshman season of Southeast Missouri State point guard Lucas Nutt is over.

Nutt, son of first-year Southeast coach Dickey Nutt, suffered a broken foot during Friday's practice. He was leading the Ohio Valley Conference and ranked 35th nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio.

"He just made a move, a plant. It was not a collision at all," Dickey Nutt said. "We're just heartbroken. It's certainly a very, very disappointing blow to our team."

Nutt, who missed Southeast's first two games due to back problems that also caused him to miss several weeks of practice, came off the bench in the Redhawks' (4-7) past nine contests and averaged 16 minutes per game.

Nutt has a team-high 33 assists against just 12 turnovers. He is tied for first on the squad with 10 steals.

Offensively, Nutt is averaging 4.9 points, sixth on the team. He has hit 7 of 14 3-pointers (50 percent) and is 9 of 11 from the free-throw line (81.8 percent).

"Lucas did a lot for us. He made sure when he came into the game we didn't drop at all. In fact we might have gone up a bit. A lot of things he does doesn't show up on the stat sheet," Dickey Nutt said. "We have a lot of guards, a lot of combo guards, but he was the pure point guard on our basketball team."

Nutt was coming off the best performance of his young college career as he recorded his first double-double with 10 points and 12 assists during a 116-60 rout of Williams Baptist on Dec. 12.

"He did a lot of good things for us. He handled the basketball and he played with a swagger," Dickey Nutt said.

If there is a silver lining to the injury, it's that Nutt should be able to receive a medical redshirt that will give him back this season of eligibility.

A player is eligible for a medical hardship if he has appeared in less than 30 percent of his team's regular-season games. Nutt has played in nine of Southeast's 30 regular-season contests, 27 percent.

"His cutoff was 10 and he's played in nine. That's the only consolation we can look at," Dickey Nutt said. "His future is in front of him. He's going to get bigger and stronger, and better and better."