Ashton Pankey, a 6-8 senior forward from St. Anthony who signed with Maryland, will miss the remainder of the season with a stress fracture in his left leg.
“It’s unfortunate but I’m [going] to still show my support for my team and work out my upper body till my leg gets better,” Pankey wrote by text.
St. Anthony will face St. Peter’s Prep Saturday at the Dan Finn Classic before heading up to the Hoophall Classic in Springfield, Mass. to face Los Angeles (Calif.) Westchester Monday on ESPNU.
“They don’t feel that the bone is healing properly so it might be much more of a long-term thing and we feel bad for him,” St. Anthony coach Bob Hurley said of Pankey. “At this point right now it doesn’t look good for his return during the season.”
St. Anthony has played thusfar without both Pankey and 6-8 Oregon State-bound forward Devon Collier, out because of academic issues.
But Collier is due back at practice Friday and is scheduled to play Monday.
A year ago, he also made his debut at the Hoophall Classic, putting up 19 points and 10 rebounds in a 58-50 win over Xavier Henry and Putnam City (Okla.).
“If we get Devon back, we have a third scorer,” Hurley said. “So between [Richmond-bound forward] Derrick [Williams] and [St. Bonaventure-bound guard] Elijah Carter and Devon, all of a sudden we’re much more dangerous offensively and it takes a lot of pressure off of Derrick.”
HURLEY SAYS HE WON’T COACH COLLEGE
I’m working on a big St. Anthony/Hurley story for Rivals but wanted to throw this nugget out there.
Hurley’s name is routinely floated for various college coaching jobs, including several in the area.
Yet he says he’ll never leave St. Anthony. He has 967 wins and needs 33 for 1,000.
“Right now there’s no job in the United States that I would take. The Nets , there’s no job I would take. I’m very happy working with the kids,” he said.
(And he’s still not in the Naismith Hall of Fame? What a joke. To quote Tom Konchalski: “If he’s not in it, it’s a Hall of Shame.”)
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