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The Arizona State Sun Devils’ slim roster just got thinner on Monday.
Freshman forward Kimani Lawrence underwent surgery to repair a stress fracture in his left foot and may be absent as late as Dec. 25, according to Doug Haller of azcentral.com.
Surgery went well... smiling through the good and the bad pic.twitter.com/NqcEVEDFKe
— Hov (@BallForever_) November 14, 2017
The 6-foot-7, 200-pound freshman played in all three of Arizona State’s scrimmages before he was sidelined in Arizona State’s season-opening win over Idaho State on Friday.
Lawrence, a four-star from Providence, Rhode Island, was ASU head coach Bobby Hurley’s most highly-touted recruit in the 2017 class, as he was listed the No. 57 player in the ESPN 100. Just Jahii Carson (50), Keala King (43) and James Harden (21) had been ranked higher in the history of the program.
His four to six week absence leaves the Sun Devils with just seven scholarship players, as Mickey Mitchell cannot play until Dec. 10. and Ramon Vila left the program.
What seemed a deep frontcourt for ASU, dwindled to just three big men on the active roster: 6-foot-10 De’Quon Lake, 6-foot-9 Vitaliy Shibel and 6-foot-8 Romello White. White was absent from Arizona State’s season-opener against Idaho State due to a violation of team rules. White missed two exhibition games for the same reason and was listed “day-today” by Hurley.
Lawrence averaged 15.6 points in Arizona State’s three exhibition games this season, as he scored 15, 14, and 18 points against Northern State, San Diego and Arizona Christian respectively.