Bourama Sidibe Expected to Miss Appoximately One Month
Injury plagued center Bourama Sidibe has suffered a knee injury and will miss approximately one month, according to Jeff Goodman of Stadium. It is the latest set back for Sidibe, that has battled injuries throughout his Syracuse career.
Reports out of practice this fall suggested both Jesse Edwards and Frank Anselem have shown tremendous improvement from last season. Syracuse will have to rely on that two man tandem at the center position for the foreseeable future. If Sidibe does only miss a month from the date of the report, he would miss games against Lafayette, Drexel, Colgate and the Battle 4 Atlantis. That would mean a return for the November 30th ACC/B1G Challenge matchup with Indiana.
Sidibe was the starting center in the season opener for the 2020-21 season, but suffered a knee injury just minutes into the game. He returned briefly against Clemson later in the year, but was held out from that point on. Sidibe is able to return as a result of an extra year of eligibility granted by the NCAA due to the pandemic.
Sidibe finished the 2019-20 season on an extremely high note. He had double digit rebounds in each of the last six games and averaged 9.8 points, 11.7 rebounds, 2.7 blocks and 2.3 steals. The hope was he could provide something close to that over the course of the season. At the very least be a steady presence in the middle defensively with help on the boards.
Without him, Syracuse struggled to defend bigger, stronger teams inside. Marek Dolezaj started all season at center, and Jesse Edwards, who was going to redshirt, emerged towards the end of the season.
