Maryland men's basketball coach Mark Turgeon said on a teleconference Thursday that redshirt sophomore forward Ivan Bender sustained a fractured left wrist in Saturday's private scrimmage and will be out indefinitely.
Turgeon said that the injury to Bender's nonshooting hand will not require surgery and that his return is "hopefully sooner than later."
The 6-foot-9, 235-pound Bender was injured after slipping coming down with a rebound in the scrimmage. The Terps reportedly played Wake Forest at Randolph-Macon University outside Richmond, Va. Turgeon said Bender started for Maryland in the scrimmage.
Maryland plays Catawba in a preseason game Saturday at Xfinity Center at 2 p.m. The Terps, ranked 21st in the USA Today coaches' poll and 25th in the Associated Press preseason media poll, open the regular season on Nov. 11 against American in College Park.
Bender had been Maryland's most "improved player" in the preseason, Turgeon said last week, after playing sparingly last season behind Robert Carter Jr. and Jake Layman. He played 4.3 minutes per game in just 10 appearances.
Bender, who is from Bosnia and Herzegovina and is the older brother of Phoenix Suns rookie Dragan Bender, had redshirted as a freshman after arriving from Croatia, where he played for a junior team before twice undergoing ACL surgery in a matter of two years.
"Ivan was playing really well," Turgeon said. "I feel bad for him because he was practicing so well and the players were gaining confidence in him, and he was gaining confidence."
The Terps will now be counting even more on graduate transfer L.G. Gill and freshman Justin Jackson after the departures of Carter and Layman, and Bender's injury.
"It's going to open up other opportunities for guys. There's just more minutes there," Turgeon said. "They'll all get a chance Saturday. I hope everybody gets a chance to play."
Bender's injury continues a run of bad luck Maryland has had with preseason and early season injuries to projected starters since Turgeon took over in 2011.
In his first year, point guard Pe'Shon Howard broke his foot in preseason practice. In 2013, point guard Seth Allen did the same in a preseason closed scrimmage.
In 2014, forward Evan Smotrycz broke his foot late in the preseason and guard Dez Wells broke his wrist early in the regular season.
Last year, shooting guard Dion Wiley tore his meniscus right before the season started.
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