The Hawaii basketball team will be down at least two players in its second officiated intrasquad scrimmage of the preseason today.
Rainbow Warriors freshman guard Niko Filipovich was taken by ambulance to a hospital with a dislocated left shoulder from Friday’s team practice.
Meanwhile, the team learned redshirt freshman center Caleb Dressler isn’t expected back for at least two more weeks with a back injury.
The 6-foot, 160-pound walk-on Filipovich has played behind point guards Keith Shamburger and Quincy Smith. He absorbed contact from center Davis Rozitis on a pick-and-roll situation early on during Friday’s session and experienced some extreme discomfort.
Team trainers called paramedics, but Filipovich was able to walk out of UH’s auxiliary Gym 2 under his own power to the ambulance.
The team played out the rest of practice.
Filipovich left the hospital a few hours later with his left (non-shooting) arm in a sling and said he will get an MRI today.
"I’m all right, I’m hanging in there," Filipovich said. "The pain was really getting to me, it was to the point where I was really nauseous, drowsy and lightheaded. … But I’m fine now. They didn’t see anything with the X-ray."
UH’s point guard rotation is still sound with Kamehameha product Dyrbe Enos, a redshirt freshman, able to back up Shamburger and Smith.
Filipovich is a prospect to redshirt this season.
Senior forward Christian Standhardinger missed Friday’s practice with flu-like symptoms, but is expected back for today’s 3:30 p.m. scrimmage in Gym 2, which would bring the healthy player count to 15 with UH’s official Green & White Scrimmage for fans at the Stan Sheriff Center a week away.
Freshman center Stefan Jovanovic was torn for the remainder of practice without the familiar sight of Filipovich, his teammate at Bishop Montgomery (Calif.) High School, providing his customary encouragement to teammates on the hardwood.
"I don’t want my point guard in my team to be injured," Jovanovic said. "He’s my best friend, on the court and off."
By the end of the practice, the ‘Bows did not appear overly bothered by the injury and pause in play.
"A lot of players get injured, you just have to go through," Jovanovic said.
"So you have no excuse to have a bad practice, play bad because someone gets injured. You have to go through and stay mentally tough."
Dressler has missed the past week of practices with a bulging disc in his back.
