Maryland basketball’s Michal Cekovsky has missed four consecutive games to an ankle injury, but his healing took a step in the right direction on Thursday. The 7’1 Slovakian announced on Instagram that he was taking his walking boot off. It’s still unclear whether he will suit up for Saturday night’s game on the road in Illinois.

Cekovsky has missed nine of his team’s 17 games this season with foot, hamstring and ankle injuries. The rest of the frontcourt has missed time too. Ivan Bender fractured his wrist and sat out one game with a knee injury and Damonte Dodd has missed seven games with an MCL injury and for a concussion. The Terps hardly know what a full lineup looks like this season.

They’ve managed, though barely, edging out a number of close wins to jump out to a 15-2 record. They’ll need Cekovsky’s size in the paint to make those wins a bit more comfortable.

In other news

Maryland women’s basketball beat Penn State behind Brionna Jones’ 42 points...

That’s 42 points on 15-of-19 shooting. With 14 rebounds. Seriously. She was unstoppable.

Lorenzo Harrison, D.J. Turner were cleared of criminal charges.

Damonte Dodd came up huge for the Terps in win over Indiana.

Kevin Huerter helped the Terps’ late push past the Hoosiers.

Back on the court after sitting out for transfer rules, former Terp Lexie Brown set an ACC record for the Duke Blue Devils (Baltimore Sun).

Maryland baseball’s Kevin Smith named preseason All-American (Diamondback).

Former Maryland linebacker Cole Farrand doesn’t think he’s a hero for his fire rescue (Washington Post).