Maryland’s Ivan Bender out for season with torn meniscus

Maryland men’s basketball just found out Thursday it would be without Justin Jackson for the entire season with a torn labrum. The Terps’ frontcourt depth took another hit over the weekend, when UMBC when Ivan Bender went down in the second half with an apparent injury to his right leg.

Bender has a torn meniscus and will miss the remainder of the season, the team announced Sunday.

He went into the locker room at the next media timeout and wouldn’t return. It was a non-contact injury, but he wasn’t able to put any weight on the leg. After the game, Turgeon said the team would know more Saturday. Now the Terps have lost two forwards for the season in a four-day span.

Bender gave the Terps four points and six rebounds in his 18 minutes against the Retrievers and averaged 3.4 points, 2.7 rebounds and 1.4 assists in just under 12 minutes a night this season. He looked like an improved passer and rebounder, and Turgeon mentioned him as a candidate to replace some of Jackson’s minutes.

This is another blow to the Terps’ forward depth and, in retrospect, Turgeon is probably happy he stocked up on bigs. Without Bender and Jackson, look for Jared Nickens, Joshua Tomaic and Sean Obi to get some more burn. Maryland may also be forced to use more large lineups with Bruno Fernando at power forward and Michal Cekovsky at center.

Editor’s note: This story was initially published on Dec. 29, after Bender suffered the injury but before the severity was announced.