WSU wing Andrej Jakimovski ‘on the mend’ from shoulder injury, coach Kyle Smith says

PULLMAN – Andrej Jakimovski, the Washington State senior wing responsible for much of his team’s run this season, is on the mend from the shoulder injury he’s played through the past three games.

That’s the word from WSU men’s coach Kyle Smith, who said Tuesday, “By all accounts, he’s going to be OK,” from a shooting-shoulder injury that limited him in No. 22 WSU’s loss to Washington last week, when he shot 1 for 8 from the field and favored the shoulder all game.

“But we’ll watch it,” Smith said. “We’ll do what’s best for him.”

Asked for a diagnosis, Smith said, “I don’t know. I think it’s just a sore shoulder. That’s my official Dr. Smith diagnosis.”

No. 2 seed WSU heads to Las Vegas this week to play in the Pac-12 Tournament, taking on either No. 7 California or No. 10 Stanford on Thursday evening. Smith did not indicate a plan to limit Jakimovski’s minutes during the conference tournament, nor during the upcoming NCAA Tournament, for which WSU is a lock.

Jakimovski, usually a reliable 3-point shooter who appeared to suffer the injury during the opening minutes of his team’s win over USC on Feb. 29, reaggravated it during Thursday’s game, Smith said.

“It was kind of like a stinger,” said Smith, who pulled Jakimovski for the final 2 minutes of Thursday’s game. “It was hard. It was Senior Night. Coach (Jim) Shaw turned to me and said, ‘He can’t lift his arm.’ I said, ‘I don’t care. This is our group. This is who we’re going with.’ And then finally, I said, ‘All right, we gotta try to do something else down the stretch.’ ”

On the play Smith referenced, one of the first few sequences of the UW game. Jakimovski dropped to prevent center Wilhelm Breidenbach from catching the ball at the basket, using his injured shoulder to knock the ball away. He looked to be in some pain afterward.

After the game, Jakimovski confirmed what Shaw said.

“I don’t want to make excuses or anything, but I couldn’t lift my arm,” Jakimovski said. He missed all four 3-pointers he tried during the game, and since suffering the injury, he has made 6 of 19 shots (32%) from beyond the arc, a few percentage points below his conference-play average of 35%.

“His maturity, his leadership is a big foundation of why we’ve had such success,” Smith said. “We miss him when he’s not on the floor. He’s kind of our defensive point guard.

“When we’re playing man or zone, his experience really helps there. I think he’ll be fine, but he gets hit there, you gotta be careful.”