Michael Finke Injury Update: Illinois forward out for NIT with suspected foot injury

Fighting Illini basketball was pretty lucky in the injury department this season, but they’ve received a bit of bad news ahead of their NIT matchup against Valparaiso. A team spokesman informed media members on Tuesday night that redshirt-sophomore forward Michael Finke is OUT with a suspected stress fracture in his right foot; an MRI has been scheduled. Finke’s status is officially considered to be ‘day-to-day’, but it’s hard to envision him playing in any of these postseason games regardless of the scan results.

Finke had settled into a nice support role off the bench this year. In about 20 minutes of action per night, the Champaign native was averaging 6.9 points and 4.2 rebounds on 48.3% shooting from the field (41.1% 3PT).

With Finke out of the lineup, look for sophomores D.J. Williams and Aaron Jordan to get some more minutes as interim head coach Jamall Walker configures the lineup to make up for the vacancy.