As posted on GoBearcats.com:

The Cincinnati Bearcats basketball team will be without freshman guard Cashmere Wright for the season after he suffered a knee injury during a preseason practice.

Wright tore is ACL in his left knee during a recent practice. He will undergo surgery later this week. The rehab will take 6-8 months to get him back in game shape.

This is the second season in a row that the Bearcats will enter the season without one of their top players. Wright was a highly-touted player coming in this year at a key position. The loss of him will hurt the young Bearcats team, a team already picked to finish 11th in the Big East in preseason rankings released earlier this week.

Head coach Mick Cronin said, "We feel terrible for Cashmere as he was looking forward to the season as all young players do." He went on to say, "Obviously he was a big part of our plans this year so we are going to have to make some changes."

The Bearcats have been in a rebuilding mode since the exodus of Bob Huggins a few years ago. Cronin has done a good job of getting young talent in here and Wright was just that. The 6-0, 175-pound guard out of Savannah, GA was listed as one of the nation's top 100 players by many national recruiters. He was the No. 12 recruited point guard in 2007-08 by Rivals.com.

College Hoops cincinnati bearcats, cashmere wright, mick cronin