A Malik Pope update

Mark Ziegler on Malik Pope:

"The Pope-liteus

It is a small muscle with a big name: popliteus.

This is what has cost junior forward Malik Pope both exhibitions and six of 13 regular-season games, and what could cost him several more. Pope initially injured it in late October, returned Nov. 21, aggravated it Dec. 22 and hasn’t so much as run down the floor once in the 10 days since.

The popliteus extends from the outside of the femur to the inside of the tibia beneath the calf. It’s not very big or, for that matter, very functional – used mostly to stabilize the knee when running downhill.

“The same issue that he had last time, behind the knee,” Coach Steve Fisher said on Friday. “They said it wasn’t as significant as the last time, but he took himself out of the Southern Miss game and hasn’t done anything of substance since.”

Doctors have indicated there is no structural damage in Pope’s knee and it is largely a matter of pain management, similar to traditional tendonitis. That puts the decision whether to play on Pope, and so far he has declined. And the longer he sits, the more practices he misses, the more fitness he loses, the more game sharpness he surrenders, the harder it becomes to be effective whenever he deems his knee healed..."