Fresno State without key player once again as it returns to non-conference play at Cal

Fresno State basketball coach Justin Hutson, who has been trying to fit pieces young and old together through a 2-6 start to the season, is hitting the reset button again with senior point guard Noah Blackwell out indefinitely with a right knee injury.

Blackwell was hurt on an awkward spin move and landing at the offensive end on Saturday late in overtime of a 77-70 loss at Utah State.

It is a blow for the Bulldogs, who get back into non-conference play on Wednesday with a game at Cal. Fresno State also is without redshirt sophomore forward Chris Seeley, who is sidelined with what it is described as an upper body injury.

Blackwell started the week 20th in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio and in six games is averaging 8.3 points and 3.8 assists in a team-high 33.8 minutes. Before the injury at Utah State, he hit 4 of 7 shots in scoring nine points with four rebounds, two assists and three steals.

“He’s the trigger,” Hutson said. “That would be like the quarterback running a spread offense and he was going to play 70% of the snaps.”

With Blackwell sidelined, freshman Jarred Hyder and junior college transfer Mustafa Lawrence will run the point for a team that is ranked sixth in the Mountain West in assist-to-turnover ratio and seventh in scoring.

Hyder had a strong three-game stretch when Blackwell was out for a violation of institutional policy and working his way back from a wrist injury. The freshman hit 24 of 40 shots (60%) in averaging 23.0 points per game with 4.0 rebounds and 2.3 assists in a victory over Winthrop at the Save Mart Center and losses at San Diego and to Saint Mary’s on a neutral floor at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.

That production fell off at the start of conference play as Blackwell worked his way back – he had missed close to two weeks of practice.

Hyder in the past two games hit 2 of 6 shots in scoring four points in a double-overtime loss to UNLV and 2 of 12 shots in scoring 11 in the overtime loss at Utah State.

He had three assists in each game.

“With Noah back, (Hyder) was trying to figure it out,” Hutson said. “(Deshon Taylor) and Noah had to figure that out last year … Jarred is going to be good. He has a great work ethic and a great mind about him.”

This story was originally published December 10, 2019 at 3:23 PM.