UPDATED: Vincent Edwards out with left ankle injury.

BREAKING:

Purdue has confirmed that Vincent Edwards will be out for the game against Penn State with a sprained left ankle.

They just sent this release on twitter:

This will be the first time this season that the starting lineup for Purdue will not be P. J. Thompson - Carsen Edwards - Dakota Mathias - Vincent Edwards - Isaac Haas.

FIRST ALARMS:

News is breaking in unofficial ways on social media that Purdue’s senior forward, Vincent Edwards, will be out for Purdue’s game against Penn State tonight. The reason for the absence - not confirmed by Purdue or anyone directly affiliated with the team - is unknown.

It started with a post by Vincent’s mother on Facebook where she tagged the senior leader saying “Game Day! Well today my post is a little different. Good luck to the Boilermakers tonight. My baby will be cheering from the bench today. Keep him lifted in prayer.”

This tweet followed soon after by Vincent’s brother.

Attempts to contact Chris Foreman, Purdue’s SID for basketball, have not been returned yet. To this point, there’s been no news on what is keeping Edwards out of the game. He has been remarkably durable during his career. He has only missed one game, in his freshman year, against Rutgers. He has been noted for playing through sickness and pain.

And this is a must-win game for Purdue after losing the last 3 games.

Edwards is a candidate for B10 player of the year. He is averaging 31.6 minutes a game, 15 points, 3 assists, and nearly 8 rebounds a game.

Purdue has not been a deep team this year. They play 8 men regularly while Grady Eifert, the former walk-on, gets limited runs in the first half of most games. His role is possible to expand but his lack of shooting can create spacing issues, issues that will be exaggerated with one of Purdue’s best shooters out of the game.

Expect all three of Ryan Cline, Matt Haarms, and Nojel Eastern to get more playing time today. Eastern’s length and athleticism might be the best option to make up for the huge rebounding hole Vincent’s absence will leave. Haarms has played limited minutes with Haas this year, but this might force Coach Painter to go back to the twin towers. Cline will possibly log minutes at the four tonight. He’s proven a capable rebounder and is stronger than he appears in the post.

Jacquil Taylor might find minutes open up for him finally this year if Painter needs more rebounding and length on the defensive end as well.

For now, we wait for official word on if this is true and more importantly, if it is, what is keeping Edwards from the lineup.