Ohio State will be one player short when the Buckeyes face No. 21 Maryland in College Park, Md., on Saturday.
Sophomore point guard JaQuan Lyle, who recently was relegated to a backup role after spraining an ankle, left Columbus Thursday because of a family emergency in Indiana, Buckeyes coach Thad Matta said Friday.
"His 19-year-old sister had a baby a few days ago, and there's been some complications," Matta said. "He texted me a little bit ago and said she's (his sister) taken a turn for the worse. What that means I'm not sure. We've spoken with his mother and advised him to stay with her."
Sophomore C.J. Jackson has started the past two games, both of them victories for the Buckeyes. In Wednesday's 70-64 home victory over Rutgers, redshirt junior Kam Williams matched his career-high with 23 points.
Another Ohio State player, forward Keita Bates-Diop, also returned to his home in Illinois Thursday after his younger brother, Kai, collapsed during high school basketball practice and suffered a heart attack.
Keita Bates-Diop is already out for the season following surgery for a stress fracture in his leg. Kai Bates-Diop, who is being recruited by the Buckeyes as part of the 2019 class, was revived and flown to a hospital in Peoria, Ill.
"Hopefully everything is going to be OK with those guys," said an emotional Matta, who had to fight back tears during a Friday news conference. "It's been a rough 24 hours for our program here."
Lyle scored nine points and had six assists in Maryland's 77-71 win over Ohio State Jan. 31 in Columbus.
"Not having JaQuan will be tough for us," Matta said. "For our guys, we got a job to do and we gotta get ourselves ready to do it. Obviously that's stuff that's very important to us, as it should be, and we'll roll from there."
