Big Ten Basketball: Iowa Transfer CJ Fredrick Undergoes Surgery on Broken Leg
Following a season of injury in 2020-21, CJ Fredrick suffered another setback to his return to full health.
Fredrick transferred from Iowa this offseason to play with the Kentucky basketball program. But according to reports from Kentucky Sports Radio and Ryan Lemond, he recently had surgery to repair a broken leg.
As of now, details surrounding the injury are unknown and so is his timetable for return.
“I had a really tough injury this past year,” Fredrick said in June. “It was just something really naggy. I had plantar fasciitis in my left foot and it mentally and physically took a lot out of me. Waking up in the morning trying to take a step and I’m kinda collapsing. That’s tough. I’m trying to practice then play. It took a lot out of me mentally. Just being in the training room all day.”
The 6-foot-3 guard was known as an elite sharpshooter during his time with the Hawkeyes. In two seasons with the program, Fredrick made nearly 50% of his 3-point attempts.
He appeared in 52 total games for Iowa and averaged 8.8 points per game and officially signed with Kentucky back in May. Fredrick was the Kentucky 2018 Gatorade Player of the Year as a senior at Covington Catholic High School in Alexandria.
"CJ Fredrick is an established college player from a terrific program who has competed at the highest level and has made big shots and big plays," Kentucky coach John Calipari said in a press release after Fredrick's signing. "As we all know, CJ is a terrific shooter, but what stuck out to make on tape is he takes care of the ball — he has an excellent assist-to-turnover ratio — and he can hold his own defensively. He guarded the best guard on the other team in just about everything I have seen.
"What I love about CJ is his approach in all of this. In every conversation I have had with him, he has a great plan of how he wants to improve and where he needs to take his game to get better. He wants to be challenged, he wants to be coached and he embraces competition."
After redshirting during the 2018-19 season, Fredrick averaged 10.2 points and 2.8 assists per game while making 47 total 3-point attempts during the 2019-2020 season. He averaged 7.5 points per game last year and made 36 threes, but was limited on the court for the Hawkeyes due to plantar fasciitis.
