SMU got positive news on star point guard B.J. Edwards and his ankle injury heading into conference championship weekend.
The SMU Mustangs are on the bubble as possibly one of the last teams in to the NCAA Tournament as an at-large bid.
With a major announcement to begin the weekend ahead of Selection Sunday, the Mustangs' roster just got a boost that could help their chances of a postseason run.
The school stated Friday morning that dynamic scoring guard B.J. Edwards is expected to return to the floor for coach Andy Enfield. Edwards has missed the Ponies' last five games with an ankle injury.
His services were greatly missed as SMU fell in the ACC Tournament to Louisville in the second round.
Edwards has averaged a steady supply of offense this season with 12.7 points and nearly five assists per game.
Filling in his place has been the team's standout scorer Boopie Miller, who puts up 19.2 points per game. The Mustangs have also gotten 17.6 points per game out of Jaron Pierre Jr.
Edwards has started each game he's appeared in this season and last played on Feb. 25 against Cal. In that one, he scored five points in 16 minutes of action before getting injured.
Just before the conference tournament got underway, the third-year Mustang received All-Conference Honorable Mention and All-Defensive Team honors.
With a 1-1 finish in the ACC Tournament not doing much to suppress reactions from a poor end-of-season stretch, ESPN has SMU as one of the teams "sweating out" Selection Sunday.
"The Mustangs' consensus at-large chances sat at 94% about two weeks ago, but losses in four of their final five regular-season games made them less certain heading into the ACC tournament," said analyst Neil Paine.
"And although Tuesday's first-round victory over Syracuse stabilized their odds some, a second-half lead over Louisville slipped away Wednesday, leaving them at 56% (little better than a coin flip) as Selection Sunday approaches.
"They are still eighth in the conference's pecking order by that measure, and they have a cushion over Stanford and the rest of the ACC's bubble dregs in terms of overall résumé quality (the Cardinal do have more Quadrant 1A wins). While the Mustangs hold the edge in theory, they have to hope they've made the case for the ACC to earn eight bids -- but they did not make a strong closing argument."
One final piece of leverage, however, is the return of a team captain in B.J. Edwards, putting the team at full strength at just the right time.
We'll see in a few days if the selection committee deems that addition enough to put the Mustangs into the field of 64.
