The UA basketball team has suffered its first major injury of the year and it’s not even October yet.

Graduate transfer Talbott Denny tore the ACL and medial meniscus in his left knee and will miss the entire 2016-2017 season. He is scheduled for surgery in the upcoming weeks.

This is the second season in a row Denny will miss due to injury. He missed all of last season with a shoulder injury.

The former Lipscomb forward transferred to the UA this summer after receiving his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering.

During three seasons at Lipscomb, Denny played in 90 games and was selected to the 2013-14 and 2014-15 Atlantic Sun All Academic team, and was also a 2015 Atlantic Sun Conference All-Tournament team member.

As a graduate transfer student, he was eligible to play immediately for the UA this season. Denny was not expected to contribute a lot of minutes during the season, but was looked at as a key practice player and added depth to the forward position.

Denny is a Tucson native and Salpointe Catholic High School graduate.

He had several scholarship offers from smaller programs but decided coming home and playing for the UA was a dream come true that he couldn’t pass up.

If Denny hopes to play for the Wildcats next season, he will have to apply for a waiver seeking a sixth year of eligibility from the NCAA.

It is common for the NCAA to approve these types of waivers for players who suffer a season-ending injury before the year’s games officially kick off.

Last year, UA football player Reggie Gilbert was granted a fifth year of eligibility because he suffered an injury his freshman year, which only allowed him to play in four games that season.

The Wildcats similarly lost freshman forward Ray Smith last season, followed by an array of injuries throughout the year.

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