The Brown Daily Herald is reporting that Brown tri-captain Luke Ruscoe will miss at least two weeks after doctors discovered a fracture in his injured ankle last week. The senior originally hurt the ankle in the first half of the UMES game on December 20, but retunred for the start of Ivy play in mid-January. Ruscoe played 33 minutes in the double-overtime win over Dartmouth on January 27, however he did not play the following night against Harvard. He was in uniform this weekend, but was limping noticeably in pre-game warmups and didn’t see action.

Ruscoe told the Brown Daily Herald he would sit out the next two weeks, then have the ankle re-evaluated. If he is able to play on it, that would allow him to play the final two weekends of his college career. However, if the injury isn’t healed to his doctors’ satisfaction, Ruscoe will undergo surgery that would end his career at Brown. The senior is averaging 7.8 points and team highs in rebounding (5.3 per game) and assists (3.0 per game) on the season.

Slant: The news is not good for Brown, whose offense has gone from moribund to D.O.A. with its lone senior on the shelf. While his shooting continued to regress this year from a stellar sophomore campaign in 2003-04, Ruscoe was still the most important cog in Glen Miler’s offensive attack. He has long been one of the better all-around players in the league, and it’s a shame to see his senior season derailed like this. The way Brown played this weekend without him, it’s looking like a long season for the Bears if Ruscoe isn’t able to make it back.