Briante Weber Injury: Updates on VCU Guard's Knee and Recovery

Briante Weber's season reached a premature end on Saturday after he suffered an injury in Virginia Commonwealth's 64-55 loss to Richmond.

Sports Illustrated's Brian Hamilton first reported that Weber hurt his knee but couldn't expand upon the severity of the issue:

The Rams followed up a few hours later, revealing how serious the knee injury is:

As ESPN's Andy Katz noted, the timing couldn't be much worse for Weber, who was well within arm's reach of an all-time NCAA record:

Entering Saturday, the senior guard was averaging 7.9 points, 4.4 assists and 3.8 steals per game. Given his contributions at both ends of the floor, Weber was among VCU's most important players.

CBS Sports Network's Jon Rothstein analyzed what the Rams will do from here to compensate for Weber's injury:

It will be impossible for VCU to find a like-for-like replacement for Weber, and his absence will hang over the team for the rest of the season.

Any desire head coach Shaka Smart harbored of making a deep run in the NCAA tournament also looks to be a pipe dream now.