Injured Iowa State senior forward Joshua Jefferson said on Sunday he’ll be trying to do anything he can to be available for the Cyclones in the Sweet 16 on Friday night against Tennessee.

“I’m going to do everything my power to get healthy and see what we can do for the next couple days,” Jefferson said, according to ESPN. “These next couple days will be big for me.”

Iowa State (29-7), the No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament’s Midwest Region, advanced to the Sweet 16 with an 82-63 win over No. 7 Kentucky on Sunday in St. Louis. No. 6 Tennessee (24-11) beat No. 3 Virginia 79-72 in the second round in Philadelphia.

No. 6 Tennessee vs. No. 2 Iowa State, Sweet 16, Chicago

The two teams will play the final Sweet 16 game this weekend, with tipoff on Friday scheduled for 10:10 p.m. Eastern Time on TBS and TruTV.

Jefferson suffered a sprained left ankle after playing just three minutes against Tennessee State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday. He left the game without putting any weight on his injured left ankle and did not play against Kentucky on Sunday.

“Just the last couple days,” Jefferson said, “I’ve just been going through my mind of that might have been my last game. But knowing that I have a chance Friday to try to get back healthy and get back out there is huge for me.”

The All-American forward is Iowa State’s second-leading scorer at 16.4 points per game and leads the Cyclones in rebounds at 7.4 per game. He’s also second on the team in assists (4.8), steals (1.6) and blocks (0.8). 

Iowa State coach TJ Otzelberger said Sunday that Jefferson had an MRI scheduled for Monday morning. 

“The guy is an elite competitor, a winner, been such a great leader for us,” Otzelberger said, “so we miss him in so many aspects. But our guys know that if we count on each other, we trust each other and we believe in one another, that we can accomplish anything.

“The best way we can honor him at this point is to continue to play our best.”

Iowa State beat Kentucky by 19 without Joshua Jefferson

Jefferson scored in double figures in all 34 of Iowa State’s games before suffering the injury three minutes into the first-round game against Tennessee State. He had 10 or more rebounds in eight games and 10 or more assists in four games.

Without Jefferson against Kentucky, Tamin Lipsey had 26 points and Milan Momcilovic scored 20 points. Momcilovic is the team’s leading scorer at 17.2 points per game.

Iowa State led 31-30 at halftime before outscoring Kentucky by 18 in the second half.

“We kind of just needed to regroup at halftime,” Momcilovic, “and we knew we weren’t going to play much worse offensively than we did in the first half.”