Joey King has officially been ruled out for the Big Ten tournament with a foot injury, coach Richard Pitino said on Monday.

The senior forward fractured his right foot in the closing minutes of Wednesday's home loss to Wisconsin when he landed on it awkwardly. He sat out the team's regular-season finale, a 75-52 loss at Rutgers on Saturday.

Pitino had initially said there was a slight chance King returned for Wednesday's opening-round game against Illinois but said when the trainers removed the walking boot, he couldn't put any pressure on it. The coach said it didn't come as a surprise to King.

"I think he thought in his mind that he wasn't going to play," Pitino said. "I think he knew. We spoke the next day and he said "I don't think I'm going to play again." I said well let's just see what the swelling does, take it day by day. But I think he knew. He's come to grips with it. It's difficult for him to end like this. It stinks for him. It's not the way I wanted him to go out. But unfortunately, it's just the hand we were dealt and we've just got to deal with it."

Without King, the Gophers – who have the 13th seed in the league tournament – have just five scholarship players and three walk-ons, including Stephon Sharp, who has averaged 16 points a game in the last three.

Two of Illinois' five Big Ten wins have come against Minnesota, including an overtime victory in Minneapolis when the Gophers were at full strength and an 84-71 trumping in Champaign in the first game the Gophers were without guards Kevin Dorsey, Nate Mason and Dupree McBrayer, who were suspended for the remainder of the season for violating team rules. Illinois has the 12th seed in the tournament. The winner will play 5th-seed Iowa, who gets a bye in the opening round, on Thursday.

"We've got a huge, huge challenge on our hands," Pitino said. "It's something we know we've got to be ready for. It's an uphill battle right now with the state of our roster. But we've got to make the best of the situation at hand – do everything possible to see if we can score a massive upset."

Team official Dan Reisig said the recovery time for King is expected to be about 4-6 weeks.