After sustaining a non-contact injury in practice on December 28th, Indiana’s greatest fear was confirmed today in a statement released by the university’s athletic department.
“After thorough testing and evaluation, it has been determined that the best solution for James Blackmon Jr., and his immediate and long-term health, is to undergo surgery on his right knee this afternoon that he injured last week in practice. It is expected that he will not play again this season.”
Even the most oblivious college basketball fan knows this will be a huge loss for the Hoosiers as Blackmon came into conference play as Indiana’s second-leading scorer at 15.8 points per game. This left him at 10th in the Big Ten in scoring. He is also third in the Big Ten in 3-point field goals made per game at 2.8 and seventh in 3-point field goal percentage at 46.3 percent.
The most disappointing part of it all is the fact that Blackmon was finally beginning to figure things out on the defensive side of the ball. Coach Crean’s main focus for Blackmon all season has been being active defensively, forcing turnovers and getting deflections. This concept really began to resonate with James and you could see that evidently in his play against opponents such as Alcorn State. Against Alcorn State, Blackmon allowed his defensive play to lead to offense. Because of his defensive effort, he ended up with a career game, scoring 33 points and forcing 4 steals.
After the game Crean said to him, “The offense comes so easy to you, you shouldn’t worry about that. But, when you defend like that, that’s what’s going to happen.”
This whole scenario leaves a lot of questions for Indiana and Blackmon himself. Previous assumptions were that Blackmon would leave Indiana for the NBA Draft at season’s end. This injury increases the likelihood we see Blackmon on the floor for Indiana next season, looking to still prove something to NBA scouts.
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But what about the now?
Indiana has the depth to handle this injury, but can you legitimately replace 16 points per game?
What about Indiana’s backcourt? Who’s going to step up? The only genuine guards who receive minutes on this team are Robert Johnson and Yogi Ferrell. Because of Blackmon’s inactivity, Yogi Ferrell has had to play 73 minutes in Indiana’s last two games.
Not only does this team need to replace Blackmon’s points, but what about the spacing issues he creates? Coach Crean was adamant about this concept after the Rutgers game, stating, “It’s not just the shots he makes, and it’s not just the percentages he has. He makes the game easier for everybody else because you can never not account for James. There was less space today. It got better in the second half because we moved better.”
If Indiana is going to be successful for rest of this season, they have to focus on defense and get contributions from some key role players.
Collin Hartman has started in Blackmon’s absence, but he looks too tentative to shoot. Hartman needs to be willing to create shots and play that pivotal role. OG Anunoby has also been crucial.
Anunoby has scored 19 points and 10 rebounds in IU’s last two games. He has done this in very limited minutes, so expect him to play a much bigger role throughout the season. Most freshmen tend to take time to adjust to conference physicality, but it seems OG relishes it. OG’s defensive effort and relentlessness on the boards bring something very different to IU and it’s crucial to their success.
Hopefully, Indiana will be able to make the proper adjustments in time for big conference matchups such as Wisconsin and Ohio State.