Indiana Basketball: Hoosiers to be without star guard longer than expected

Archie Miller gave an update on the status of Indiana basketball senior guard Devonte Green after Saturday’s game.

Before the start of the season, the Indiana basketball program was already dealing with a few injuries, and that hasn’t changed through two games.

While Rob Phinisee, Devonte Green, and Al Durham all missed at least one or more of the preseason exhibitions, one of them remains sidelined and could be out for the near future.

Senior guard Devonte Green had high expectations for this season, and as the leading returning scorer (9.4 points), the Hoosiers were going to look at him as the go-to player. As it stands now, there is no real timeline for when he may return.

After Saturday’s win against Portland State, Archie Miller addressed Green’s injury.

"“He’s not anywhere near playing in game because you have to practice,” Miller said. “He’s moved into some non-contact stuff… hopefully tomorrow he will start to increase that load. [He is] doubtful for Tuesday. As we keep moving forward here, maybe another week.”"

Though Miller would love to have his senior co-captain out on the floor, he has been given a little bit of a leash with the unexpected positive play of freshman guard Armaan Franklin. With His ability to play 20+ minutes a game early in the non-conference slate, it is allowing Indiana and Miller to bring Green along at a slower rate than they may have if Franklin wasn’t able to be as effective as he is so far.

With Rob Phinisee coming off of the bench for the second straight game, Miller has used the backcourt ball handling duties by committee, rather than all on Phinisee.

Look for Franklin to continue to play Green’s minutes until he returns to action, and even after, it’ll be interesting to see the backcourt rotation moving forward, as it is a bit deeper than thought in the offseason.