Indiana continues to have injury issues despite 'getting closer' to full health

As Indiana basketball gears up for the beginning of the season, injuries remain a key talking point around this years roster.

Indiana — who needed to replace every member of its roster from last season — brought in 13 new players this offseason, but not all 13 have been on the floor at the same time due to a flurry of injury issues.

As Indiana looks ahead to two exhibition games this month and its season opener less than four weeks away, the roster is still battling the injury bug, but ‘getting closer’ to getting some of its rotation back on the floor.

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“We’re getting closer to getting some guys back,” head coach Darian DeVries said at Big Ten Media Day. “We had our scrimmage the other night and Jasai (Miles) went down with a cramp and we had nine guys so we couldn’t even finish the scrimmage out. We are getting closer to getting a guy or two back and certainly want to be heading in that direction.”

Indiana has see guards Nick Dorn, Aleksa Ristic, Jasai Miles, Jason Drake, and forward Josh Harris all miss time this summer and fall. All outside of Miles have been dealing with foot/ankle injuries, while Miles had a shoulder injury last month in addition to the cramps last week.

Among the players out, Dorn is the lone player who hasn’t seen any live 5-on-5, full contact action since arriving on campus in the summer. He had to have another foot procedure to clean up a foot injury he suffered last year, cutting his season at Elon short.

His absence is notable as he was brought in to be a significant part of the rotation if not a potential starter. He averaged 15.2 points per game while shooting 35.1 percent on 3.0 made 3s a game last season at Elon. He scored 20+ points six times and made at least two 3s in 21 of 25 games he appeared in last season. 

Dorn has been progressing and been participating in drills throughout the last few weeks of workouts.

“Nick is getting really close,” DeVries said. “We’re hoping to get him in more full practice type stuff this week but will take a little while since he’s been out a long time, so to get him back into game shape and into drills in full speed.”

While Dorn is progressing and Miles’ cramping isn’t a long term issue, the attention turns to the other trio that have all been dealing with different injuries. Ristic and Harris both played with Indiana in Puerto Rico in August, but were wearing boots on their foot last week during IU’s open scrimmage. Drake, on the other hand, did warm up in segments before the scrimmage but didn’t play. He has missed most of the summer and did not travel with the team to Puerto Rico.

“There will be two or three (playsers) that won’t be available at the start of the season,” DeVries said. “Most will be getting back closer to, not right at the start, but close to December timeline.”

Indiana’s lack of bodies has impacted practice plans at times, dating back to the first day of summer workouts in June.

“We’ve been a little more careful with how much up and down we do every day. Little more drill work, so you’re doing more 3-on-3 stuff. We don’t typically practice an overly long time — in terms of we aren’t out there for three hours. We’re normally that 90 minute mark. So we haven’t had to adjust how long we’re out there jus tmaybe how much live stuff we’re doing in 5-on-5 segments.”

Indiana begins the regular season on November 5th against Alabama A&M.

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