When he’s not at the IU Health Bloomington Hospital, IU Coach Tom Crean receives regular updates on the progress of sophomore forward Devin Davis’ recovery throughout his day.
To Crean, progress is defined as the little things.
Progress is sitting up in a chair on Tuesday morning. It’s being able to walk.
Progress is ?Davis beating sophomore teammate Stanford Robinson in UNO — twice.
Four days after suffering a serious head injury when he walked onto 17th Street and was struck by a vehicle being driven by freshman teammate Emmitt Holt, Davis’ recovery is a process of little steps.
To Crean, those small accomplishments are ?milestones.
“I’ve been involved in some head injuries with players before, nothing to this extent, but you really do learn that with those little steps you can’t get frustrated and you can’t have high expectations,” Crean said. “The life lesson is you take nothing for granted. But the bottom line is that he is making progress, and we’re going to hope that continues.”
Crean said he was with Davis in the hospital Tuesday evening and helped him sit up so he could eat dinner.
He said there is no long-term prognosis for Davis and that updates on his health will be made public through IU team doctor Larry Rink.
“The reality is setting in, obviously, that this is a long road with his injury,” Crean said. “People have been so great, but it’s starting to really focus in that this is going to be a long process.”
Crean said he wishes he could have done things differently on Halloween night when Davis was injured.
NCAA rules say coaches can have practice until midnight and begin as early as 5 a.m the next day.
In hindsight, Crean said he would have taken full advantage of those rules and had practice.
“You know what I wish I would have done? I wish I would have scheduled practice for later that night,” Crean said. “If I could go back and do it over, we would have practiced until 11:30 or midnight, showered up, gotten something to eat, taken them back to my house, got up the next morning shortly after 5 and practiced again.”
Crean said he plans to follow that strategy on weekends such as Halloween and Little 500 in the future. But he added that he can’t do that every night.
As a coach, he can only do so much. The players share responsibility.
Davis’ teammates have regularly visited him in the hospital during his recovery.
IU junior guard Nick Zeisloft agreed that Davis’ injury was a wakeup call to the rest of the team.
He said when he saw Davis, the severity of the situation set in.
Like Crean, Zeisloft is pleased with the small progress Davis has made.
“I’m just glad right now that he’s progressing, and we’re continuing to pray for him as I’m sure Indiana supporters are as well,” Zeisloft said.
