Column: Watford injury another setback

As if this team hasn’t been punished enough.

If probation and roster reconstruction and six-win seasons and fractured kneecaps and ineligibility rulings haven’t done justice to the program in the last three years, than it can add one more to the list: a broken bone in Christian Watford’s left hand.

While that injury might not be the worst of all the things IU has been dragged through, the fact that it’s another thing at absolutely the wrong time for the team is what makes it back-breaking.

Let’s put this injury in perspective. Only one player (sophomore guard Jordan Hulls) remains healthy from the team’s original starting lineup this season. Guy-Marc Michel was ruled ineligible and guards Verdell Jones and Maurice Creek have been sidelined.

Of the team’s 73.9 points per game average, Watford, Jones and Creek have contributed 51 percent of that scoring.

Plus, Watford’s injury comes at a time this season when optimism for the program might have been at its highest.

Four of the last five games have been very promising for the Hoosiers — two wins and two close road losses against ranked opponents.

It’s like IU basketball is reliving that Greek myth where Sisyphus eternally rolls the boulder up the hill only to see it roll back down the hill when it almost reaches the top.
That eternal punishment feels very real for IU and its fans, as they’ve been stuck it in for a few years now. Whatever digging out has been done always seems to be followed with setbacks.

And didn’t it feel that boulder was getting close to the top, at least for IU standards, this season? Ironically, IU was finally getting some national attention for its win/student court storm against Illinois. Prominently, ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption co-hosts Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon discussed whether IU had finally turned the corner with the win.

While their answers aren’t relevant, the fact that they were asking it means it was probably close.

And then it came crashing down again. Watford broke his hand against Michigan State, and that boulder slid back down the hill.

To build this team without extra complications is difficult. To do it with four-fifths of the season’s original starting lineup on the sideline is near impossible.

IU coach Tom Crean said it will be tough to play without Watford but said the team has to push forward.

“You take your leading scorer and your leading rebounder, and a guy that can make shots and play the way he can, it’s going to effect your team,” Crean said. “But there’s no choice tomorrow night. At 6:30 tomorrow night, we have to be ready to go.”

This team will begin to recover eventually. Jones will probably be back soon, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Watford back on the court before the season’s out. In the long-term, recruits are coming to town, and whatever the extra punishment there seems to be will end.

It is what it is — just another setback to success for the Hoosiers.