James Blackmon Jr. is hungry.
The IU junior guard had his sophomore season cut short after he sustained a knee injury during practice in the lead-up to IU’s Big Ten opener at Rutgers. He watched as his teammates won the Big Ten regular season title and reached the Sweet Sixteen without him.
Now he’s cleared to participate fully.
“I’m feeling great, you know, I recently just got cleared to do everything, and the coaches and our trainers are doing a great job of letting me know when to not overdo stuff,” Blackmon said. “So, I’m just feeling ready to go.”
It’s not the first time Blackmon’s had to sit out due to injury. He’s had multiple knee injuries dating back to his time in high school, and he knew how to take advantage of the time he had to see the game in a different way.
IU associate head coach Tim Buckley admired that about him.
“I learned a lot watching James, because I think that physically he did all the things you need to do to recover from that type of injury, but I don’t think you can discount his mental attitude and how he carried himself and how he kept persevering and never felt sorry for himself,” Buckley said. “I think it’s a great example for our team.”
Buckley said Blackmon was excited to see the Hoosiers do so well because he knows, as do the coaching staff and his teammates, how much better IU would have been with him on the floor.
Blackmon isn’t the only one coming back from an injury either.
Junior guard Robert Johnson and sophomore forward Juwan Morgan are both recovering from surgeries performed during the offseason, Johnson to repair his left ankle and Morgan his left shoulder.
Buckley said Morgan is progressing as expected, and Johnson is optimistic he’ll be back at full-go soon.
“I haven’t been all the way cleared yet, but it could be any time within the next couple weeks or so,” Johnson said. “I’m getting really close, I’ve been doing a lot more things every day so I’m getting close to it.”
Even with some key players returning from injury, and the necessary steps the coaching staff and trainers need to take to ensure they do so successfully, no one has really seemed injured to Buckley.
Especially the pair of sharp-shooting juniors in the backcourt.
“You know, Rob and James are just two guys that — you have to back them off, you don’t have to push them out onto the court to get them to go back out there,” Buckley said. “You’ve got to back them off, which is always refreshing and rewarding.”
Yogi Ferrell’s departure will necessitate that Johnson and Blackmon become bigger leaders in the locker room this season, but the burden won’t be totally theirs.
Senior forward Collin Hartman is back, as are sophomores Thomas Bryant and OG Anunoby.
Buckley said IU Coach Tom Crean wants everyone to lead, and as the Hoosiers look to come together as a team to do that, so too will they approach producing on the court.
“Obviously, we’ll be different,” Buckley said, “At the same time, you don’t make up for a guy of that caliber with one guy, you make up for it with your team.”
