Junior guard James Blackmon Jr. stepped up for IU men’s basketball when he was needed most and now has his second Big Ten player of the week honor of the year to show for it.
The Big Ten announced Blackmon as co-Big Ten player of the week alongside Wisconsin sophomore forward Ethan Happ on Monday afternoon.
Blackmon scored 17 points, including a buzzer beating 3-pointer, against Penn State on Wednesday night to fend off a late Nittany Lion comeback after IU lost sophomore forward OG Anunoby to a knee injury moments before halftime.
The junior guard continued his hot shooting Saturday against Michigan State and tied his career high with 33 points on 11 of 16 shooting and six of 10 from beyond the arc in the 82-75 win.
Blackmon made his first six shots and first four 3-pointers against the Spartans on Saturday as he headed into halftime with 18 points. In the two wins, Blackmon combined to go 11 of 21 from 3-point range and tallied nine total rebounds.
The two-time Big Ten player of the week played big minutes in both games for the Hoosiers this week to make up for the loss of minutes from Anunoby and sophomore forward Juwan Morgan, who missed both games with a foot injury. Blackmon played 36 minutes against both Penn State and Michigan State after averaging 31 minutes per game through the first five conference contests.
Blackmon now ranks third in the Big Ten in scoring at 19.3 points per game through seven conference games. He is right behind Nebraska’s Tai Webster’s 19.9 points per game and Iowa’s Peter Jok’s 19.6 points per game.
IU is now 4-3 in conference play after last week and will hit the road for two games — Thursday at Michigan and Sunday at Northwestern — this week.
Zain Pyarali
