Verdell Jones III out for year
http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/7665281/indiana-h…
Torn ACL. probably makes Wisconsin the favorite today.
It's sad to hear because Indiana was a threat to carry the Big Ten flag deep in the tourney and possibly upset some big teams. Hopefully they can overcome it (unless they play us, of course).
because he is missing out on his one chance to play in the big dance.
Really feel for the kid and Indiana. He played a big role in bringing them back to relevance in the Big Ten.
That will hurt their seeding too- that stinks for them. It's good for the Big Ten when Indiana is a good (if not great) program- so it has been good seeing them get back to that level- too bad this could mean a quick tournament for them.
This is precisely why I am not a big fan of the almost totally useless, IMO, BIG Tournament. Other than the fact they make money, what is the value of these conference tournaments?
Michigan has very little to gain over the next 3 days and much to lose. If I were in M's position, winning the tournament would be secondary to staying healthy and getting minutes for lesser used reserves.
I disagree. More basketball is better. It's not useless, it gives these guys more opportunity to play on a big stage on national TV. And it helps sort out who's good and who's not.
In your argument, wouldn't you prefer an 11 game Big Ten schedule and maybe 5 OOC games?
We just played an 18 game conference schedule to determine who is league champs. Now take 3 days off and play a tournament to decide the same thing. When I see a kid get hurt in a shameless money grab, it pisses me off.
Do you honestly need this worthless tournament to know who's good and who's not?
Then shouldn't we just shorten the season since we could probably figure out who's good in 20 games instead of 30? Should we get rid of conference championship football games and bowl games outside of the BCS Champ game too, since those are all meaningless in your definition?
Don't you think that players want to play and fans want to watch and that's enough of a reason? Also, we should lower the number of teams in the tourney to 16 since the others won't win anyway and it's just a money grab.
Nice strawman, you showed me.
My point is, how many games do you need to tell who's good and who's not? And why does having more games need to serve that purpose? You realize people like to watch sports, right? And players like to play them. And since guys very rarely have serious injuries in basketball, playing 1-4 extra games has very little risk, and pretty high reward.
Brandon Dawson tore his ACL in the last game of the season. Robbie Hummel did it before the season even started. Injuries happen, you can't truncate the season just because someone else might get hurt.
Michigan punched their ticket to the Big Dance in this tournament twice in the last three years. Sure, money is a factor here but the tournament has a major purpose in the landscape of college basketball. It's one last chance to prove you're worthy.
I also disagree. The tournament gives a lot of bubble teams the opportunity to get into the dance. There's just as much chance of getting injured in the last few games of the regular season as there is in the conference tourney. You could say the same thing about the risk of getting injured for any game besides the championship, but you can't play the whole season afraid of getting injured. Shit happens. Just view it as a continuation of the season since it's already built into the schedule.
I think the 2010-2011 UConn men's basketball team disagrees with your opinion on conference tourneys...
Momentum is a hell of a drug...
I guarantee you every player/coach disagrees. It's a wonderful prelude to march madness with some teams desparately needing to win it to make the big dance and teams getting a chance to compete for a ring.
I've talked to players who've said winning the conference tournament means more to them than winning the regular season.
It's the same reason players would prefer to win the NCAA tournament rather than finish the regular reason as the national #1 seed. The playoff culture in basketball is just so much more bigger then in football, for obvious reasons.
Man, this who ACL thing is really making Wisconsin's BTT road a lot easier.
This also hurts the Big Ten in the tourney a lot.
This is just terrible. I too got a little emotional when Tom Crean spoke about him after the game. VJ3 was there in the toughest of times in the rebuilding proccess. Incredibly sad news...
I always appreciate when you see a coach truly care and show emotion for his players. I have a lot of respect for what Crean has done for their program, but this goes to show more of the character of the man.
It's one of the true tragedies in sport. It's like watching an olympic sprinter false start out of his only chance at the 100m finals. Verdell was a guy who was much-maligned on three teams that would have struggled to finish in the top half of the MAC. He gets his one shot at the dance after four years of grueling work with little fan support and then this happens.
I do fear some of the doom predictions for the Hoosiers are overblown though. Verdell was a steady hand but this team will go as far as Watford/Oladipo/Sheehey take them. You know what you're getting from everyone else. If those three guys are on Indiana can beat anybody as they've proven. If they're not, they won't see the Sweet 16. Plus, Freshman Remy Abell had a huge game against Purdue in Verdell's injury absence earlier in the year. He's not a fair swap, but he can put in 10 effective minutes if need.
Bad news. You just knew it was bad by his initial, instinctive reaction. I feel for him and all that he's endured as an IU player over the past few years.
Random question: I assume he'll get this surgically repaired in the next few weeks and will start rehab. Since he's a senior and may not be enrolled as a student after this semester, will he still be able to use IU's facilities/trainers, etc. to rehab into next summer and fall (if he decides to stay in Bloomington)? Could he take a medical redshirt his 5th year and use it for rehab? In other words, does his schollie expire with no options for him to stay on to rehab?
So sad for him and Indiana. Also as much as I make fun of Tom Crean for being a total weirdo, his reaction during the post-game interview was really touching.
I'll always remember Jones as the guy who dribbled the ball up and had the vision to make the pass to Watford who was behind him on the buzzer beater to beat Kentucky. That was the epitome of sound execution. Such an important and underrated play.
Feel bad seeing him with crutches sitting on the bench.