UPDATE: Friday morning
IU confirmed what we all thought. A MRI revealed Jones tore the ACL in his right knee and his career at Indiana is now complete. Sometimes, life isn’t fair.
Indiana easily defeated Penn State 75-58 Thursday for their first Big Ten Tournament win since 2006, but it came at a cost.
With 5:45 remaining in the first half, senior guard Verdell Jones went down, immediately clutching his right knee.
Jones was trying to come to a stop at the free throw line and pass the ball. His right leg gave out and he screamed in pain.
We are still awaiting official word from Indiana but by Coach Crean and the player’s reaction postgame, it’s not good.
“There’s no question that we missed him,” Crean said after the game. “I could feel it, not just the emotional part of it during the game, but I could feel it when he’s not in there. But we go through a lot together. These guys, we go through an awful lot together. And Verdell Jones stands a lot for what’s right here.”
“And when you start to think about all the things those seniors have had to endure and go through and now to be at this point, that’s tough. That’s a tough blow. But the initial of just watching him in pain, that’s hard. It’s like there’s no worse feeling than when your own children are sick or hurt, and it’s really a lot like that when you coach.”
As one of five seniors that was with this program from ground zero, he has given so much to this program. He was there when walk-on Daniel Moore started games, when a couple baseball players were on the team and when a manager even got in.
He was there when they lost to Lipscomb, when tickets had to be discounted, and when every other team took shots at IU while they were down.
And so now when IU is making a run in the conference tournament and next week will play in their first conference game, he probably won’t be able to participate. And that’s a shame.
An emotional Coach Crean spoke with BTN immediately following the Hoosiers win. Watch below:
Verdell Joness III has 1,347 career points, good for 23rd all-time at Indiana, ten points behind Uwe Blab.
[Photo by Brian Spurlock / US Presswire via USA Today]