Crean: Oladipo should be ready
Indiana coach Tom Crean had some positive things to say this morning
about National Player of the Year candidate Victor Oladipo and his
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status with his ankle in anticipation of tomorrow night's Big Ten first
place showdown at Michigan State.
"We practiced some yesterday and he went throught that and he's doing a
great job with rehabilitating it and spending a lot of time with Tim
Garl and I think it is getting better," said Crean during the Big Ten
mens's basketball coaches Monday teleconference with the media.
The Hoosiers and Spartans are currently tied at the top of Big Ten with
11-2 records, a full two games ahead of third place. The two meet at 7
p.m. tomorrow night in an ESPN telecast.
The coach is confident he'll have his star for the game.
"I don't anticipate that he won't be ready to go tomorrow night," said
Crean.
The junior rolled his left ankle late in the first half against Purdue
on Saturday afternoon. He walked off on his own power but did not
return to the game.
"He sprained his ankle, which you saw there," said Crean after
Saturday's win over Purdue. "He wanted to go back in but we just
weren't going to do that at that point. I don't think anybody felt
medically that it was the best thing to do at that point."
Oladipo is averaging 13.8 points and 5.8 rebounds per game. His 63.9
percent shooting from the floor leads the league and his 69.2 effective
field goal percentage is third in the country. He also leads the
conference in steals and is on pace to break the Indiana season record
in steals held by Isiah Thomas.
According to his coach, Oladipo even spent extra time on the court on
Sunday.
"Yesterday---nothing changes, he's getting extra shots, he's working on
his ball handling, it's just what he does," said Crean. "He would probably have to be forced to not come to practice to not have a day where he wasn't in the gym working. Nothing every distracts him, nothing ever gets him out of his commitment."