IU Junior Guard James Blackmon Jr. Cleared For Full Workload

One of Indiana's key returning players is now back at full strength.

Junior guard James Blackmon Jr. said he's now fully healthy after spending the last eight months rehabbing and recovering from January surgery on his right knee.

"I'm feeling great, I just recently got cleared to do everything," Blackmon said. "The coaches and our trainers are doing a great job of letting me know when to not over-do stuff. I'm feeling ready to go."

Last week, IU head coach Tom Crean said Blackmon was being eased back into full contact. It was a big step considering what Blackmon has been through.

The 6-foot-4, 200-pound Marion, Indiana, native tore the ACL in his right knee during practice Dec. 28 of last season, just before the start of Big Ten play. Before losing the rest of the season due to the injury, he was Indiana's second-leading scorer at 15.8 points per game.

It was his third major knee injury since 2012 and second during his time at Indiana. He also tore his ACL as a sophomore in high school and needed surgery to fix a torn meniscus in July 2015.

However, the progress he made rehabilitating his most recent injury allowed him to participate in the NBA pre-draft process.

New rules passed in January allowed student athletes to go through the process and still maintain their eligibility so long as they withdrew their name 10 days after the final day of the NBA Draft Combine. Blackmon said Crean suggested he go through the process.

Blackmon said he talked to four NBA teams, including the Minnesota Timberwolves and Indiana Pacers. The feedback he received from those teams centered around staying healthy and to keep working.

"I got good feedback from it," he said. "It was a plus."

Blackmon elected to return to school, and during the summer focused on being a vocal leader during workouts even though he still remained somewhat limited.

IU associate head coach Tim Buckley said he learned a lot from watching Blackmon and how Blackmon handled the situation.

"Physically, he did everything 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, and he was really excited for our team to do as well as we did, because he knows full well, and we do also, if James had played, we would've been better than we were."

Blackmon had to sit for three full months after the surgery and could only watch before being able to resume any kind of drill work. Now he's got a chip on his shoulder.

"This is what I do," he said. "When it's taken away from you for awhile, you get hungry."

That mentality is something Buckley believes will benefit the entire program.

"I think that's going to make us a better team this season," Buckley said. "Having watched him go through something that was very tough, and then see how he's come out."

Johnson still not completely clear

IU junior guard Robert Johnson said he hasn't been all the way cleared yet, but could be within the next couple of weeks.

"I'm getting really close," Johnson said. "I'm doing a lot more things every day, so I'm getting close to [returning]."

The 6-foot-3, 195-pound Richmond, Virginia, native had surgery on his left ankle in April after injuring it during Indiana's second-round NCAA Tournament win over Kentucky last season. It was a re-aggravation of the same ankle he injured in IU's win over Purdue on Feb. 20 which cost him four games last year.

"It's something I've never had to deal with before, but I've had a good support system with the coaches and the trainers to guide me through it," he said. "I feel like I've been doing a good job with it."