Injuries have been a theme in Bloomington since Darian DeVries’ first Indiana team took the floor in the summer.
While some players like Tucker DeVries and Conor Enright have fully recovered from injuries suffered last season, a batch of new setbacks have emerged going back to June.
The good news for Indiana appears to be that the players among the injured most likely to have big roles this season are the closest to returning.
North Florida transfer wing Jasai Miles missed practice last week with an illness, and then had to be carried off the court on Friday at IU’s intrasquad scrimmage. DeVries said on Thursday at Big Ten media day Miles merely suffered a cramp, and he’s good to go.
Elon transfer wing Nick Dorn has been recovering from foot surgery. He’s been out of action for several months. But at the Friday scrimmage he looked during warmups like he could play, but just wasn’t quite ready.
Dorn might be ready to go for one of Indiana’s exhibition games on Oct. 17 vs. Marian or Oct. 26 vs. Baylor.
“Nick is getting really close,” DeVries said. “We’re hoping to get him into some more full practice type stuff this upcoming week, but it’s still going to take a little while — he’s been out a long time — to get him back into game shape, get him into the drills and things at full speed.”
Miles and Dorn both figure to be in Indiana’s rotation.
Meanwhile, three others players might have longer timeframes for making a return.
Freshman guard Aleksa Ristic and sophomore forward Josh Harris could both be seen last week on multiple occasions wearing boots. And junior guard Jason Drake has been out of action since before the team’s summer trip to Puerto Rico.
“There’ll be two or three that probably won’t be available right at the beginning of the season,” DeVries said, likely referring to Ristic, Harris and Drake.
Even in the case of those three, Indiana does not appear to be dealing with anything long term.
“I think most of the guys will be getting back closer to — maybe not right at the start, but close to the start by December type timeline,” DeVries said.
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