Another Hoosier-state hooper loses his second straight season to knee injuries

Robbie Hummel's story is heart breaking.

One the second day of practice after he had worked all the way back from a torn acl that ended his 2009-2010 season in February, Hummel blew that same acl again. One and a half days of practice is all he was able to get out of eight months of strenuous rehab. For a kid as genuine and nice as Hummel his, you have to hurt for him.

He's not the only Hoosier state star that's lost a second consecutive season to his balky knees.

You may not have heard about it over the weekend, but on Saturday afternoon Indiana's Maurice Creek had his sophomore season ended by injury a year after his freshman campaign was cut short with a fractured left patella. He tried to stop abruptly after chasing down a long lead pass and suffered a stress fracture to his right patella. Creek will have surgery on Thursday, which could very well mean he is done for the year.


"You can't imagine how big a blow it is to him," said Indiana head coach Tom Crean. "It's a tough, tough situation and I hope everyone will think bout him and say a prayer for Mo and his family."

Making the situation worse is that Creek was clearly still struggling with the injury he suffered last season. He had a limp when he played and was noticeably less explosive and athletic than he was a year ago.

His numbers had take a big hit as well. He was averaging 16.4 ppg and 3.8 rpg in 25.4 mpg when he was injured as a freshman. As a sophomore, he was playing just 20.0 mpg and scoring only 8.3 ppg. If Creek had that much trouble overcoming a fractured patella in one knee, it only reasons to make sense that he will struggle with a fractured patella in the other knee.

(I'm not a doctor, so this is a completely uneducated statement, but take a look at Creek's legs in the picture above. They are twigs. I'm not trying to make light of the situation, I'm stating a fact. He has extremely skinny legs. Can someone with medical knowledge enlighten me -- can this make one more likely to suffer a knee injury?)

This is obviously a blow to this young man's career, one that looked so promising when he was a freshman.

But its also a blow to the rebuilding of the Indiana program. Creek was supposed to be a cornerstone for Tom Crean. Instead, Creek will once again miss the majority of Big Ten play.

Only time will tell how he will rebound from this injury.

I, for one, am hoping that he can get back to 100%.

I hate to see talent wasted, especially when it is the result of an injury. Its not Creek's fault that his knees have given out on him.

Get well soon, Mo. We're pulling for ya.