For Indiana's Armaan Franklin, Extra Time to Heal Might Be Good Thing
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Since the first peach basket was nailed up, basketball players always have enjoyed playing games much more than practice. And it's not even close.
But sometimes, time off is a good thing. Not always, but sometimes. Indiana was supposed to play on Sunday up in East Lansing, but Michigan State had to postpone the game because of COVID-19 issues inside its program. So that gives Indiana's Armaan Franklin a few more days to get his ailing ankle closer to 100 percent.
The Hoosiers don't play until Thursday, when they take on No. 5-ranked Iowa in Iowa City. More treatment will help Franklin, but so will more time just to get up some shots and feel good about his perimeter game again.
Indiana needs that, and needs it bad, because Franklin, the sophomore guard from Indianapolis, is its second-best player. He's their best defender, and their best perimeter threat. If the Hoosiers are going to make any kind of noise during the second half of the season, they need Franklin at his best.
Franklin was injured early in the Maryland game on Jan. 4 and didn't return. Then he missed the two road games at Wisconsin and Nebraska as well. He was back Thursday night for Indiana's 81-69 loss to Purdue, but he wasn't 100 percent, and it showed. He played well, and played hard, scoring 14 points mostly on drives into the lane, but he was rusty from deep, missing all five of his three-point attempts.
It was a long 10 days away from the game for Franklin.
"It's been a long week, a lot of treatment three times a day,'' Franklin said. "Lots of icing, stretching, trying to get my range of motion back. I practiced on Tuesday and didn't feel all that great. I was stiff because I hadn't done anything in about a week.
"Wednesday it felt pretty good and (Thursday) during shoot-around and warmups, I felt good and thought I could help the team out. It felt pretty good (during the game).''
Franklin didn't start but he wound up playing 33 minutes in the loss, the Hoosiers' eighth straight to their hated in-state rivals to the north. Franklin had 14 points, seven defensive rebounds and three steals, and gave max effort. All that was lacking was touch from the outside, where he missed all five three-point attempts. Franklin is Indiana's leader in made threes this season, even with missing all that time.
"I didn't know what he'd be able to do, to be honest with you,'' Indiana coach Archie Miller said. "He practiced a little bit and shot around, and was cleared to go. I asked him how he felt before the game, and he said he felt good.
"He was aggressive and I thought he played well. He helped us, for sure, and he had seven defensive rebounds. He didn't shoot it particularly well from the outside, but he made some things happen. It was good to have him back.''
Franklin desperately wanted to play against Purdue. He's an Indianapolis kid, so he knows the importance of the rivalry. It's like nails on a chalkboard to Indiana's players when the five-year-old losing streak comes up. Purdue has now beaten Indiana eight times in a row dating back to Feb. 20, 2016.
"It's not a fun thing losing to a team that many times in a row. It gets kind of old,'' Franklin said. "We wanted to be the team to change the culture about it, rewrite the story. We wanted to do that, but unfortunately we didn't make enough plays, didn't hit enough shots. But we'll see them again, so we'll try to pick it up the next time.''
Indiana's defense just wasn't there, which bothered a defensive stopper like Franklin. Purdue made 11-of-17 three-pointers throughout the game.
"I'm pretty sure at the end of the day, we just didn't get enough stops. I think we let them get too comfortable,'' Franklin said. "They saw a few three-point shots go in and they're a good three-point shooting team.
"When a teams sees them go in, they get confident, and they got their big guys going too. Offensive rebounds, they got us on the glass. They hit a lot of shots down the stretch to extend the lead. It was a mixture of those things. Going forward, we've just got to come out and play harder the first eight minutes of the game and set the tone.''
Indiana had played three games in seven days, so being able to catch their breath is a good thing. Franklin will feel much better by Thursday, especially if he can have a few days to get up a bunch of shots.
Junior guard Rob Phinisee sprained his knee in the Nebraska game, too, and he wasn't at his best against Purdue either. Both could use a few days to feel better.
"Hopefully with the game not being Sunday, we can take some time here and get a little more recovery,'' Miller said. ''I don't know, this is the first time all season long where we've been in this situation where we're going to have some type of disruption in the schedule. This will be the first time all season where we'll have a week between games. Every team is going through it. There's been very few times off, with testing and practices and games, so this will help.''
Indiana has plenty to work on, but the rest will help, too. No one knows for sure how COVID is going to affect the schedule the rest of the way, so you have to make the most of it when you can.
"It comes at a time where I look at it and No. 1, we've got a couple guys banged up and a couple of guys playing a lot of minutes, so let's make sure that we're smart with them,'' Miller said. "The three-point line is something that we've struggled to guard, and it's been that way for us in January. We're letting teams be too comfortable, and we need to work on that. We've got a lot to work on.
"At the end of the day In this league, one loss feels monumental. One win feels great, but there's a lot more coming. At the end of the day, we have to be better and we have to be ready. We're going to go back to work. We've got a lot of things to improve on. There's some things we need to figure out defensively. Our next opponent is Iowa now, I guess, and we'll need to be better there.''
Related stories on Indiana basketball
- TOM BREW COLUMN: This long eight-game losing streak to Purdue is downright embarrassing for Archie Miller and Indiana. CLICK HERE
- PURDUE BEATS INDIANA, 81-69: Purdue shoots lights out from three-point range, making 11 of 17 shots from long range on Thursday night to beat Indiana for the eighth straight time. CLICK HERE
- IU-MICHIGAN STATE GAME POSTPONED: Because of COVID-19 issues inside the Michigan State program, Sunday's game in East Lansing between the Hoosiers and Spartans has been postponed. CLICK HERE
- INDIANA SCHEDULE 2020-21 SEASON: Here is Indiana's complete basketball schedule for the 2020-21 season, including links to all the game stories and Tom Brew columns so far. CLICK HERE
