Vedran Vukusic came to practice Thursday. On crutches.
The sophomore will, at the least, miss Saturday’s game at Indiana after hyper-extending his left knee in Wednesday night’s 70-60 victory over Illinois, Northwestern coach Bill Carmody said.
Vukusic, who was injured with two minutes left in the first half against the Fighting Illini, underwent an MRI on Thursday morning. Since it showed no significant damage, Vukusic could be back on the court as early as next Wednesday when the Wildcats (7-7, 2-1 Big Ten) meet Michigan State in Evanston, Carmody said.
Still, the coach said it’s more likely Vukusic will sit out two games, returning to the lineup Jan. 28 when NU travels to Penn State. Even then, Carmody said Vukusic will be wearing a knee brace.
The Hoosiers (7-6, 1-1) earned their first Big Ten win Sunday, 59-57, over Michigan. While Carmody said he’s anxious about facing Indiana without his second-leading scorer, he doesn’t plan to dwell on the negative in his pre-game speech.
“You can’t worry about it,” Carmody said. “It is what it is.”
Junior Davor Duvancic, who scored a career-high 22 points Wednesday, will likely receive the bulk of Vukusic’s playing time. Duvancic was one of the Cats’ more vocal players in the huddle Wednesday, repeatedly telling Carmody to “call my play.”
Duvancic exploited a defensive mismatch, taking advantage of his quickness against Nick Smith, Illinois’ 7-foot-2 center. When Smith guarded Duvancic near the 3-point line, the NU forward blew by his man, taking the ball to the basket.
Carmody said he’s pleased with Duvancic’s recent improvement. But the coach knows he has to play Duvancic no matter what.
“Even a dumb coach like me knows that,” Carmody said. “You have to have another guy out there. Who (else) do we have?”
Although the Cats and Hoosiers split the season series last season, with both teams winning at home, NU has dropped nine of its last 10 games to Indiana. In 2003, the Cats earned their most lopsided Big Ten win against the Hoosiers, defeating them 74-61.
While Carmody said he will take all the victories he can get, he wonders why every victory has to be such a big deal.
“Every time we win a game a record is set,” he said. “There hasn’t been a great tradition of winning here. Do we have to hear that every time?”
In the last two games, the Cats’ Princeton offense has befuddled more talented opponents, allowing NU to take open 3-point shots and cut for backdoor layups. And the defense — mostly a 1-3-1 zone — kept Iowa and Illinois from finding a shooting touch.
Carmody, however, isn’t keen on taking credit for his team’s recent turnaround. Even he doesn’t know what happened to his players following NU’s embarrassing 78-54 loss to Michigan on Jan. 7.
“I don’t know what turned it around, from Michigan to Iowa,” he said. “But it happened.”
