BLOOMINGTON — Indiana basketball point guard Xavier Johnson will play on Tuesday night against Wisconsin.
According to IU’s pre-game radio broadcast, Johnson will be available off the bench. He’s missed the team’s last six games after suffering an elbow injury in a 74-68 win over Iowa on Jan. 30, 2024. Johnson was previously sidelined for seven games with a foot injury.
He’s averaging 8.3 points and 2.1 assists per game.
Indiana basketball coach Mike Woodson mentioned the possibility of Johnson returning to the lineup before season’s end during a virtual press conference on Monday.
“He did some things yesterday on the floor, not a lot of contact,” Woodson said. “…I know he wants to play in the worst way. Time is kind of running out on him. I feel for him in that regard, but I’m just going to follow his lead. I don’t like playing players when they don’t practice and not have some kind of contact.
Woodson also reiterated the point he’s frequently made in recent weeks about how much his young team misses Johnson’s presence on the court.
“From a basketball standpoint it’s hard to gauge our season based only the fact we haven’t had Xavier,” Woodson said. “I’m not putting it all on that, but Xavier was a big piece to the puzzle in terms of leadership and being able to run our team as a senior point guard.”
“We put so much pressure on Gabe Cupps that that’s not fair to him even though he’s played well in spurts for us. It’s just for me, it’s been tough in that regard because we haven’t had Xavier. We just got to continue to work.”
Cupps, a true freshman, remained in the starting lineup on Tuesday night along with the same starting five IU has relied on for much of the season with Trey Galloway, Mackenzie Mgbako, Malik Reneau and Kel’el Ware.
Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Indiana basketball’s Xavier Johnson returning to lineup vs. Wisconsin
