According to Dustin Dopirak of the Herald-Times, Austin Etherington's knee injury in last night's game was as serious as it appeared. Dopirak reports that Etherington fractured his left kneecap and is undergoing surgery today. IU did not confirm the report. If true, this is the third fractured kneecap for IU players in the past four seasons. Maurice Creek, of course, broke his kneecaps in successive seasons before missing last season with an Achilles tendon injury. While this isn't an unheard-of injury (Greg Oden and Antonio McDyess are notable victims), it is truly strange that this has happened to IU so often.

Of course, primarily this is a disappointment for Austin Etherington. To some extent Etherington has been a victim of IU's success. Had be been a member of any of Tom Crean's first three IU teams, he would have played quite a bit, but as it stands he has averaged 5.4 minutes in his 23 career appearances. Etherington was receiving some rare first half action, and this happened. Hopefully he will get well soon and will be ready to contribute in 2013-14.