Indiana basketball releases injury report ahead of matchup with Rutgers

The Indiana basketball program hits the hardwood for game number 16 of the 2023-24 season on Tuesday night and released its official injury report this afternoon.

The Big Ten began with its weekly availability report for football this season and announced that it would be conducting the same schedule with basketball. It was announced that programs will have to release their injury reports three hours before tip.

For Indiana, its injury report listed guard Xavier Johnson and forward Malik Reneau as questionable. This is the second straight game both have been questionable.

Johnson returned last week for Indiana’s 86-70 loss to Nebraska after missing the previous seven games with a foot injury. He played in both games last week.

He struggled in 15 minutes, going scoreless with three assists and four turnovers against Nebraska but turned around with 18 points on 4-of-9 from the field with three assists and zero turnovers in 34 minutes against Ohio State in a win.

“He was a little irritated at me (for Nebraska’s minutes), and I get that, because only played him 14 minutes. His 14 minutes were awful. I don’t care how you look at it, you get 14 minutes, you got to be positive, do some things to help us win the game. He didn’t do that,” Indiana basketball head coach Mike Woodson said. “Today I told him at would shootaround I was going to play him, let him loose. I thought he was huge tonight (Saturday).”

“It’s been challenging. A lot of people don’t know I had a crack in my foot that kept me away from basketball,” Johnson explained postgame. “The month has been challenging. I tried to stay in it with my teammates, conditioning up. Just tried to be a positive impact on the team even though I’m not playing.”

Johnson is now averaging 10.1 points, 2.3 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game while shooting 44.7 percent overall and 58.3 percent on 3s.

More: Scouting notes on Rutgers

For Malik Reneau, he has been on and off the availability report most of the season with minor injuries.

Reneau is averaging a team-high 16.5 points per game while shooting a 59.1 percent from the field and 47.8 percent from three. He is also averaging 5.8 rebounds (second on the team) and 2.8 assists (second).

“He’s grown, man,” Woodson said last week. “You’re starting to see some of that now, and a lot of it is because he’s mentally a little more mature than he was a year ago, and he’s trying to — he’s figured out how to stay on the floor somewhat this year versus sitting next to us over there on the bench, and in doing that, he’s doing a lot of good things for us on the basketball floor, which is kind of nice to see.”

His last four games are:

25 points on 10-of-14 shooting, 7 rebounds, 2 assists

34 points on 13-of-19 shooting, 11 rebounds, 4 assists

14 points on 4-of-9 shooting, 6 rebounds, 5 assists

23 points on 10-of-16 shooting, 7 rebounds, 1 assist

He’s averaging 24.8 points, 7.0 rebounds, 3.0 assists and is shooting 63.8 percent from the floor over that span.

“This summer, you know, he put a lot of work in. Never really left campus. Got his weight down. The baby fat that he had last year has trimmed down,” Woodson added. “So you just got to tip your hat to him. He put the work in this summer and it’s paying off.”

Indiana basketball takes on Rutgers at 7:00 pm ET on Peacock.

SEE ALSO: Indiana basketball reaping the benefits of rigorous offseason work for Malik Reneau: ‘Got to tip your hat to him’

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