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FORT WAYNE — Justin Jordan was pumped for the 2012-13 IPFW basketball season to begin.
He had a great spring of playing. He was feeling strong in the weight room. The guys he was playing with – most of them teammates – even commented about his game; how it had improved since the end of last season.
And on top of that, the departure of last year’s starting point guard, Jonny Marlin, who quit the team with the hopes of becoming a walk-on player at Indiana University next year, meant an open position.
“I was having a good summer, up until the injury,” Jordan said.
He was at the downtown YMCA less than five weeks ago, playing a game of pickup ball, when Jordan said he “came down funny. When I came down, I got bumped, and all the pressure went to my leg, and my knee just went in and out.”
After other players carried him off the floor and doctors assessed the injury, Jordan’s fear was confirmed: He had torn his ACL and MCL and stretched nerves in his leg. The season he couldn’t wait to start won’t begin for him until maybe December.
Now, IPFW coach Tony Jasick must revert to plan B for a starting point guard. Or is it C?
A position that had been the model of consistency under Zach Plackemeier for three seasons, from his sophomore year until his senior year in 2010-11, has spun out of control like a revolving door.
Marlin, presumably the heir apparent, came in as a freshman last season to start 28 of 30 games.
He averaged 4.3 points and 3.5 assists. He was also on his way out.
Jordan, the 5-foot-9 former North Side standout who averaged nearly seven points and two assists, was mentioned by Jasick as a replacement.
With Jordan on the shelf, the point guard spot is up for grabs between sophomore Isaiah McCray, who averaged 13.5 minutes and 1.0 assists, and newly acquired junior college transfer Pierre Bland, who averaged 12.1 points and 4.2 assists with Florida State College in Jacksonville.
“Immediately you look at Ike McCray, who gave us some good minutes last year,” Jasick said.
Jordan is ready to help.
“Ike’s already come up to me and asks me what I think on how he’s doing,” Jordan said. “It’s a really hard adjustment (of assuming the full-time point guard position). You’ve got to get a feel for how coach wants to do things, and then you’ve got to learn your teammates – how they like to score, and where they like to get the ball. It’s going to be a big adjustment.”
