It’s been a very rough season for Michigan State basketball, and today it only got worse.
Injury was added to insult as redshirt senior guard Eron Harris went down midway through the second half of another blowout road loss. MSU fell 80-63 at #16 Purdue in a game that wasn’t as ugly as the rout at Michigan, but it wasn’t that much prettier either.
Take a look at the Harris play, which resulted in what Michigan State basketball personnel officially called a “right knee injury,” before the game had concluded.
Bad day gets worse for Michigan State. pic.twitter.com/Gl8yU0uIL7
— Big Ten Geek (@bigtengeek) February 18, 2017
Some even compared the injury to the infamously gruesome Kevin Ware incident during the NCAA Tournament a couple years ago.
A quiet hush fell over what had been a loud, rocking Mackey Arena. The venue went silent as 14,000+, old gold & black and green & white alike, focused their thoughts and attention on the fallen West Virginia transfer and local area product.
Harris is an Indianapolis native and Lawrence North graduate, so his injury situation was in the hearts of many in attendance on John Wooden Drive.
https://twitter.com/KYHighFootball/status/833086105641693184
Hard to describe the feeling of 13k people dreading together. Hope it's not as severe as it seems, a quick and full recovery.
— Casey Bartley (@CBartleyRivals) February 18, 2017
Scary moment in Mackey. They're bringing out a stretcher for Michigan State's Eron Harris. MSU players around him in tears.
— Mike DeFabo (@MikeDeFabo) February 18, 2017
Michigan State basketball coach Tom Izzo gave an update in his postgame press conference, saying the injury was a “badly sprained right knee,” and that they wouldn’t know any further details until after the MRI was completed. That could come either tomorrow night or Monday morning.
Harris, who Izzo said was walking on crutches after the game, is expected to be out for awhile, but there is no timetable as of now.
Although the Michigan State basketball staff knows the injury is quite severe, they maintain optimism that it won’t be too disastrous.
“They have it listed as a badly sprained knee. What that means, I don’t know. It doesn’t look like anything great,” Izzo said.
“Saddest part for Eron (Harris), No. 1 he’s a senior. Also he’s the one who spends the most time in the gym, watches the most film.”
Falling to 16-11, 8-6 in the B1G, this has not been the kind of Michigan State basketball season that anyone around the program had hoped for back in November. With Harris now going down for an extended period of time, it’s only going to get tougher.
Hopefully, his college career is not over. Here’s to wishing he gets to lace ’em up at least one more time.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times and Bold, contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication, CGTN America, WGN CLTV News and KOZN.
Follow him on Twitter, Instagram, Sound Cloud and YouTube