The curse continues with Ivanauskas
It seems like an annual rite of fall: Northwestern begins basketball practice and shortly afterward announces that a player will miss the season.
So the Wildcats' announcement on Monday that freshman forward Rapolas Ivanauskas would sit out the 2016-17 season with a shoulder injury should hardly come as a surprise. It’s happened so many times in recent years that NU’s media relations department probably has a template press release for just such an occasion; all they have to do is replace the player’s name and send it out.
Ivanauskas, a promising 6-foot-9, four-star forward, will undergo shoulder surgery for an undisclosed injury. He is the fourth NU player to have a season wiped out by shoulder surgery in the last five years.
"We're disappointed for Rapolas as he's worked extremely hard this summer alongside his teammates," said Northwestern head men's basketball coach Chris Collins. "I know that he will attack his rehab with the same attitude and energy that he has on the court. We expect a full recovery in 4-6 months, and look forward to a very bright future with the Wildcats."
Ivanauskas played three years at Barrington (Ill.) before transferring to Wolfeboro (N.H.) Brewster Academy for his senior season. Rivals ranked Ivanauskas as the No. 97 player in the country for the Class of 2016.
He was part of a three-member freshman class that may be the highest-rated group in Northwestern history, with Barret Benson, a four-star center ranked No. 118 overall, and three-star point guard Isiah Brown, the Washington state Gatorade Player of the Year.
Northwestern’s front court will be a little thinner without Ivanauskas, and they will miss his versatility as a stretch-4 who can face the basket and shoot from the outside. However, they are in better shape to absorb the loss of a forward than they have been in recent years, as the Wildcats still have five players 6-foot-7 or above: Benson (6-10); Derek Pardon, Aaron Falzon and Gavin Skelly (6-8); and Law and Nathan Taphorn (6-7).
Northwestern has had more than its fair share of players missing entire seasons in recent years, and shoulder injuries have been the culprit.
Just last season, Law had what would have been his sophomore season wiped out when he underwent shoulder surgery for a torn labrum. In 2012-13, star forward Drew Crawford injured his shoulder in December and was shut down for the remainder of the season (and that came shortly after guard JerShon Cobb was suspended for the season for a violation of team rules). Guard Tre Demps suffered a similar fate when shoulder surgery ended his season just four games into the 2011-12 campaign.
And those are just the shoulders. Consider other reasons and Northwestern’s string of bad luck gets longer. In 2012-13, Sanjay Lumpkin caught mono and played in just four games before shutting down for the year. In 2010-11, Kevin Coble decided to skip his senior year after a foot injury. In 2009-10, Jeff Ryan suffered a season-ending knee injury in the first half of the season opener. And in 2007-08, Kevin Coble announced that he would miss the year to spend time with his mother as she battled breast cancer.
The Chicago Cubs are trying to end their famed Billy Goat curse by reaching the World Series this year. Maybe Northwestern can soon end their two curses – the season-ending injury bug and, the really big one, their NCAA tournament drought.