'Job's Not Finished': Xavier Johnson Returns From Injury For One Last Push

Xavier Johnson is not ready to call it quits on his college basketball career.

The sixth-year point guard returned to action Tuesday after missing six games with an elbow injury, a stretch in which Indiana went 1-5. The Hoosiers snapped their four-game losing streak by defeating Wisconsin 74-70, and Johnson finished with five points on 2-for-3 shooting with one rebound, one assist and five turnovers in 15 minutes off the bench.

Indiana has three regular season games remaining — at Maryland, at Minnesota and senior day against Michigan State — plus the Big Ten Tournament, which it'll need to win to keep their season alive.

It would have been easy for Indiana to give up on its season with long-term goals off the table, but Johnson said the Hoosiers' placement in the league is fueling them to keep playing hard down the stretch.

"The job's not finished," Johnson said. "We've got to get polished for the Big Ten Tournament because that's probably going to be our last shot at making the NCAAs."

After suffering the elbow injury on Jan. 30, Johnson said doctors told him he'd be out four-to-six weeks. Indiana's game against Wisconsin was exactly four weeks after the Iowa game, and Johnson is admittedly still working his way back to full strength.

"I'm still actually healing, I'm in the process," Johnson said. "There's not much I can really do. I have to let my bone – well not my bone, but one of my ligaments heal on its own, and that's all I can really do. It's certain movements I can't really do. As you see with my left hand, I can't really bring the ball back up as much and I dribble most of my dribbles with my left hand, so it's kind of been hard but it's something that I want to push through because I want to finish my college career out the right way."

Woodson tabbed Johnson as a team captain before the season, hoping he could rekindle the success he had as one of the top point guards in the Big Ten in 2021-22. Instead, he's missed 13 of Indiana's 28 games this season, which thrusted freshman Gabe Cupps into a starting role. 

Indiana's backcourt depth took a shot even before Johnson's injury, with freshman Jakai Newton being out indefinitely with a knee injury. That's left Cupps, Trey Galloway, CJ Gunn and Anthony Leal to carry the load.  Johnson said this young Indiana team is still learning how to win, a big challenge against some of the veteran opponents atop the Big Ten standings. 

Among other reasons, Indiana coach Mike Woodson has pointed to Johnson's injury as one of the key factors in the Hoosiers' disappointing season, and he agrees. 

"I would definitely say it would have to do with injuries," Johnson said. "I was a big key to this team to be successful, and I've been out for about two months of this season. That wasn't the plan at all."

Due to ankle and elbow injuries suffered at separate points throughout the season, Johnson said it's been hard, both mentally and physically. After missing all but 11 games in 2022-23 with a broken foot, he felt his rhythm on the court starting to come back at the start of the 2023-24 season. But just as that started to build, injuries put him on the sideline and out of rhythm again.

Johnson said he's leaned on his family during these difficult times.

"It's been very, very, very, very emotional," Johnson said. "I cried a couple times at home because it's my last year, and dealing what I've had to deal with for the past year, I don't think nobody can deal with, honestly. It's just been a mental attack on me because basketball is really my first love and it's something that's been taken away for the past year."

The Hoosiers travel to Maryland for a 2 p.m. ET tipoff, a game with extra meaning for Johnson, who went to Bishop O'Connell High School in Arlington, Va., less than an hour from College Park, Md.