Knee injury ends Jake Kelly's junior season at Indiana State

Bad news today for those who like former Iowa Hawkeye basketball player Jake Kelly.

The junior guard tore the ACL in his left knee Tuesday night during Indiana State's 70-52 loss to Southern Illinois. An MRI today revealed the bad news, adcording to this Terre Haute Tribune-Star story.

“It's a bad deal when anybody goes down for the year like that. In Jake's case, he's had a lot thrown in his lap in the last year. To have that happen is another real challenge for him to overcome,” said ISU coach Kevin McKenna, shortly after he delivered the news to Kelly's family on Wednesday afternoon.

“You lose your mom, you join a new team and try to get acclimated and this happens. It's really, really a terrible thing to have happen. With the support of his teammates and coaches, he can get through this too,” McKenna said. . . .

ISU will file for a medial redshirt waiver. The NCAA threshold for a medical redshirt waiver is that a player has had to have played 30 percent or fewer of his team's games. Kelly has played in all 12 of ISU's games so far.

ISU's case would rest on the fact that the NCAA considers a non-exempt tournament - ISU played four games in the Preseason NIT - as one contest date. If that is deemed to be the case, than Kelly would have nine "official" games under his belt.

Awful news, obviously. Kelly was averaging 9.0 points for the Sycamores. He hit the game-winning shot in ISU's 55-54 win at Toledo earlier this month.