Robbie Hummel Officially Cleared to Play
Less than 8 months ago, Purdue's star forward, Robbie Hummel, went down with an excruciating knee injury tearing his ACL in the midst of a 10-game Big Ten win streak for the Boilermakers. The team struggled to cope without their second-leading scorer and rebounder, losing three of their next eight games, including a 13-point loss to the National Champion Duke Blue Devils in the 2010 Sweet 16.
With their star back for his senior season and being joined by classmates JaJuan Johnson and E'Twaun Moore, Purdue has high expectations to make a run at the national title this year. Late last week and over the weekend, Hummel was cleared for full basketball activities and plans to ease into drills. According to Hummel, he is able to move well on the court and he is gaining his explosiveness back. In his individual workout late last week, the 6'8" forward was seen cutting through the lane and jumping off two feet to put home some dunks; he admits he is still trying to get his feet back under him, but he is content with his progress.
Purdue opens up practice on October 15th, about three weeks before they open in an exhibition match with Indianapolis on November 2nd. They are a top five team according to nearly every media outlet, but there is no doubt, their success hinges on the health of Robbie Hummel's knee. For now, Hummel looks to be making excellent progress and although his minutes should be limited to start the season, he should be ready to go when the Boilermakers take on Virginia Tech to kick off the month of December.
By President Corey Ruff - 10-4-10
