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Posted on Tue, Jan 10, 2012 : 3:46 p.m.

Michigan basketball gets encouraging news on Jon Horford's injured foot

By Nick Baumgardner

Jon Horford isn't exactly ready to return to the Michigan basketball team's rotation, but he's not out for the season, either.

Not yet, anyway.

Michigan coach John Beilein said Tuesday that he and his coaching staff received positive news on the sophomore forward's injured right foot following an X-ray Monday, and he's hopeful to have him back at practice soon.

"There's improvement in his foot," said Beilein, whose team will host Northwestern on Wednesday (6:30 p.m., BTN). "This week he's going to be able to start shooting on his own. They're going to do a lot of water therapy and therapy with him just to get him ready.

"This will be the week they'll allow him to jump and do some little things. Next week, we'll see how he feels."

JON-HORFORD-2.JPG

Jon Horford has missed the last seven games with a foot injury. The Michigan coaching staff hopes he can return to full-speed practice next week.

Angela J. Cesere | AnnArbor.com

Beilein said the hope is to get Horford back to full-speed practices in a week's time. From there, a decision will be made on whether he can return to game action.

"We're trying to get him into practice by next week, and see how he feels," Beilein said. "Then we have a pretty big decision to make."

The 6-foot-10, 250-pound Horford has missed Michigan's past seven games with metatarsal stress fracture in his right foot.

Without him in the lineup, the 13th-ranked Wolverines have been making do with a rather thinned out front court -- with starters Jordan Morgan and Evan Smotrycz being backed up solely by junior Blake McLimans.

Presently, Michigan (13-3, 3-1) is 10th in the Big Ten in rebounding with 33.6 per game. The Wolverines are 11th in blocked shots with just 2.5 per game.

The improved news on Horford's foot injury could offer help in those departments soon, however, Beilein said the possibility that Horford could miss the remainder of the season "is still a concern."

"But (there's) also a silver lining that he didn't play 12 or 13 games and you've used his redshirt up," Beilein said. "It's part of the thing when you have a foot injury like that, because you really don't know. You have to be careful with it, we do not want to use this season on an injured player. We've got to make sure he's in really good shape before we use him."

In nine games, Horford has averaged 2.7 points and 3.6 rebounds.

Nick Baumgardner covers Michigan basketball for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at 734-623-2514, by email at nickbaumgardner@annarbor.com and followed on Twitter @nickbaumgardner.

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Comments

Blu n Tpa

Wed, Jan 11, 2012 : 12:18 p.m.

a2 Since we have having writing 101 here why did you use 3 "?"s when one was enough? I also noticed you ended the quote without punctuation after the hyphen. Since there is more to this sentence I think you should have used ... after "court", then end quote, then period. But that's just me. Go Blue!

unclemercy

Thu, Jan 12, 2012 : 3:30 p.m.

respect due.

a2miguy

Wed, Jan 11, 2012 : 9:43 p.m.

Why 3 question marks? For tone purposes. As for all that extra punctuation re: the quote, it is certainly not necessary as I intentionally quoted only part of a sentence. I could have just as easily (and probably should have, in retrospect) quoted only "making due". (By the way, there are those who would argue all day long that it is improper to ever put a period outside an ending quotiation mark. I am not one of them.) Had I done so, do you really think your ellipsis (which, by the way was not part of his sentence...the hyphen was) followed by end quote, followed by a period would have been appropriate? Sorry, but I don't.

miatamich

Tue, Jan 10, 2012 : 10:01 p.m.

What Michigan really needs is someone who can backup Smotrycz at the 2 position. Morgan, McLimans and Horford are a center types. When Smotrycz rests or gets in foul trouble, Zack Novak has to play the 2 and this hurts the rebounding game.

unclemercy

Thu, Jan 12, 2012 : 3:29 p.m.

sg is the 2. you want a back up 4.

a2miguy

Tue, Jan 10, 2012 : 9:25 p.m.

"Without him in the lineup, the 13th-ranked Wolverines have been making due with a rather thinned out front court -- " Making DUE? Really??? Come on!

Nick Baumgardner

Tue, Jan 10, 2012 : 9:38 p.m.

You got me, a2. My mistake, thanks for pointing it out. Typo's been fixed.