College Basketball Teams That Need to Get Healthy for the 2017 NCAA Tournament

Illness and injury are unfortunate but very real parts of college basketball. Players and teams do their best to avoid them, but they are rarely able to completely steer clear. And the later into the season an injury occurs, the greater effect it could have on a team's chances for overall success.

In many cases, these injuries end up being of the season-ending variety, such as the torn ACLs suffered by point guards Maurice Watson of Creighton and Edmond Sumner of Xavier. Losing those players for the stretch run figures to have a dramatic impact on how those teams will fare when we get to the NCAA tournament.

For other teams, though, there's still hope. If those injured or sick players can return in time for March and return to their old form, then they can still positively influence their teams' season.

Here's a look at some potential NCAA tournament teams whose odds to make noise will be much greater if they can get back to full strength beforehand.

Dayton Flyers

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With Josh Cunningham returning to action for Friday's 75-74 win at Rhode Island, Dayton is as close to full strength as it's ever been this season. That's saying something since the Flyers have only four players who have appeared in all 24 games in 2016-17, with four of their top-five scorers missing a combined 32 games.

Most of those absences were attributed to Cunningham, a 6'7" sophomore forward who had been out since mid-November after suffering torn ligaments in his ankle. He averaged 12.5 points and shot 83.3 percent in two games before getting hurt and setting into motion a revolving door of starting lineups put together by coach Archie Miller.

Dayton has used seven different lineups. The one it used on Friday was the same it has had for seven consecutive games and has been its most effective. That one includes senior guard Charles Cooke and senior forward Kendall Pollard, the Flyers' top two scorers who have each missed time because of injury. Only senior guard Scoochie Smith has started every game in 2016-17.

Cunningham played only two minutes Friday, registering no statistics other than three personal fouls.

Duke Blue Devils

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While Jayson Tatum (left) is going at full speed, Harry Giles still hasn't fully recovered from his knee injury.

When the injury list also includes your head coach, you know it's been a trying season.

Ranked No. 1 in the preseason poll and a strong favorite to win another national title, Duke entered 2016-17 with high expectations thanks to the return of several notable players, as well as a talent-laden freshman class. Yet its entire group of standouts have only just recently all been available at the same time.

Freshmen Marques Bolden, Harry Giles and Jayson Tatum all had their debuts delayed because of injuries. Tatum was the first to get on the court in the Blue Devils' ninth game of the season, while Bolden and Giles got going just before ACC play. Tatum is all the way back from a foot injury, with the 6'8" forward averaging 16 points and seven rebounds per game, but the 6'11" Bolden and 6'10" Giles haven't been as fortunate.

Giles, who tore knee ligaments in November 2015 and missed his senior year of high school, needed arthroscopic surgery in the fall and is playing just 12.2 minutes per game.

"His confidence seems shattered," Bleacher Report's Reid Forgrave wrote. "His timing appears off. He's a step behind everyone else on the court. A guy who used to fly is now missing dunks."

Bolden, who suffered a preseason leg injury, has averaged only 8.1 minutes in his 15 games, and that includes when senior forward Amile Jefferson missed two contests because of a foot problem.

Add in coach Mike Krzyzewski, who missed seven games because of back surgery, and Duke has been a walking wounded team this year.

Indiana Hoosiers

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James Blackmon Jr. returned to action for Indiana on Thursday.

At 15-10 overall and 5-7 in the Big Ten, Indiana's chances of making the NCAA tournament are dwindling by the day. Losing at home to Purdue on Thursday resulted in the Hoosiers' fourth setback in five games and dropped them to 81st in the RPI.

One of the few bright spots from that loss was the return of James Blackmon Jr., a 6'4" junior guard who had missed the previous three games with a leg injury. He was noticeably rusty, going 3-of-14 from the field and making only 1-of-7 three-pointers, but at 42.1 percent, he remains Indiana's best perimeter threat.

Johnson, who was limited to 13 games in 2015-16 because of injury, is averaging a team-high 17.3 points per game and is one of five Hoosiers pulling down at least four rebounds per game.

He has five games this season with at least five threes and eight 20-point performances, but in his absence, Indiana had two of its lowest-scoring games of the season.

While Johnson has returned, the same can't be said for sophomore wing OG Anunoby, who went down last month and has since had season-ending knee surgery.

Louisville Cardinals

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Quentin Snider could return Saturday after missing six games.

When forwards Deng Adel and Mangok Mathiang missed curfew over the weekend, prompting Louisville coach Rick Pitino to suspend them for Monday's trip to Virginia, it made an already depleted Cardinals roster even thinner. They were already missing starting point guard Quentin Snider and backup guard Tony Hicks, and without those two other contributors, they wore down in a 16-point loss.

Adel and Mathiang will be back for Louisville's next game, Saturday against Miami (Florida), and Snider is expected to make his return as well.

The 6'2" junior hasn't played since mid-January because of a strained hip flexor, causing him to miss six games. Louisville went 4-2 without its No. 2 scorer (12.1 points per game), top assist man (4.0) and second-most prolific three-point shooter (34). In his absence Louisville, which shoots 35.8 percent from three as a team, had two games with 12 threes but also two of its worst perimeter shooting efforts, which happened to come in the two losses.

"The big question is: How does Louisville integrate Snider back into the mix after running such an efficient offense without him?," Jeff Greer of the Louisville Courier-Journal wrote. "That's a problem Rick Pitino would rather solve than an equation without his trusted engineer."

Louisville tried four starting different lineups in Snider's absence, including one involving Hicks, who broke his hand on Jan. 24 but could be back as soon as Feb. 18, per Greer.

North Carolina Tar Heels

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Both Joel Berry and Theo Pinson have missed games for North Carolina this season.

When North Carolina announced Isaiah Hicks would miss Thursday's game at Duke because of a hamstring injury, it wasn't much of a surprise. Not that the senior forward got hurt during practice the day before, but that the Tar Heels had suffered another injury in what's been a season filled with bumps, bruises, pulls and sprains.

The 6'8" Hicks joined junior guard Joel Berry (ankle), freshman forward Tony Bradley (concussion), sophomore forward Luke Maye (ankle) and junior wing Theo Pinson (ankle foot) as UNC players who have been in street clothes instead of uniform for at least one game this season. That group has combined to start 50 games for the Heels in 2016-17, with Maye getting his first career start in place of Hicks  in the 86-78 loss at Duke, where he had eight points on 4-of-8 shooting.

Berry missed two games in December, and UNC had two of its worst-shooting games of the season without the 6'0" guard's ball handling and 41.4 percent three-point accuracy. Bradley missed two games and Maye five, while Pinson has played only seven games because of multiple ailments.

He made his season debut on Jan. 8 and averaged 6.8 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.3 assists in six games before getting hurt again. He came back against Duke and had six points, seven rebounds and three assists in 19 minutes.

Northwestern Wildcats

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Northwestern is part of the select (and infamous) group of Division I programs that have been around since the NCAA tournament first started in 1939 but have never earned a bid. This season could be when that drought finally ends, though it would sure help if the Wildcats had their full complement of players available to handle this task.

Just as Northwestern jumped into the Top 25 on Jan. 30, it was like the basketball gods decided it had experienced too much good fortune. That's when Scottie Lindsey, the 6'5" junior guard who is its leading scorer at 15.4 points per game, came down with mononucleosis, which has sidelined him the last two games—losses at Purdue and at home to Illinois.

At least the Wildcats got senior forward Nathan Taphorn back for the last game after he missed the previous contest with a sprained ankle, though he had only five points in 17 minutes off the bench.

It's Lindsey that they need back and playing like his old self to be able to avoid missing out yet again on an NCAA bid.

All statistics courtesy of Sports-Reference.com, unless otherwise noted. All recruiting information courtesy of Scout.com, unless otherwise noted.

Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.