Brent Yarina, BTN.com Senior Editor, November 20, 2012

Penn State senior point guard Tim Frazier will undergo surgery to repair a torn left Achilles tendon Tuesday, putting him out for the remainder of the 2012-13 season. Frazier, who suffered the injury in Sunday's loss to Akron, is eligible to apply for a medical redshirt.

The injury is a devastating blow to Penn State, which relies on Frazier more than any Big Ten team counts on a player. Frazier led the Nittany Lions in nearly every major statistical category last season (18.8 ppg, 4.7 rpg, 6.2 apg, 2.4 spg) en route to earning first-team All-Big Ten honors.

[RELATED: Frazier landed at No. 4 on latest Big Ten Player Rankings]

He entered this season as a Wooden and Naismith award candidate, and in three-plus games, averaged 16.3 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.8 assists.

In Frazier's absence, it will be up to Jermaine Marshall and Southern Miss transfer D.J. Newbill to pick up the scoring slack. It won't be an easy task, though. Both players lack experience as a No. 1 scorer, and they'll have to do it without last year's Big Ten assist leader setting them up.

Frazier's injury also impacts the Big Ten as a whole. No, Penn State wasn't expected to compete, or even finish in the middle of the standings, but it was good for at least a couple of upsets. Without Frazier, those wins will be a lot harder to come by.

About Brent Yarina BTN.com web editor Brent Yarina covers football and men's basketball for BTN.com. He writes the popular uniform feature "Clothes Call," which also focuses on the latest cosmetic changes across Big Ten arenas and stadiums. Read all of his work here. You can subscribe to Yarina's RSS feed and follow him on Twitter @BTNBrentYarina.