We just came across the news that UConn guard Jerome Dyson is done for the rest of the year. It looks like the meniscal tear he suffered against Syracuse was more serious than it was originally thought. For more on the injury in general (trust us, we could go on for a long time on the topic), we’ll refer you to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons page on the meniscal tears.

Some UConn fans believe that losing Dyson won’t affect the Huskies as much as some in the media think because of UConn’s outstanding perimeter depth with Kemba Walker and Craig Austrie picking up the slack, but the bigger problem may come on defense. Dyson has been one of the Huskies best defenders averaging 1.8 steals per game this year. Walker isn’t that far behind at 1.0 steals per game, but any time you lose a defender like Dyson who can create that much havoc it has to be a blow for the team. I’m assuming that Jim Calhoun would have A.J. Price on Levance Fields for most of the game against Pittsburgh tonight and the Huskies may be able to get away with it because the Panthers do not have a great perimeter scorer. However, against a team like UNC, which has 2 legitimate perimeter threats in Wayne Ellington and Ty Lawson, Dyson’s injury may come back to bite the Huskies in late March or early April.

The one positive thing for the Huskies is that this should lead to more driving by the opposition and more shots for Hasheem Thabeet to block.

John Stevens is a featured columnist for RTC.  His columns will appear on Tuesdays throughout the season.

Fine.  If it has to be me, then it has to be me.  I don’t mind, I’ll take the heat.  I’ll be the one to bring up the subject that nobody else wants or has the stones to bring up.

I’m calling him out.

I don’t know what Tyler Hansbrough’s plans are for this Wednesday, but they had better involve showing up at Ford Field in Detroit at around 9pm.  In uniform.  Ankles taped.  Ready to play, a self-proclaimed 100% healthy.

Or, they better involve not just a DNP, but a long-term hiatus from basketball.

Now, I know that, in college basketball circles, saying anything negative about Tyler Hansbrough is just the worst thing you can do.  To know that he has an injury but still demand that he get out onto the floor and actually play basketball paints me as unfeeling, a heathen — possibly even a heretic, given the public perception of Hansbrough, his head coach Roy Williams, and the entire UNC basketball program which has gotten to the point to where the image surrounding all of them can only be described as, well…almost HOLY, for some reason.  I might as well go tell a bunch of little kids that I hate puppies or a roomful of girls that I can’t stand weddings.

I don’t care.  I’ll be the one to suggest that there’s an ugly truth behind the false beauty.  I’m going to point at the emperor and call him naked.  Someone has to say it, and I’m volunteering, because it’s best for college basketball – and for Tyler Hansbrough – that he and his handlers make a decision on his status once and for all.

I say “he” because that’s who the play-versus-sit decision evidently falls to before every game.  Since the season began, we’ve heard that Hansbrough is the one who determines whether he’s well enough to go or not.  We’ve heard nothing about team physicians or their opinions.  We’ve seen Ol’ Roy (expectedly so, since it’s what you’re supposed to do) talk about how Tyler’s just rip-roarin’ to play and how they basically need to use chains to keep the guy on the bench…but the decision to play or not has still been Hansbrough’s.  The only thing close to an exception has been their last game against UNC-Asheville where we were told that Hansbrough was “held out,” though it wasn’t specifically stated who did the holding.

Acceptable Reason to Sit Out

That in mind, let’s look at Tyler’s season so far.

Read the rest of this entry »

Big breaking news out of Chapel Hill tonight…  The nation’s top returning player on the unanimous #1 team will be out indefinitely with something called a ‘stress reaction‘ of his right shin.  Although the injury isn’t serious as of now, without appropriate rest it could continue to inflame and deteriorate into a much more serious stress fracture of the bone.  From ESPN:

The reigning Associated Press player of the year did not practice Thursday. Instead, he underwent an MRI that revealed the stress reaction, which if not properly treated could lead to a stress fracture, team spokesman Steve Kirschner said.  “He’ll be ok,” Hansbrough’s father, Gene, told ESPN.com’s Andy Katz. “His leg’s been bothering him for a couple of weeks. It’s a stress reaction and he needs to rest a bit. He just needs time to let it heal. There is no reason for him to limp through it.”  According to ESPN medical analysist Dr. Michael Kaplan, the MRI likely showed increased uptake in tibia (leg bone) suggesting a stress reaction. An overload or overuse type phenomenon occurs with inflammation and, ultimately, fatigue failure with stress fracture. This is a precursor condition to stress fracture. A period of rest is mandatory for tissues to quiet down or worsening injury will result.

Psycho T Can’t Wear a Mask For His Shin (Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

The timetable for Hansbrough to return to action is officially “indefinitely” but the realistic timeframe sounds like a month or so, which means the Heels will be without two starters (including Marcus Ginyard, out with – what else – a stress fracture) for their game vs. Kentucky, an away game at UCSB, the Maui Invitatonal games (Notre Dame, Texas, Alabama) as well as the ACC/Big 10 Challenge game against Michigan State at Ford Field.  These weren’t going to be easy games for UNC anyway; assuming Hansbrough is out for all of them, they might just lose several. 

More importantly, UNC fans can’t feel comfortable with this news even if Hansbrough appears to be at full strength by January.  Call us a pessimist, but these are the kinds of nagging injuries that warriors like Hansbrough invariably try to come back from too soon, which end up recurring or at minimum never completely healing throughout the rest of the season.  Stay tuned on this story, because if Psycho-T is out or even at half-speed, the 2008-09 season is wide open…

One of the cooler stories we posted last year involved the emergence of the ridiculously oversized 7’7, 360 -lb Kenny George at UNC-Asheville.  He gained notoriety for his well-publicized duel with UNC and Tyler Hansbrough early last season (dropping 14/11 on UNC in a relatively close loss), and we kept an eye on him the rest of the year.  Led by George’s 12/7/3 blks on nation-leading 69% FG shooting, UNCA had its best season in a generation, winning 23 games and the Big South’s regular season championship.  We were rooting very hard for the Bulldogs to make the NCAAs, but they got upset in the Big South title game by conference stalwart Winthrop.  Notwithstanding the comical interest we had in George based on his cartoonishly freakish features, we also wanted to see him succeed due to the chronic injuries that a person his size has sustained (multiple knee problems resulting in several missed seasons).  Now comes the sad news that George underwent surgery in September for a staph infection that reportedly resulted in the amputation of part of his right foot, and is definitely out this season (if not for good).  From the AP report:

The source said the amputation, which occurred three weeks ago, was the result of George’s battle with MRSA, a difficult-to-treat and sometimes life-threatening antibiotic-resistant staph infection.  In August, George returned to his Chicago home from Pete Newell’s Big Man Camp in Las Vegas with an infection in his foot.  Doctors there suggested that George immediately see a specialist. He’s been hospitalized in Iowa since then, the source said, enduring several surgeries and at one time battling for his life. He’s expected to remain in the hospital for at least another month.   “This is a terrible setback for his basketball life but there is so much more to him than basketball,” [UNCA coach Eddie] Biedenbach said. “The students at this school think the world of Kenny George outside of basketball. We’re looking forward to him coming back second semester — that’s what he wants to do — and complete his degree. At that point, we’d still like him to be a part of our basketball program and part of this school.”

We’re Really Rooting For The Big Guy  (photo credit: Inside Carolina)

We love Biedenbach’s positivity here, and we’re certainly not a member of the medical profession, but we have to believe that having a partial foot amputation effectively ends George’s basketball career.  We love the underdog stories (inasmuch as George could be considered an under-anything), but this is really disheartening news, and we’ll just leave it at that (along with a couple of ESPN features on George from last year).

Wow, it’s not even officially Midnight Madness yet, and key players on national title contenders are already dropping like flies.  Last week we had the news that UNC’s stalwart defender on the wing, Marcus Ginyard, had a stress fracture in his foot and will be out until December.  Tonight we find out that Louisville’s Terrence Williams tore his medial meniscus in his right knee and will be out of action for 4-6 weeks.  From Card Chronicle:

U of L head coach Rick Pitino had much larger fears when he first heard about the injury.”We were positive it was going to be an ACL,” Pitino told Jeff Goodman of Fox Sports. “He landed on it the wrong way. The good news is he’ll be back in four weeks.”  Williams landed awkwardly on his right knee and heard a pop, a sound which prompted Pitino’s initial angst. But an MRI taken at Jewish Hospital revealed only the meniscus tear.  Williams will have surgery tomorrow.  “Knowing T-Will, he’ll be back in three weeks,” Pitino said. “He’s in great spirits. He thought it was an ACL, too.”

This Hurts Our Knees By Just Looking At It

Since Pitino came to Louisville in 2001, it seems that his teams there have never been completely at full strength.  From David Padgett to Juan Palacios to Andre McGee to Taquan Dean to Derrick Caracter, injuries and suspensions have us wondering just what kind of deal with the devil Coach P made when he returned to the Bluegrass State – the program just can’t seem to catch much of a break in that department. 

The good news for the Cards is that it has a relatively late opening game on Nov. 22 (Morehead St.), with another week before its second game (W. Kentucky), and still another week before its third (Indiana St.).   Louisville’s first truly difficult game will be Dec. 18 (@ Ole Miss), and by all indications, T-Will should be back to 100% by then.  It’s a good thing too, because Williams does a little bit of everything for the Cards – his numbers were 11/7/5 assts including not one, but two trip-dubs last season. 

If you want to get a Carolina fan really riled up, we mean realllllly excited, just mention how many titles your favorite team would have won had it not been for some injury to some key player along the way.  Every team has a story or two like that in their attic somewhere.  Well, for Carolina fans, their key injuries that have ‘cost’ them national championships have taken almost mythic proportions.  Just mention the words “Phil Ford” and “1977” in the same sentence (referring to Ford’s injured elbow in the NCAA Tournament), or “Kenny Smith” and “1984” in another (referring to Smith’s broken wrist suffered in January of that year), or even “Derrick Phelps” and “1994” for good measure (referring to Phelps’ concussion in their NCAA loss against BC). 

UNC Fans Are Hoping This Doesn’t Last Too Long

Let’s hope that today’s news won’t be another chapter in those annals, as UNC released news that their Mr. Everything on Defense, senior guard/forward Marcus Ginyard, will miss as much as the next eight weeks after surgery for a stress fracture on his left foot.  From the UNC Athletics site:

Doctors inserted a screw in his fifth left metatarsal. The Alexandria, Va., native was Carolina’s defensive player of the year in each of the last two seasons, was a member of the all-tournament team at the 2008 ACC Championships and has started 55 of the 107 games he has appeared in as a Tar Heel. […] Ginyard started all 39 games last year, averaging a career-best 6.9 points and 4.5 rebounds per game. He made both the coaches’ and media ACC all-defensive teams and was UNC’s defensive player of the game 11 times, including the NCAA East Regional title-game win over Louisville. He scored in double figures in all three ACC Tournament victories.

In other words, not an insignificant piece of their overall puzzle.  The rangy 6’5 Ginyard can defend the 1-4 positions and played 70% of the available minutes last year (third behind Hansbrough and Ellington), using his length and quickness to harass opposing scorers all over the court. 

Should UNC fans be concerned that another Phil Ford or Kenny Smith situation is afoot?   Probably not to that level, but foot injuries do have a tendency to linger, seeing as how ankles like to twist and feet like to get mashed during the battles underneath.  We know UNC can score bunches of points, but their downfall last year was their relatively average defense (#90 in eFG% and #179 in TO%) – an inability to ensure stops when they absolutely needed them – and losing a defensive stalwart like a 100% Ginyard is cause for mild concern. 

The good news for Heel fans is that Ginyard should be healed completely by January according to doctors, but those fans smitten with the idea of an unbeaten regular season should dampen those hopes somewhat.  A November home game vs. Kentucky, a trip to Maui where Alabama, Notre Dame and/or Texas await, and a quasi-away game at Michigan St. in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge will put the Heels to the test before ACC play begins, especially if their best defender is still on the bench.   

We sorta wondered what the deal was with Tennessee’s Chris Lofton this year. After a superb junior all-american campaign where he averaged 21/3/2 on 48% shooting (41% from three), his numbers dipped considerably during his senior season (16/3/2 on 40% shooting (38% from three)), culminating in a putrid 7-34 performance in UT’s three games of the NCAA Tournament.

Part of us wondered if he was feeling the pressure to perform for NBA scouts; part of us thought maybe the ascent of teammates such as Tyler Smith and JaJuan Smith may have something to do with it. Turns out we were wrong in a BIG way – Chris Lofton had cancer.

Former University of Tennessee guard Chris Lofton revealed today that he underwent four weeks of radiation treatment for testicular cancer last May. Lofton said in an interview with the News Sentinel that the treatment made him feel sluggish and affected his training. He added it may have affected his performance in his senior season. Lofton said, however, he’s made a full recovery and is healthy. The former Vol American did not disclose his condition to his teammates because “he wanted them to focus on the season.”

Wow.

Yeah, getting cancer as a 22-year old might make you lose focus on your senior season a little bit. We’ve always liked Lofton, now we think the guy’s a farkin’ stud. Here’s hoping he destroys the NBA draft camps next month.

It looks like Andre Allen won’t be the only senior reserve to miss the Final 4. At the end of the Jayhawks practice session today, several players were attempting dunks. Unfortunately, for KU senior Rodrick Stewart one of his dunk attempts went awry and he fractured his patella.

Although the article doesn’t specify if it was just a routine dunk at the end of practice, I really hope he wasn’t trying to show off for the fans attending the practice. Having witnessed the tank job that was the Boston Celtics 2006-2007 season, I can’t help but think back to Tony Allen’s knee injury, which occured well after the whistle had blown.

At that point in the season, the Celtics weren’t going anywhere, but Allen was developing into a solid NBA player. He appears to be recovering from the injury and has contributed at times this year for the Celtics, but his numbers are well off his production before the injury (note: may have something to do with less playing time because the Celtics are slightly better this year). We hope Stewart a speedy and full recovery as the Final 4 would likely have been his last meaningful basketball games (2.8 PPG in 11.6 MPG this year as a senior).