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Message: [QUOTE="businesslawyer, post: 3441300, member: 55"] First, one paragraph looking backward before looking forward. Obviously I feel terrible for the young man, and pray that however far he was going as a basketball player is only delayed and not denied. But from a fan's point of view yesterday brought the kind of emotion that is why we all put so much emotional energy into our favorites teams. A young man suffers that kind of shock injury, and his first reaction is screw the hospital -- I'm getting back to the bench. Players and coaches interrupting their efforts in a must win game to share love, prayers and comforts to the young man whose long term economic future was just put at risk. And then all of them handling that emotion by just increasing their toughness to win a game that they had to have on an afternoon where they couldn't have shot a 3 into the Connecticut River from a pier? Even winning all the time doesn't give you that kind of high. I don't know that I've been that moved by a sports victory since Andre Dixon walked into the end zone in South Bend after a month of trying and falling breathtakingly short of winning a game for Jazz Howard. What does it mean for the season? We needed to win out to get in the discussion for the bubble. That becomes much, much harder. We're now playing with 7 1/2 bodies, and the odds just grow that somewhere along the line foul trouble or someone twisting an ankle or fighting a flu just leaves us too short handed. It also makes bouncing back for 4 consecutive games in the conference tourney without depth much less likely. But it's not time to panic either. Let's be honest -- Akok the last few games hasn't been giving us anything, and if Carlton and IW can stay out of foul trouble and Sid can get healthy and be part of a 3-man big rotation when we need him, I still think we can win any remaining game on the schedule. Not every game but any game. Which means, more than ever, that you have to take them one by one. Another one game season Thursday at Temple. That will be a tough road win but we have to get it, and a win in Philly might be the toughest remaining game we need to at least make sure that CV gets to play in at least an NIT before leaving us. But make no mistake -- this has the possibility of having a huge negative effect on next year. I think it's unlikely that Akok will play at any time next year. And if he failed to improve over this year, his loss would be unfortunate but not critical. But we all know that his upside,based on not just his work ethic but also skills and athleticism that he hadn't figured out yet on the offensive side of the court, had the potential to take us to a very high level. We do not have a player who will give us the possibility of reaching the level next year that Akok gave us. Doesn't mean we can't be better next year, but the cieling is lower. Period. And there's no recruit coming in at this late stage with the potential to be a stretch 4 that Akok had. It is what it is. Bottom line -- this is a huge setback for this year and the near term future. No sugar coating it. But it doesn't change the fact that you can only play games one at a time. We have a one season game in Philly Thursday night. We have enough talent to win, but it will require continuing mental toughness and better shooting than we had yesterday. Get it done. And whatever the recovery period is for Akok, it will be four days less that it was Sunday. [/QUOTE]

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