Phantom Warrior
08-07-2012, 07:30 AM
I know I shouldn't feel this way, and I don't want to feel this way, but I've reached a point after eight years that I am just waiting for at least one injury to strike and cause the team to fall short - even if only a tad short - of achieving what it could have if we'd remained injury-free.
Call me a pessimist if you want, but look back over the past eight years. An injury-free year has been an anomoly.
Start with the '04-'05 season when we lost Travis for nearly the final quarter of the season (seven games out of 31). We missed out on the NCAA. There is no question in my mind that we make the NCAA had he not been injured.
In '05-'06, the Amigos made their initial mark. But that mark almost certainly would have been even greater had Wesley not been injured just prior to the start of conference play. If I remember correctly, he missed seven games, which included a couple of very close losses. Chapman did an admirable job filling his starting slot, but that meant we lost JC coming off the bench, and our depth suffered. Plus, it took Wesley a couple of games to adjust when he did come back. Furthermore, imagine how good Wesley might have been by the end of the season had he not missed the first half of conference play. We almost certainly would have had a higher seed in the Big Dance, and who knows what might have happened.
In '06-'07, of course, Jerel broke his hand before the last regular season game against Pitt. We still managed to beat the Panthers and win a game in the conference tournament, but Jerel was our best player that year. We ended up with either an 8 seed or a 9 seed in the NCAA, but our seed would have certainly been higher had Jerel still been playing.
We managed to get through '07-'08 without any injuries that seriously affected our team. Fitz missed a few games, but I don't think that had any bearing on our tournament seeding or on our wins and losses at the end of the season.
Then we get to the '08-'09 season when we were sailing along wonderfully until DJ suffered his foot injury. Not only did we proceed to lose a couple of conference games we could very well have won, but there is no question we would have had a higher seed in the Big Dance had DJ been healthy. He missed six games, and I think we lost two, maybe even three, of them. That team could definitely have found itself in the Final Four. As if that wasn't bad enough, we also lost Otule and Fulce for quite some time to injury, so our front court was incredibly thin.
In '09-'10 we had Otule for exactly three games, and we lost Junior to a torn Achilles right off the bat. Acker and Cubillan filled in nicely, and Junior might not have even started ahead of Acker that year, but there is no question our depth at guard was hurt by losing Junior and it was hurt up front losing Otule (not to mention Maymon, though that wasn't injury-related, obviously). Fulce played in every game that season, but he battled knee problems all year. The reality is we never got to see the real Joe Fulce.
Speaking of Fulce, I, and many others, had high hopes for his senior season in '10-'11. He looked terrific that summer, and I was hoping we'd finally see the JF that earned second-team juco A-A honors. I figured he might start at center for us. But it wasn't meant to be. He missed eight games and barely played in quite a few others. There is no way to know what a healthy Joe Fulce would have meant to that team or the previous two teams for that matter, but for those of us who saw him play as a juco, we have at least an idea of how much he might have contributed had he been healthy.
Which brings us to last year's team. The loss of Otule robbed us of our tallest player and best interior defender, and then the loss of Gardner forced Buzz to once again adjust. We had a terrific year in spite of those losses, but I can only wonder how good we might have been had we remained injury-free.
That's a total of eight years, eight teams, seven of which had to deal with injuries that either forced potentially significant contributors to miss games, or at the very least, led to one or more individuals contributing less than they might have had they been at full strength.
Injuries are part of the game. I accept that. But I think we have had a remarkable string of bad luck on the injury front over the last eight years. A decade ago, the potential of injuries was seldom on my mind going into a season. That is no longer the case. It's gotten to the point where I now expect someone to fall victim to the injury jinx. The only questions are how many and who.
The fact that Lockett missed most (all?) of the pro-am this summer with an ankle injury is, to me, already worrisome. Or maybe it will be Taylor's shoulder that undermines his freshman season. Maybe someone else. I don't know.
All I know is that I have the feeling I'm going to say, "Oh crap. Here we go again." Anyone else feel the same way, or have I just become incredibly cynical as I've gotten older? Anyone else feel like we've been jinxed the past eight years or so?
Call me a pessimist if you want, but look back over the past eight years. An injury-free year has been an anomoly.
Start with the '04-'05 season when we lost Travis for nearly the final quarter of the season (seven games out of 31). We missed out on the NCAA. There is no question in my mind that we make the NCAA had he not been injured.
In '05-'06, the Amigos made their initial mark. But that mark almost certainly would have been even greater had Wesley not been injured just prior to the start of conference play. If I remember correctly, he missed seven games, which included a couple of very close losses. Chapman did an admirable job filling his starting slot, but that meant we lost JC coming off the bench, and our depth suffered. Plus, it took Wesley a couple of games to adjust when he did come back. Furthermore, imagine how good Wesley might have been by the end of the season had he not missed the first half of conference play. We almost certainly would have had a higher seed in the Big Dance, and who knows what might have happened.
In '06-'07, of course, Jerel broke his hand before the last regular season game against Pitt. We still managed to beat the Panthers and win a game in the conference tournament, but Jerel was our best player that year. We ended up with either an 8 seed or a 9 seed in the NCAA, but our seed would have certainly been higher had Jerel still been playing.
We managed to get through '07-'08 without any injuries that seriously affected our team. Fitz missed a few games, but I don't think that had any bearing on our tournament seeding or on our wins and losses at the end of the season.
Then we get to the '08-'09 season when we were sailing along wonderfully until DJ suffered his foot injury. Not only did we proceed to lose a couple of conference games we could very well have won, but there is no question we would have had a higher seed in the Big Dance had DJ been healthy. He missed six games, and I think we lost two, maybe even three, of them. That team could definitely have found itself in the Final Four. As if that wasn't bad enough, we also lost Otule and Fulce for quite some time to injury, so our front court was incredibly thin.
In '09-'10 we had Otule for exactly three games, and we lost Junior to a torn Achilles right off the bat. Acker and Cubillan filled in nicely, and Junior might not have even started ahead of Acker that year, but there is no question our depth at guard was hurt by losing Junior and it was hurt up front losing Otule (not to mention Maymon, though that wasn't injury-related, obviously). Fulce played in every game that season, but he battled knee problems all year. The reality is we never got to see the real Joe Fulce.
Speaking of Fulce, I, and many others, had high hopes for his senior season in '10-'11. He looked terrific that summer, and I was hoping we'd finally see the JF that earned second-team juco A-A honors. I figured he might start at center for us. But it wasn't meant to be. He missed eight games and barely played in quite a few others. There is no way to know what a healthy Joe Fulce would have meant to that team or the previous two teams for that matter, but for those of us who saw him play as a juco, we have at least an idea of how much he might have contributed had he been healthy.
Which brings us to last year's team. The loss of Otule robbed us of our tallest player and best interior defender, and then the loss of Gardner forced Buzz to once again adjust. We had a terrific year in spite of those losses, but I can only wonder how good we might have been had we remained injury-free.
That's a total of eight years, eight teams, seven of which had to deal with injuries that either forced potentially significant contributors to miss games, or at the very least, led to one or more individuals contributing less than they might have had they been at full strength.
Injuries are part of the game. I accept that. But I think we have had a remarkable string of bad luck on the injury front over the last eight years. A decade ago, the potential of injuries was seldom on my mind going into a season. That is no longer the case. It's gotten to the point where I now expect someone to fall victim to the injury jinx. The only questions are how many and who.
The fact that Lockett missed most (all?) of the pro-am this summer with an ankle injury is, to me, already worrisome. Or maybe it will be Taylor's shoulder that undermines his freshman season. Maybe someone else. I don't know.
All I know is that I have the feeling I'm going to say, "Oh crap. Here we go again." Anyone else feel the same way, or have I just become incredibly cynical as I've gotten older? Anyone else feel like we've been jinxed the past eight years or so?