Oct. 1, 2004
The Nova Notebook, by Villanova director of media relations Mike Sheridan, appears each Friday beginning in the fall and continues through the basketball season.
It is shortly before 9:30 a.m. and Marcus Austin walks into the basketball office precisely on time. That he is prompt should not be a surprise.
For the last 12 months appointments have become a way of life for the senior forward from Irvington, N.J. A series of ankle and foot injuries have largely kept Austin off the court and in the waiting room of team orthopedic surgeon Dr. Rob Good.
Today is no different. Following a short interview, Austin is headed back to Good's office for a checkup as he recovers from his second surgery on a broken bone in his left foot.
"It's been tough," says the 6-9 forward.
The potholes in Austin's path actually date back to his days at St. Patrick's (N.J.) High School. After a strong 1999-2000 campaign in which he established himself as a recruiting priority for a number of Big East Conference programs, Austin suffered a sprained ankle.
Or so he thought.
"I sprained my ankle real badly that summer," he says. "But I also broke my foot then. I just didn't know it."
That injury did not come to light until the fall of 2003. As he prepared for his junior season at Villanova in early November, Austin re-sprained the ankle. After a week of rest, he returned to practice with his Wildcat teammates. An x-ray revealed that Austin had broken the fifth metatarsal in his left foot.
"I tried to play through it," Austin stated. "Some days I could get through practice by just fighting it out. But there were other days when the pain was too severe. As the year progressed it just got worse and worse.
"It was a real sharp pain that you could feel down to the bone. It was almost like you had a rock in your shoe but multiplying that by two."
Soon Austin was a familiar figure at practice, leaning against the scorer's table as his teammates were put through the paces by the coaching staff. By mid-season, the days when he was unable to practice far outnumbered those when he could. After playing only seven minutes in one game (Dec. 28 against UNC-Greensboro), Austin was shut down in late January. Surgery to repair the fracture and insert a screw took place at Bryn Mawr Hospital on Feb. 16.
A complication arose in the summer, however. Although the bone healed, Austin says, the screw cracked. A second surgical procedure took place in late July to correct that issue.
So it was that at the annual Villanova Basketball carnival known as Summer Jam, Austin was limited to a seat near the entrance, greeting guests, crutches on the ground alongside him. That he handled the assignment with aplomb and good cheer is a reflection on the individual who is considered by his teammates to be one of the funniest folks in the locker room.
"My whole thing right now is to work hard and get back so that I can help the team," Austin states, "in whatever role coach Wright wants me to play."
The good news is that Austin has begun participating in individual instruction and team conditioning drills in recent weeks. He has begun playing pickup basketball as well and says he is coming along.
"In the beginning I felt a little rusty," he says. "But you get back into it pretty quickly. The big thing is regaining your basketball conditioning."
Austin believes he will be ready to fully engage in practice sessions when they begin on Oct. 16. He estimates that he will be at 85-90 percent then and hopes to approach full strength as the regular season opener on Nov. 23 draws near.
If nothing else, the experience of the past year has given Austin an appreciation for good health.
"It was a hard thing to deal with," says Austin of his inactivity as a young Wildcat unit concluded an 18-17 campaign. "To sit on the bench and know that I could have been out there, guarding a big man, grabbing a rebound or helping out was tough to take. When you see your teammates making plays, getting fast break dunks, you want to be out there. When things are going badly, you want to be out there to try and help make them better."
In 2004-05, Austin hopes he can lend a hand. At 6-9, he has had moments where he has been a factor on the floor. As a sophomore in 2002-03 he scored 15 points and grabbed seven rebounds in a win at Rutgers. In addition, he offered stout defense in 23 minutes of a victory over Connecticut at the Wachovia Center.
Now he hopes to be a reliable interior factor for the `Cats.
"I can't say that I'm a leader because I've always played limited minutes," he says. "Last year would have been a good year for me to have changed that but the injury prevented it from happening. I haven't really proven myself. I'm just looking to do whatever I can to help.
"I think rebounding is an area where I can contribute and just being a big body inside. I love getting our guards shots with screens or passes. When they make the shots, I feel good knowing that my pass or screen helped get them open. Hopefully, I can score a little bit too. I'm just looking to be the guy who does a little bit of everything."
Austin is optimistic that the pain of the past two seasons, both physical and emotional, can serve as an impetus in 2004-05.
"We've been through so many things as a team these last few years," Austin states. "Now we're suspension free and hopefully, injury free. If we continue to play hard, I think it can be a real good year."
Injuries frequently have a way of offering hard-earned perspective, particularly when they occur in the second half of an athlete's college career. Austin is no exception. Yet he offers no regrets about his selection of college, despite the fact he has not enjoyed the kind of consistent success he hoped for when he arrived on the Main Line in 2001.
"Basketball hasn't gone exactly the way I would have wanted it to," Austin says. "But when you have a degree from Villanova, you have something important. This is such a prestigious school and this degree will do nothing but help me in the job market."
That's not to say Austin is ready to overlook his basketball dreams. There is still an important season ahead and he is eager to see it get underway.
This time, he hopes to do so without the proverbial stone in his shoe...
Kyle Lowry underwent successful surgery on his left knee last week to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament injured in late August. Lowry spent several days recovering at Villanova's Wellness Center and was back in class this week.
"We're all really pleased with the results of Kyle's surgery," stated head coach Jay Wright. "The people at the Wellness Center did a great job in helping Kyle recover from the surgery. Kyle has an extremely positive attitude and it looks like he is making good progress in the early stages of his recuperation."
