Jan. 21, 2005
The Nova Notebook, by Villanova director of media relations Mike Sheridan, appears each week beginning in the fall and continues through the basketball season. This week our visit is with junior forward Curtis Sumpter.
When Curtis Sumpter first fell to the floor on the afternoon of Jan. 7 at Notre Dame's Joyce Center he wasn't especially fazed. Sumpter felt some pain in his right knee but twinges of discomfort are hardly unfamiliar terrain for Big East basketball players.
"At first," Sumpter says, "I just thought I had banged knees with one of the guys and that it would be a temporary thing."
After being helped to a seat near the court, Sumpter was examined by head athletic trainer Jeff Pierce. Ice was applied and Pierce began making arrangements for Sumpter to be examined by an orthopedist in South Bend, Ind., that afternoon.
Sumpter accompanied his teammates back to the team hotel and ate lunch with them. Once lunch ended, he was on his way to the office of a nearby orthopedic specialist accompanied by Pierce and director of basketball operations Patrick Chambers. The knee was examined by the doctor and it was then that Sumpter's anxiety level began to rise.
"It was kind of scary at the time," stated Sumpter. "When the doctor told me what was wrong, he kind of presented the worst case scenario. The way he described it, I started to think this was going to keep me out for the rest of the season."
In many respects, it was a bleak afternoon that matched the gun-metal gray sky and frigid temperatures outside. Back at the hotel and through a team dinner at the home of a Villanova student, coaches and players awaited an update on Sumpter's health. The timing of the injury seemed particularly cruel. Sumpter and the `Cats were coming off a convincing Big East Conference opening night win over West Virginia and the junior from Brooklyn, N.Y. was playing the best basketball of his college career, leading the team in scoring and rebounding.
As he mulled this potentially devastating news, Sumpter's spirits were lifted by time he spent with ESPN college basketball studio analyst Digger Phelps. The former Irish coach maintains a home in the area and greeted Wildcat coaches upon their arrival that afternoon for practice. When Sumpter's injury occurred, he offered to be of assistance in any way possible.Jay Wright. "He really helped him get through a tough time."
Once the visit to the physician was complete, Phelps gave Sumpter, Chambers and Pierce a unique glimpse of the Notre Dame campus.
"Mr. Phelps was real nice to me," Sumpter states. "The personal tour was really cool. We prayed at the Grotto and it just let me think about something besides my own troubles."
It also helped that he spoke with Pierce about the injury.
"Once Jeff explained to me that this was a sprained knee," says Sumpter, "I felt better. I hated to miss the Notre Dame game but it helped to know that I could get back pretty quickly if things went well with the rehab."
Though relieved, Sumpter struggled as he watched the `Cats fall 78-72 to the Irish. On Jan. 11, he was pleased that his teammates earned an 83-78 victory but restless at the prospect of watching in a shirt and tie from the bench.
"Even though everyone goes out of their way to make sure you still feel a part of the team," says Sumpter, "you still feel like you aren't fully a part of it. It's such a helpless feeling.
The recovery period for a typical sprained knee is 3-6 weeks. Yet Sumpter responded very quickly to the treatment. By Jan. 13, he was able to ride a bicycle while watching his teammates practice. When Villanova team orthopedist Dr. Rob Good examined the knee on the morning of Jan. 15, he gave Sumpter the green light to play that day against Georgetown. Sumpter wound up playing 34 minutes and contributing 14 points and seven rebounds in a 66-64 loss.
Of course, Sumpter's return was offset by the loss of Fraser, who suffered a fractured right hand in the win at Providence. Sumpter and Fraser have been close since high school and the former marvels at the latter's ability to face the multiple injuries that have confronted him since arriving in college.
"I don't know how Jason does it," Sumpter says. "He has had to deal with injuries over and over again. I was only out for a week and it felt terrible. He's just a strong person. I really admire him."
While Sumpter has had his moments in the two games since he returned to game action wearing a brace, he hasn't yet regained the form that he demonstrated leading up to the injury. At Boston College on Wednesday he was saddled with foul trouble that limited him to 17 minutes. The Brooklyn, N.Y., native isn't concerned, however.
"I feel fine," he states. "I just didn't have a good game. That can happen at any time."
As a team tri-captain, Sumpter remains upbeat about his club even in the wake of consecutive losses by a total of three points to Georgetown and Boston College.
"We're playing hard and we have a good game plan," Sumpter says. "It boils down to not making mistakes at the end. If we do that, we can still accomplish what we want to.
"We've been through so much as a team these last few years. The bond we have as a team is everlasting. I think this group of people will always be close because of what we've been through.
"We know we're close (to becoming what we want to be). We have to keep pushing and working. The good thing is that when it does happen it's going to feel great because of all of the things that we have been through."
Note: Just a reminder that the Jan. 26 contest at the Wachovia Center against Notre Dame is slated to begin at 7:30 p.m. That was the original game time announced in September. The time was briefly switched in November to 8:00 p.m. to accommodate ESPN2 but last month reverted to the original time of 7:30 p.m.
