May 12, 2006
The Nova Notebook, by Villanova director of media relations Mike Sheridan, appears each Friday from September through February and monthly from April through in August. This month we spend time with forward Curtis Sumpter as he looks ahead to the summer and the 2006-07 season.
It is not unusual for a college senior with graduation looming to experience mixed emotions. A bubbling brew of pride, sadness, excitement and anxiety tends to percolate in most of those who approach that fateful walk to the stage in cap and gown.
Curtis Sumpter knows well the feelings of ambivalence. Like most of his classmates, on Sunday, May 21 this Brooklyn, N.Y., native will reach a fork in the road, where he must bid farewell to friends and a certain way of life. Unlike most of his fellow seniors, however, Sumpter's journey will take a most curious turn.
Following a short break at home, he will return to Villanova in early June to resume rehabilitation on the left knee that he re-injured last October. After spending the 2005-06 campaign as a medical redshirt, Sumpter is eager to resume a career that saw him named a preseason first team All-Big East choice prior to the injury last fall.
"I wish we could have won it all," says Sumpter of the 2005-06 campaign he watched in street clothes. "It would have been a great ending to what we started here four years ago. We weren't able to do that but it still was a great year.
"Now that's over. It's time to start thinking about next season."
Over the course of the months since he underwent surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee on Nov. 15, Sumpter has made deliberate progress in his recovery. Although in his heart he had hoped to recover in sufficient time to lend a hand in the quest for 2005-06 glory, he understood from the beginning that this was an unlikely scenario. In late February, he officially extinguished that possibility when he announced he would return in 2006-07 for a fifth year of eligibility.
"It was a hard season for me," he says. "On one hand, I was so happy for the guys, especially the seniors. We all had been through so much and it was great to see the success that Randy (Foye) and Allan (Ray) had. But it was hard not to think about what it would have been like for me to be out there with them."
Sumpter will receive a hard-earned (sociology) degree with the rest of that group on May 21. It is a moment that conjures in him some of the mixed emotions that grip so many graduates across the country.
One part of him swells with pride.
"When I was younger, I never even thought I would go to college," he says. "I thought I would be one of those guys who goes and gets a job after high school. But I had a cousin who really set the standard for our family. We all tried to live up to that standard and now it's my turn. I'm proud of the degree."
Another part of him struggles with the thought of saying farewell to a group of classmates that has sustained one another through good times and bad.
"We're like brothers," says Sumpter of Foye, Ray, Jason Fraser, Mike Claxton, Chris Charles and Baker Dunleavy, all of whom have completed their eligibility and have earned diplomas. "We'll always have a bond and be friends. But it will be strange not to be with them every day."
Perhaps the oddest feeling of all is that, unlike the rest of the group, Sumpter remains here, as the last link to one of the most accomplished classes in Villanova history. It is something he still is adjusting to.
"My mother asked me if I wanted to have a graduation party," he says. "We decided to just have something small with the family. Honestly, in some ways, it doesn't even feel like I'm graduating."
As complicated as the emotions surrounding it may be, however, graduation day also represents a page turned. Once that chapter is closed, the business of writing the next one begins and the 6-7 forward is quite determined to do all he can to insure that it is as upbeat an entry as the two which preceded it.
"We are going to miss the leadership of guys like Randy, Al and Jason," he says, "but we still have a lot going for us. Will (Sheridan) and Mike (Nardi) are four year starters. They know exactly what Coach (Jay) Wright wants from us. We also have some talented young guys who are going to help us.
"I tried to do what I could last year but it's hard to lead from the bench. Being out there and having been through so much, I am going to do all I can to make sure we keep this going. We have worked hard and we have to keep working hard to build on the success we have had."
For his part, Sumpter has been toiling diligently in his rehabilitation program. It has been arduous at times and he sometimes wonders about the affects of the long layoff - since originally injuring the knee in March of 2005 the bulk of his athletic hours have been spent working with head athletic trainer Jeff Pierce to strengthen the ligament.
"Everything is going fine with the knee," says Sumpter, who will visit surgeon Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham, Ala., later this month for another routine checkup. "It's feeling stronger each day and I really am looking forward to getting back at 100 percent. But it has been a long layoff and I miss the competition.
"The one thing I do know for sure is that I am not going to think about the knee when I am out there. I am going to play hard every possession and whatever happens, happens."
The potential loss of second-team All-Big East point guard Kyle Lowry has not tempered Sumpter's enthusiasm. (Lowry entered his name into the pool of candidates for the 2006 National Basketball Association draft, though he can remove it until June 18).
"I'm happy for Kyle," he says. "It looks like he has a great opportunity and that's something we all strive for."
If Lowry does not return, the 2006-07 Wildcats could have a much different look than their immediate predecessors did. With Nardi as the only experienced backcourt player on the roster in that circumstance, the focus figures to shift to the frontcourt and athletes like Sumpter, Sheridan, Shane Clark and Dante Cunningham. Indeed, it's not out of the realm of possibility that Sumpter could see some minutes at guard.
Not that the position really matters to Sumpter.
"I'm happy to be one of the leaders of this team," he says. "We're still going to compete every night and now our job is to find different ways to win games. As seniors, Mike, Will and I want to do everything we can to see that we continue to compete the way we have these last two seasons."
This much is sure: there is no ambivalence in those words.
