Posted on Sun, Mar. 02, 2008

UK BASKETBALL NOTEBOOK

Playing through pain not always a positive

DOCTORS MUST BALANCE TEAM'S NEEDS WITH WHAT'S BEST FOR PLAYER

By Jerry Tipton

HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER

Jerry Tipton

Patrick Patterson's stress fracture illustrated other areas of dynamic tension in the athletic world. Coaches, including Billy Gillispie of Kentucky, like to note the difference between playing with pain and sitting because of injury. Alas, it's not so easy to differentiate.

Ronald P. Grelsamer, Associate Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at Mount Sinai Medical School, used the analogy of two circles. One circle represents pain. One circle represents injury.

"If they are two separate, distinct circles, yeah, it'd be easy," Grelsamer said. "There's nothing wrong with playing with pain if you don't have an injury.

"The problem is these circles are overlapping. So how do you know when pain is just the result of a little nagging overuse? And how do you know when it reflects an injury?"

The short answer is you don't know. As Gillispie noted more than once at Friday's news conference, he was grateful that trainer Eric Fry took the initiative to order an X-ray of Patterson's sore left ankle.

The pain-versus-injury question puts the team doctor under conflicting pressures.

"The big problem any team doctor faces is the struggle between what he knows is right for his patient/player and what the team is expecting for that player," Grelsamer said. "It's a difficult dynamic because what's best for the player is often rest. But what the team wants is that player back on the field."

Gillispie acknowledged that Patterson's minutes were excessive (a league-leading 38.9 per SEC game) but necessary given the player's obvious talent and UK's aching needs (so to speak).

Noting the pressure to play coming from teammates, coaches and management, Grelsamer said, "Doctors always erring on the prudent side are not going to be team doctors very long."

UK implied that Patterson's injury had been detected soon enough to avoid more serious, long-term problems. According to Patterson, the doctors told him he'd wear a cast for two weeks, then have the ankle re-examined with an MRI. If needed, doctors can perform surgery on the ankle. If surgery is not needed, Patterson expects to be sidelined eight weeks.

Steven Weinfeld, the Chief of Foot and Ankle service at Mount Sinai, said that the location of Patterson's stress fracture (medial malleolus) is a "reasonably common" area for such an injury.

"It's not risky surgery," Weinfeld said of the possible option, which would entail stabilizing the bone with a plate, rod or screws. The surgery usually requires a six-to-eight week recovery period.

Neither Weinfeld nor Grelsamer could say what caused Patterson's stress fracture. Neither has examined or treated the UK player. Overuse can cause stress fractures. So can structural abnormalities and "metabolic issues," Weinfield wrote in an e-mail.

During the Friday news conference, Patterson noted how he had sustained sprains and "tweaks" with his ankles dating to high school. Nothing unusual in that for a basketball player.

But that fed into another possible source of stress fractures cited by Weinfeld. "A player with an ankle sprain may alter their running mechanics, placing abnormal stresses on the injured ankle which can contribute to the development of a stress fracture," the doctor wrote in an e-mail.

Patterson's was the third stress fracture sustained by the UK basketball team this season. It followed Ramon Harris (foot) and Jodie Meeks (pelvis).

Assuming Gillispie's methods are within the mainstream (and no UK official has voiced any concern), that leaves another possibility.

"Just bad luck," Grelsamer said. "Like when you're waiting for a bus. There's no bus, then there's four at one time.

"At least that's the way it is in New York City."

'Bell cow'

Basketball elder statesman C.M. Newton has watched UK players for almost 60 years. So how does he rate Patrick Patterson, whose standout freshman season ended abruptly with Friday's news that he's sustained a stress fracture in his ankle.

"When I think of the real bell-cow freshmen in the modern era, I think of 'Mash' (Jamal Mashburn) as a real difference maker," Newton said. "Then I think of (Tayshaun) Prince.

"This guy is of that ilk."

Only time will tell how Patterson's career will unfold.

"He's the real deal," said Newton, who played for Kentucky, then coached for more than 30 years before becoming UK's athletics director. "An outstanding freshman. Obviously, a very mature freshman. He's got great skills. He obviously has a great attitude and a great work ethic. He comes to play every night."

Patterson reminds Newton of two of his former Alabama players, Reginald King and Leon Douglas. "Come in as a freshman and really contribute," he said.

Patterson perspective

Patrick Patterson dismissed thoughts of entering this year's NBA Draft before and after Friday's announcement that he'd be sidelined the rest of the season.

In assessing how the stress fracture impacted his son's NBA stock, Buster Patterson noted that his family prized education.

"Use the ball," the elder Patterson said. "Don't let the ball use you."

Donovan's ego

When Kentucky looked for a basketball coach last spring, speculation centered on Billy Donovan. He began his coaching career at UK as a Rick Pitino assistant.

Donovan has been wildly successful at Florida, guiding the Gators to back-to-back national championships. And, the thinking went, he was surely frustrated by being in football's shadow and would jump at the chance to come to Kentucky, where basketball is king.

After all, Florida's average home attendance was less than half of Kentucky's. (The Gators' home attendance is down by an average of 593 this season compared to last.) Donovan was tired of seeing empty seats.

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

During an SEC coaches teleconference on Thursday, a reporter who covers LSU asked Donovan about coaching basketball at a so-called football school.

"I've never believed in fighting battles you have no chance of winning," Donovan said. "I can sit here on a soap box and beat my chest every single day. In the South, the passionate sport is football. That's never changing, hasn't changed and will not change.

"But that has no bearing on (another) program being successful. There's no reason why a school can't have great football and basketball."

The key factor is whether a school administration will support basketball, which Florida has clearly done.

"I put our home-court atmosphere against anybody out there," Donovan said before adding a few moments later, "My ego has never been such that I've got to be at a place where this sport has to be the most important thing, and everything else doesn't make a difference. I'm part of a team here. If football's doing great here in October, that gives this institution more publicity. In spring if the baseball team's doing well, that's more publicity."

Cavernous and cozy

Mike Gminski worked Kentucky's game against visiting Arkansas last weekend as an analyst for CBS. That marked the first time he'd been in Rupp Arena since his Duke team beat UK here in the 1980 NCAA Tournament.

In his memory, Rupp Arena was cavernous and the polar opposite of Duke's Cameron Indoor Stadium. In 1980, Rupp Arena stood out as a titanic building for college basketball.

Gminski had a different take on Rupp Arena 28 years later. He prefers it to, say, North Carolina's Smith Center and other huge college arenas he's seen.

"It's well designed," he said, "bringing the fans closer to the court."

Defeats to Duke bookended Kentucky's 1979-80 season. The Cats lost to Duke in the inaugural Tip-Off Classic to start the season. Then the Blue Devils beat UK 55-54 in the Mideast Regional in Rupp Arena.

"I remember how pumped up we were to beat Kentucky on their floor," Gminski said.

Duke lost here in the next round to Joe Barry Carroll and Purdue. "Kevin Stallings likes to remind me of that," Gminski said.

Stallings, now the Vandy coach, played for that Purdue team.

Mock bracket

Back in the olden days (you know, before Patrick Patterson's season-ending injury), Kentucky had moved itself into the conversation about NCAA Tournament bids.

Jerry Palm, who runs the collegerpi.com Web site used by the SEC, included Kentucky in his mock bracket for the first time last week. He had the Cats seeded No. 11 and playing No. 6 seed Pittsburgh in the first round. The winner would play either No. 3 Xavier or No. 14 Siena.

Of course, Patterson's injury put the "mock" in mock bracket.

But before the injury, Palm explained why he gave Kentucky a bid.

"Because the teams I left out are even worse," he wrote in an e-mail. "The general quality of the at-large pool is way below average. If this were last year, UK wouldn't be close."

So how secure was Kentucky's hold on a place in Palm's bracket?

"Not very," he wrote. "I'm not sure losing at Tennessee in and of itself is a problem. Another 41-point whipping might be."

That was in reference to the 93-52 loss at Vanderbilt on Feb. 12.

"The big hole in UK's rŽsumŽ is the fact that they are not very good away from home, even when they win," wrote Palm, who saw significance in the Cats' lack of an eye-catching road victory. "The tournament is not played on home floors, so it's significant. However, better to have beaten good teams at home than no good teams at all."

Palm had five other SEC teams in his mock bracket last week: No. 1 seed Tennessee, No. 5 seed Vandy, No. 10 seed Mississippi State and No. 11 seed Arkansas.

One man, one vote

Scott Boatright, a sportswriter for the Monroe (La.) News-Star, was the only person to vote for Kentucky in last week's media top 25 poll for The Associated Press.

Noting the difficulty in filling out the final three or four spots on a ballot, Boatright began considering UK the week before. Last week, he dropped St. Mary's and placed UK at No. 23.

Boatright cited the Cats' winning ways in conference play and downplayed the 41-point loss at Vanderbilt.

"You know, it's been a weird year to figure teams out," he said. "Every team has turned in one major clunker."

Boatright, 44, is a Louisiana Tech grad. He's covered Louisiana Tech and Grambling.

Sweet redemption

In judging a player, coaches and fans wonder about such qualities as size, athletic ability and basketball IQ.

The media ponder quotability, thoughtfulness and sense of humor.

By the way, such UK players as Patrick Patterson, Ramel Bradley and Joe Crawford get good grades from coaches, fans and, most importantly, sportswriters.

This came to mind last week when reading Chicago Tribune sportswriter Dan Pompei's story about the NFL Combine.

Pompei wrote, "Michigan quarterback Chad Henne ... did not have a great workout, but he redeemed himself with wonderful interviews."

Don't blame Packer

CBS's abrupt switch to the Duke-St. John's game last weekend with about 55 seconds left in the Arkansas-Kentucky game caused one fan to send an e-mail playfully (?) questioning whether Billy Packer was responsible. Fans have long charged Packer with favoritism toward the ACC. His lack of reverence for Kentucky fueled a perception of an anti-UK bias.

Packer was in Columbus, Ohio, preparing for the telecast of the Ohio State-Wisconsin game.

"I didn't even know what happened till the next day," he said.

Happy birthday

To former UK star Tayshaun Prince. He turned 28 on Thursday.

Jerry Tipton covers UK basketball for the Herald-Leader. This article contains his opinions and observations. He can be reached at jtipton@herald-leader.com.