A Mugger Around Every Corner
January 16, 2008 by Run Up The Score!
As if starting the game down 20-4 wasn’t insulting enough, Penn State’s entire basketball season came to a screeching halt last night against Wisconsin as leading scorer Geary Claxton tore his ACL with 13 minutes left in the first half at the Bryce Jordan Center.
Team doctor Wayne Sebastianelli said after the game that Claxton hurt his anterior cruciate ligament and is out for the season.
“It’s devastating for Geary. I went into halftime, and told him I loved him and hugged him,” Penn State coach Ed DeChellis said after the game.
Entering Tuesday, Claxton was averaging 18.7 points, second only to Indiana’s Eric Gordon (23.0) in the conference.
Horribly typical for the Penn State basketball program. Nobody said that climbing out of a bottomless pit would be easy.
This is a damn shame. Not that I expected PSU to be anything special, but I was looking forward to signs of progress this year lead by Claxton.
Well, so much for any shot what so ever at making the tourney.
The more things change; the more they stay the same….
Remember that light at the end of the tunnel… as it turns out it IS a train.
This is a conspiracy!!! Michigan referees were incharge of the floor which Geary landed.
Those sleazy weasels.
Threadjack
Did anyone else notice that M-Rob made a prominent sportwriter’s all-pro team? For covering kicks of all things.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/dr_z/01/09/all.pros/index.html
Just a reminder of what a great all-around player he was and is.
Such a shame - Claxton was putting together a great, great, All-Big Ten first-team season. Hard enough to win in the Big Ten… now go do it without one of the top five or six players in the conference. Yikes.
Guess Brooks & Jackson will have to grow up in a real big hurry on the wing. Or go small and play Morrissey at the 3, Walker/Pringle at the 2.
Makes me think back to an old locker room story from the by-gone glory days of high school basketball:
Team down at half-time to a better opponent in the state playoffs. Coach looks at his super-talented high-potential sophomore, who had been outplayed so far in the game, looks him in the eye and says, “I know you’re going to be a great player some day…
…but we need that day to be today.”
Team went on to lose anyway, and I wasn’t even in the locker room when it was said (maybe in 8th grade?), but I always loved that story. Sophomore did go on to be a great player, for the record.
Threadjack? Honestly….
This just makes Claxton’s injury even more painful. The overall lack of care from the fan base. Apparently PSU fans would rather root for our football thugs who suck just as much as our basketball team does. At least the basketball team is comprised of upstanding human beings who give it their absolute all for the good of the program. Claxton was an exception. He worked harder than ANYONE. He suffered beating after beating for this university when he could have bailed for bigger and better opportunities. He could have been PSU’s first ever Big Ten POY. He could have been drafted into the NBA.
All of that is gone and you want to talk about MRob???
eric, i totally agree with you, the bball teams needs for attention from the fans. They also need to move back to the rec where the game would have a decent atmosphere. For the record though, MRob was a great guy who never got in trouble and took his share of lumps before he single handedly turned a horrible shitty team into the #3 team in the nation. He waited his turn behind, of all people, zack mills, and always accepted the position he was assigned to until he was allowed to play qb.
That being said, yes the football team has a lot less to like about it than the bball team right now. Claxton is done for the season, and that sucks, but lets not give up on his next level potential just yet.
As someone who is a PSU bball fan first, and fball fan second (there are a couple of us) this really hurts. It’s been great to watch Geary play over these past 4 years. I think it’s a shame he hasn’t had more talent around him, consider all he would have accomplished if there were other strong players around him (besides Jamelle). Also, the Claxton family were great fans, coming to every game and supporting the blue and white. Hopefully, Claxton can rehab and perhaps go to the D-League and get a shot at the next level.