Injuries

Given our style of play, would it be fair to say that injuries are a feature and not a bug? It’s been a few years now were we’ve had late season injuries. Just makes me wonder if this is something Sampson considers when shaping the roster every year.

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I’d say it’s built in a bit, but you build in for contusions, sprains, and some extended time injuries. You can’t really build in for 3 season ending injuries especially two really late in the year.

No more redshirts. Keep a full roster. End of story.

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Definitely a feature at this point. The problem is it’s going to be tricky to build the depth necessary to combat it. We need bench guys who are willing to only play 10-12 mins a game. So few guys are willing to do that.

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How many injuries were fatigue/overwork vs freak injuries? Sasser’s injury last year was a freak injury while Shead was fatigue.

The year before Tramon got hurt in the preseason scrimmage. Sasser during a non conf game.

Its obvious that it is impossible to prove the rugged style of play does or doesn’t cause any given injury.

My thought is any injury can occur any time for any team.

But even if our aggressive style of play (and practice mentality to rarely be out-toughed) is sometimes (or even often) to blame, I think its what you go with…because we are not likely reaching this level of contender status without it (at least given the circumstances). Its a big part of our recent successes overall.

What it means to me is we can’t underestimate the importance of having a deep bench, mainly bigs. When certain players are redshirting, one or two injuries means relying on players that aren’t always ready to play big-time basketball. Had Tugler and TA not been injured we might not be having this conversation.

Looking at today, ISU plays a very similar style of basketball. They play a tough physical style of defense. Makes me wonder how they got through the entire season without significant injuries.

With that said, we need players on the bench, Bigs, that can step in to play significant minutes when the starters are injured. You can’t rely on a true freshman that Sampson said was a project.

Nope. Today, on a day in which Roberts played injured for 13 minutes we needed guy like Tugler off the bench or how about another guy like Hason Ward, a 6’9” 230 lb athletic PF.

Maybe a little but I think a lot of luck goes into it. TA achilles tear was a freak injury, Marcus’ groin strain was a freak injury, and as far as I know a torn meniscus can be from overuse or just a freak injury so not sure on Ramon.

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Yup. Some injuries (ACL is an example) are partially even hereditary (ie smaller passage than others where the ligament passes thru - contributing to an eventual tear under reasonable repeated stress). Learned that from the former Dallas Maverick’s doctor.

So it’s often difficult to know what factor ended up being a root cause (either way).

I just hope we keep doing what we are doing that leads to back to back 1 seeds and 4 years of Sweet16, Final Four, Elite 8 and Sweet 16. Or let’s stop doing what we are doing and go back to being on the CBI bubble. SMH.

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The CBI is a cutting edge tourney.

Or maybe just let coach decide that

Between injures and Red Shirts, over one third of our team is not available for floor time.

I was walking down the hallway at home when I first felt the pain of a torn meniscus. I do believe it was caused by a: falling on a pipe when I was about 12, b: catching a tip in the snow because of skis that were too long and twisting it badly, c: catching softball for several years, d: 30 years of both C & W and smooth Ballroom dance. Even after two surgeries, I still feel pain and weakness in said knee.

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Just saw a post from Duarte saying LJ was dealing with a foot injury late in the season. Is it time to talk about their practices and how physically demanding they are? Perhaps they need to tone it back some. I’m not there so don’t have much to go on.