The knee

It's a hotly contested basketball game; the players are battling it out under the basket, the crowd is cheering for the home team. You see a player drive toward the basket, plant the foot to turn and shoot, and crumple to the floor. The piercing scream transcends the roar of the crowd, and suddenly that is the only sound you can hear. Everyone else has gone absolutely silent, knowing that, once again, they have witnessed an athlete "blow out" a knee. The dreaded torn ACL.

Barb and I have been court-side for this injury a half-dozen or more times, and we saw it again last Tuesday night. Jess Harlee, a key member of the West Virginia women's basketball team, untouched by any other player, made a move that her anterior cruciate ligament could not withstand, and became another statistic. Everyone around her knew immediately what had happened; Karen Astin, the Texas coach, began at once frantically calling for the West Virginia trainers and medical staff. Players turned away with that stricken look - that "there but for the grace..." look.

Barb and I have seen so many of these injuries - too many - primarily because we follow women's basketball. Female players have four times as many ACL tears as male athletes. Some say it is the physiology of the female knee; others say other things. In the period from 1985 to 1992, ten Texas women basketball players tore the ligament. A huge amount of study and effort went into the cause and prevention of knee injuries by the University, and since 1992 there have been only three. But they still happen.

There's as much psychological trauma to the player as there is physical injury. Every athlete knows that an ACL tear means as much as a year-long period of healing and rehabilitation. Seasons - even careers - end on the floor beneath the basket. Some are inconsolable; one night in Regional play we saw a young woman from Louisiana Tech fall to the floor. She wouldn't let anyone touch her except Leon Barmore, the coach. He ended up carrying her off the court to receive medical help.

In 2010, the men of the West Virginia Mountaineers had reached the Final Four after defeating the 1-seed and tournament favorite Kentucky, in large part because of the playing of Da'Sean Butler. Late in the second half Butler was driving hard to the basket and the left knee gave way as he planted. I posted back then, and I'll repeat it here - I have never been as impressed with a coach as I was with Bob Huggins, down on the floor consoling his injured star.