By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
His body has betrayed him all season, has often transformed him into a spectator, has stripped him of those special gifts he possessed when he left his Georgia home and landed in Evanston. Still, even as he missed the `Cats last half-dozen games, JerShon Cobb was determined to play Tuesday evening at Welsh-Ryan when they host Michigan. That, after all, would be Senior Night, and not only his last chance to perform in that playpen he has often graced. It would also be his last chance to say thanks.
"These fans," he explained Monday, "have been through a lot with me. I wanted to show my appreciation and play on my last night at Welsh-Ryan."
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His mom and is dad, his grandma and his aunt will join him Tuesday at Welsh-Ryan. JerShon Cobb knows this. But how he will feel, he says, "I don't know. I don't know at all."
Point Dave Sobolewski is another of the `Cats who will be making his final home appearance that night, and joining him will be his parents, and friends from campuses around the midwest, and even folks from the New-Jersey-based hedge fund company that will soon be his employer. But he also says, "Really, I don't even know what to expect in terms of how I'm going to feel. I'm looking forward to it, though. I've got a lot of people flying in from all over the place, so it'll be a special night for me and I'm looking forward to it."
The last of the `Cats who will be honored that evening is center Jeremiah Kreisberg, the grad student from Yale who will be joined by his father and his brother. "I've had a great year here. I love all the people in the program," he says. "So it'll just be a nice way to finish things off."
"It's an emotional night for everybody. And it's not an easy night to play when you're the senior, especially early in the game," says `Cat coach Chris Collins, who will start Cobb and Sobolewski against the Wolverines. "You're recognized. You're emotional. You know it's your last game. I've always thought, as a teammate and then as an assistant coach and now, it's really important for the non-seniors to get you off to a good start.
"The first couple of minutes are going to be emotional for those guys. So if the other kids can be there for them and help them get along and get stared, then once the game gets going, you find yourself getting in the flow of the game. I thought, as a player, the hardest part was the first couple minutes just because everything's flashing before you, that it's the last time on this court. You feel those emotions and sometimes it can hurt you."
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Last year, on his Senior Night at Yale, Jeremiah Kreisberg was injured and not certain he would ever again play basketball. But he regained his health, and the `Cats recruited him to back-up Alex Olah, and this was just the kind of opportunity he deisred. "To be able to play a full season at a place like this has been everything I wanted, and a lot more actually," he will say. "Great teammates. Great coaching. I've been be able to improve, contribute and then play at the highest level, something I didn't know I could do. Obviously, I thought I'd be an Ivy League player my whole life. But coming to the Big Ten, it's been tremendous."
Which is why it does not matter to him that his playing time has been unpredictable. "I just want our team to be playing well," he explains. "Obviously, when I'm needed, I play when I'm called upon. But I try to add value in any way I can. So if I'm not playing, I can be cheering them on, talking it over in the huddle, trying to be a senior leader, getting guys ready before the game. I just want to be helpful in any way I can. So the playing time to me is not as important as the team's success."
"We were really hurting for a front-line presence," says Collins. "I thought with his experience, that would give us another guy in case of, God forbid, injury. We knew Alex was going to be the guy. We wanted him to be a good backup, or if Alex was in foul trouble, to always be ready. He's done that. He's a high energy guy, he's added a lot to our practices. I've enjoyed having him."
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He debuted as a freshman starter against Texas-Pan American on Nov. 13, 2012, and Dave Sobolewski still remembers the first game shot he took in Welsh-Ryan. It was a short corner jumper along the baseline and it was good. He would end that season on the All-Big Ten Freshman team, and continue on as a starter through all of his sophomore year and the first half of his junior year as well. But then he was sidelined by a concussion and, since his return, he has played off the bench. "It's been a reminder," he will say of this second half of his career, "that everybody faces adversity in life, and there's many ways to deal with it, and you've always got to take the high road and do the right thing."
He did that by not complaining, and by mentoring the freshman point Bryant McIntosh, and by simply being there when needed. "I think he's been great," Collins says of him. "He's been a great teammate. He's been a really good leader. He's probably our highest IQ guy on the team. So he's really good in film sessions, in walk-throughs, game-planning, he's been really good with these young guys and showing them the way.
"Obviously, he would have liked to have had a bigger role as a player. I have empathy for that. But the way he's handled it, that's why he's played well here down the stretch. He's really helped us win these games. He's made some big shots. He's made free throws. He's been a steadying influence when he's been on the floor. He's going to be part of this program going forward, and I want him to feel great knowing that what he put in these two years was a big help toward getting us where we want to go."
"It's been a long ride," Sobolewski himself says. "But I feel very blessed to be where I'm at. These last four years have really shaped who I am today and they've shaped how my future will end up. So I'm thankful for my opportunity and, like I said, I'm looking forward to a special celebration on Tuesday night."
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The ride has been even longer for JerShon Cobb, who has endured innumerable injuries and a year of inactivity and this final season of constant pain and lingering uncertainty and stretches of inactivity. "It's horrible. It's horrible," says Collins, trying to explain just what Cobb has gone through. "I got injured my junior year in college and had to miss a considerable amount of time. It's the worst feeling because, no matter what, you feel disconnected from your team because you're not out there in the fight, in the fire. You want to be out there and it's killing you. You know you love it (basketball). But then when it's taken away from you, you really realize how much you love it. I've felt horrible for him this whole year because he hasn't been healthy all year long."
Confronted by this betrayal of his body, Cobb admits, "Sometimes I felt like maybe I should just let it go. But I couldn't do that to my teammates, and my family."
So courageously, admirably, he persevered, he carried on, and so now he is set to appear for the final time at Welsh-Ryan as a living-and-breathing definition of courage. "It's been a lot of adversity," he finally says. "But I feel I've become a man here, and I really appreciate everybody and everything I've been through here. My teammates always had my back, my coaching staff, everybody around Northwestern, my family. So I've been all right.
"Now I'm just trying to enjoy the last days of my career."
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