By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
He doesn't know when it happened or what caused it. But suddenly, sometime in the summer, the pain was there. He tried to ignore it, tried to endure it, tried to play through it, but progressively it got only worse. So finally, about a month ago, he got an MRI, and it revealed that sophomore forward Vic Law had a torn labrum in his left shoulder.
This was the same injury that had sidelined teammate Tre Demps his true freshman season, the same injury that had also sidelined former 'Cat Drew Crawford in what was supposed to be his senior season, yet still Law persevered. He would miss some practices, would also miss a scrimmage, but he was there performing last Thursday during his team's exhibition against Quincy.
"Just to see, and I thought he played pretty well," Chris Collins said Wednesday afternoon. "But the next morning it was killing him."
"Of course (I wanted to) try and play through it and try to help the team as much as I could," said Law himself. "But the exhibition game we played, I just couldn't go. It was really painful … It was a really sharp, intense pain. I felt like my shoulder was moving around a lot as I played. As a basketball player, when you know you're limited, it's mentally hard to keep going out there and participate like that."
So the next morning Law visited Collins' office, and they got his parents on the phone, and the difficult choice was made. He would have season-ending shoulder surgery. "Ultimately," Law explained, "it was my decision. No one knows my body like I know my body. I had to make the decision that was best for me … Of course I was disappointed. Of course I was upset about it. I felt like I let my team down. But I have to stay positive and look at the brighter side of things, know this a year I can get better and get fully healthy and be the biggest cheerleader on the sideline for the rest of my teammates."
"It was always up to him and his family," said Collins. "None of us know what that feels like except him. It was always about his level of pain and whether he felt he could help the team. It got worse and worse. It got to the point where he wasn't comfortable out there. He was thinking about it too much. This was the right decision."
Law will undergo surgery sometime next week and is expected to be healthy by the spring, which is when he'll begin preparing for next season. But this 'Cat season opens Friday when they face UMass Lowell at Welsh-Ryan, where the depth Collins has talked about this fall will be tested for the first time. "I think we can be a strength-in-numbers type of team," he said two weeks ago at the team's Media Day. "We're going to have to utilize our pieces. We're going to be the kind of team that, on a given night, there can be a different leading scorer. There's five or six guys to me that, on a given night, could lead us in scoring."
"We felt all along we are a function of our group. We have to be a sum of our parts," he echoed on Wednesday. "We have good players, but we don't have one or two guys who are going to carry us. We need to play team basketball. We need to rely on each other at both ends. I have the confidence, and I think the guys do too, and I think it can be a positive. People are going to think we should cancel our season and wait 'til next year. Hopefully that drives our guys."
The juniors Sanjay Lumpkin and Nathan Taphorn, the sophomore Scottie Lindsey and the freshman Aaron Falzon. Those are the guys who will pick up most of Law's minutes, and it is their collective effort that must make up for his loss. With the 'Cats, the two, three and four spots are interchangeable and so, said Collins, "It's not like guys have to learn new positions. It's kind of a positionlesss offense where they've been running those spots."
But more important than his offense was the work Law did on the boards, where he was his team's best rebounder. "That's something we have to make up for, and it has to be a collective effort," Collins went on. "That's hasn't been something that's been a real strength of our team. So when you lose the best guy when it's not something that's a strength, we've got to work that much harder to be a good rebounding team."
Still.
"We've prepared for this," Collins finally said. "We've been playing without him in practice. We scrimmaged without him. It's a big loss. He brings a lot to our team. And I hate it for him. He had a great summer, he had a really good fall, and I thought he was really poised to have a breakout year. You know what, though? We're not going to cancel our season.
"Guys got to step forward and we've got to find a way without him. That's what we intend to do."
NUsports.com Special Contributor
He doesn't know when it happened or what caused it. But suddenly, sometime in the summer, the pain was there. He tried to ignore it, tried to endure it, tried to play through it, but progressively it got only worse. So finally, about a month ago, he got an MRI, and it revealed that sophomore forward Vic Law had a torn labrum in his left shoulder.
This was the same injury that had sidelined teammate Tre Demps his true freshman season, the same injury that had also sidelined former 'Cat Drew Crawford in what was supposed to be his senior season, yet still Law persevered. He would miss some practices, would also miss a scrimmage, but he was there performing last Thursday during his team's exhibition against Quincy.
"Just to see, and I thought he played pretty well," Chris Collins said Wednesday afternoon. "But the next morning it was killing him."
"Of course (I wanted to) try and play through it and try to help the team as much as I could," said Law himself. "But the exhibition game we played, I just couldn't go. It was really painful … It was a really sharp, intense pain. I felt like my shoulder was moving around a lot as I played. As a basketball player, when you know you're limited, it's mentally hard to keep going out there and participate like that."
So the next morning Law visited Collins' office, and they got his parents on the phone, and the difficult choice was made. He would have season-ending shoulder surgery. "Ultimately," Law explained, "it was my decision. No one knows my body like I know my body. I had to make the decision that was best for me … Of course I was disappointed. Of course I was upset about it. I felt like I let my team down. But I have to stay positive and look at the brighter side of things, know this a year I can get better and get fully healthy and be the biggest cheerleader on the sideline for the rest of my teammates."
"It was always up to him and his family," said Collins. "None of us know what that feels like except him. It was always about his level of pain and whether he felt he could help the team. It got worse and worse. It got to the point where he wasn't comfortable out there. He was thinking about it too much. This was the right decision."
Law will undergo surgery sometime next week and is expected to be healthy by the spring, which is when he'll begin preparing for next season. But this 'Cat season opens Friday when they face UMass Lowell at Welsh-Ryan, where the depth Collins has talked about this fall will be tested for the first time. "I think we can be a strength-in-numbers type of team," he said two weeks ago at the team's Media Day. "We're going to have to utilize our pieces. We're going to be the kind of team that, on a given night, there can be a different leading scorer. There's five or six guys to me that, on a given night, could lead us in scoring."
"We felt all along we are a function of our group. We have to be a sum of our parts," he echoed on Wednesday. "We have good players, but we don't have one or two guys who are going to carry us. We need to play team basketball. We need to rely on each other at both ends. I have the confidence, and I think the guys do too, and I think it can be a positive. People are going to think we should cancel our season and wait 'til next year. Hopefully that drives our guys."
The juniors Sanjay Lumpkin and Nathan Taphorn, the sophomore Scottie Lindsey and the freshman Aaron Falzon. Those are the guys who will pick up most of Law's minutes, and it is their collective effort that must make up for his loss. With the 'Cats, the two, three and four spots are interchangeable and so, said Collins, "It's not like guys have to learn new positions. It's kind of a positionlesss offense where they've been running those spots."
But more important than his offense was the work Law did on the boards, where he was his team's best rebounder. "That's something we have to make up for, and it has to be a collective effort," Collins went on. "That's hasn't been something that's been a real strength of our team. So when you lose the best guy when it's not something that's a strength, we've got to work that much harder to be a good rebounding team."
Still.
"We've prepared for this," Collins finally said. "We've been playing without him in practice. We scrimmaged without him. It's a big loss. He brings a lot to our team. And I hate it for him. He had a great summer, he had a really good fall, and I thought he was really poised to have a breakout year. You know what, though? We're not going to cancel our season.
"Guys got to step forward and we've got to find a way without him. That's what we intend to do."