"My rule was I wouldn't recruit a kid if he had grass in front of his house.
That's not my world. My world was a cracked sidewalk." —Al McGuire

Monday, January 01, 2007

McNeal and Matthews taken to the hospital

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, sophomores Jerel McNeal and Wes Matthews jr. were taken to the hospital today after bumping heads going after a rebound. It was considered a precautionary measure and their status is unknown for Thursday's Big East opener.

Here is the brief article


Of course this isn't the first time players at MU have been injured during practice under the Crean tenure. You will recall that All-American guard Travis Diener was injured in a "non-contact" drill in February of 2005 that to this day has remained a bit of a mystery how he was hurt. Internet rumors speculated a tackling dummy was involved which always begged the question where "non-contact" came into the equation.

Hopefully McNeal and Matthews are not injured severely and can play on Thursday at Providence. We wish them well in their recovery. The Friars game will be difficult on its own, let alone without two of the top three scorers on the Marquette squad.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

How the heck can you bang heads so severely that you require a hospital visit when you're are going after a rebound? I have played and watched a TON of basketball over the years and I've never heard of such a thing. I hate to add another chapter to the Diener mystery injury, but that story doesn't hold water.

Anonymous said...

A loose ball drill is more likely. Crean loves that stuff.

They call it a fumble drill in football, but those guys wear helmets.

Anonymous said...

My mind goes back to Vinnie Johnson and Adrian Dantley collided while trying to corrale a rebound against the Boston Celtics during the '86 playoffs.

I think Dantley still would have been knocked silly even if he had been wearing a helmet.