Amazing Return
PHILADELPHIA – Kyle Lowry was supposed to be practicing right now with Villanova. That’s all – just practicing, not playing over 18 minutes per game for the Wildcats.
“We never thought we were going to have Kyle Lowry,” head coach Jay Wright said. “He did a good job in rehab, Derrick Snowden did a great job in rehab and Derrick Snowden didn’t get back as well as him. He’s a freak of nature. It’s unbelievable that that kid’s back.”
Lowry, the lone freshman on a veteran team on the Main Line, suffered a torn ACL just three days after classes started in late August. Given the time of the year it happened, the rehabilitation was likely to take him through much of the season, enough time that redshirting him was the most optimal scenario. In December, Wright said that Lowry would certainly redshirt, but would be able to practice starting around this time. That all changed starting on December 20, the day Lowry was cleared to practice.
Lowry was able to do a lot of his rehabilitation right where the team practiced, so he was able to watch practice and talk with the coaches. That was part of what enabled his quick return, as he wasn’t isolated from teammates and was able to start picking up the system through observation. He made his debut on December 31 against Big Five rival Penn, scoring five points in 17 minutes.
“He’s never practiced in our program – ever – so he knew everything we were doing just by watching, and that’s amazing. He’s got incredible basketball IQ,” Wright said. “Most kids can do it for about 15 minutes and they get bored; he was always on the sideline asking questions, which almost drove us crazy a little bit, but it paid off.”
Lowry certainly knows the game, but he also knows how to win, as he did plenty of it at the high school level. A star at nearby Cardinal Dougherty High School, he is arguably the best prospect of a team that has produced two Division I players and has two more headed to Division I schools next season. Lowry made the All-Tournament team at the 2002 Slam Dunk to the Beach Tournament as a junior, helping his team to a third place finish. Then was one of the top players in the deep class of 2004 on the spring and summer travel circuit as he had been before. He led a team without a great deal of talent to a win at the Spiece Run ‘N Slam, where he had 41 points in the semifinals against a team that featured a backcourt of All-Americans, and his teams consistently went far in other tournaments.
High school teammate DeSean White, a longtime close friend of Lowry’s and a freshman at Providence, was among the least surprised at his quick return. They both still talk regularly about life in the Big East and had a chance to see each other last Wednesday, when Villanova beat the Friars in overtime. White, who had some intense competition with him all the time at practice, knows what kind of competitor Lowry is and how much he loves the game.
“That probably was the most confusing, frustrating period of his life,” White said. “Kyle wants to keep playing until someone really stops him. You have to chain him up, tie him and put him somewhere in the corner, because he isn’t going to give up.”
Lowry talked on the day of the injury with the aforementioned Snowden, a former Wildcat who suffered the same injury around the same time last year but was amazingly back within four months. Snowden gave him encouraging words from his own experience, noting the work that the training staff did with him, and Lowry also talked to alumni like Jason Lawson and Jonathan Haynes. He also had a compatriot close by in Jason Fraser, who has had three knee surgeries since coming to the Main Line, though none were for an injury like this. Fraser puts Lowry’s comeback in complete perspective, as the junior forward is wont to do.
“Kyle Lowry did a way better job than I’m doing,” Fraser said, “Think about it – he doesn’t know our system, he has barely any – four practices, if that – he comes and does the job he’s doing, not knowing the system at all. A point guard – that’s like a quarterback in football, I’d say it’s the toughest position in basketball, because you’re controlling the team.”
Lowry figures to be an important player from this point on. Sophomore Mike Nardi is the team’s primary floor leader and junior Allan Ray is the designated shooter, while Randy Foye is the scorer. Lowry figures to handle the ball plenty as the backup point guard, and he’ll also be out there at times where the Wildcats go small with four guards, which they used at Providence.
Symbolic Times
It’s all part of a continuing theme with the Wildcats, a team that has been through a lot the past few seasons. Near the end of 2002-03, an incident involving an athletic department access code led to numerous player suspensions. Fraser has not only had the aforementioned knee surgeries, but also had a heel injury that cost him games last season. He rarely practices now because of the knee, instead spending a lot of time going over film and scouting reports with assistant coach Ed Pinckney. As if that’s not enough, the Wildcats had a scare after Wednesday night’s win at Providence when the airplane they were headed back to Philadelphia had to make an emergency landing. It all adds up to some trying times that they have had to battle through.
“This group has been through so much,” Wright said. “I feel like they’re wily veterans. I really like the resiliency, and if they keep that they could be a really good team.”
“Since I’ve been a freshman here, we’ve been through a lot of stuff,” said Ray, who quietly led the Wildcats with 27 points and made several clutch shots against Providence. “We’ve learned how to stick with it, and we’re a more mature team.”
The Wildcats look more mature and may now be benefiting from the suspensions. They gave players like Curtis Sumpter, Nardi and sophomore Will Sheridan chances to play more minutes sooner than Wright probably wanted to play them, and all three have developed. Sumpter, who is out for several weeks with a sprained knee, has developed into one of the conference’s better players after he played limited minutes for much of his freshman season. He leads the team in scoring and is third in the Big East in rebounding, and last summer played with the USA 20-and-Under team.
The Wildcats have arguably the most talent in the Big East, so much is expected of them. Wright doesn’t pretend that there isn’t pressure from the outside to see some better results this season, but the staff does a good job of getting players to tune it out and play to win because they like to win. It helps that they have good young men, all coachable and with good team chemistry. The chemistry has no doubt been helped by the hard times they have all had, which has forced them to support each other.
“That’s the kind of kids they are – they’re tough, they’re resilient,” Wright said. “This is really a unique group of guys. They’re very close and they’ve been through a lot.”
