Sooner starts from scratch after injury
By GUERIN EMIG World Sports Writer
1/26/2007
Freshman Keith Clark endures rehab after tearing ligaments in his knee.
NORMAN -- Keith Clark was at Oklahoma basketball practice the other day, shooting 3-pointers on his one good leg, being guarded effectively by the 6-foot, 160-pound team manager who couldn't stop laughing.
And while that seemed a pretty grim situation, it really wasn't.
Clark, see, was laughing back.
"I've been doing this a long time, and probably no one has had a better attitude than he has," 20-year OU trainer Alex Brown said of Clark, the forward who lost his freshman season to a torn knee ligament Dec. 28. "He does what's asked of him. A lot of kids in this situation start feeling sorry for themselves, get depressed, have a tough time. If he's gone through that, he's hiding it really well."
He's hiding it from everyone. Trainers, managers, teammates, even reporters curious to find out how he's coping.
"When this happened, I was like, 'Now I've got something to tell my grandkids,' " Clark laughed during an upbeat pre-practice interview.
Truthfully, there was some initial shock.
"I was just dribbling," Clark said of the SMU game Dec. 28. "I stopped to plant. I have a problem sliding my feet sometimes. I slid my foot, and it just buckled. That was it."
Clark had torn the anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments in his right knee. Brown knew before Clark left the court, even if Clark wasn't ready to accept it just yet.
"I tried to look to the bright side, that I just twisted it or something," Clark said. "I'd never been cut on in my life. The worst thing I'd had was a twisted ankle."
Reality hit when Clark awoke from reconstructive surgery Jan. 11. It was time to start all over.
"It was hard," Clark said. "I had finally started getting my mind right and was looking positive on things, and I finally started to play hard. Then that happened. I wondered, 'Why me?'
"But God has his plans for everything. I looked at it like that, tried to stay positive."
Before long, Clark bent the knee. Then he walked on it. Muscles strengthened. He bunny-hopped. He picked up a basketball, started ambling around practice, taking a shot now and then. He smiled a lot.
"He's doing super," Brown said. "We expect him to succeed in the training room, and then next year on the court."
It seems a long time to wait, considering Clark was rated the No. 57 recruit nationally by Rivals.com. He was just starting to figure out how to handle the jump from Putnam City to OU when he was sidetracked.
But nobody's worried.
"With the rehab and the process, he'll definitely be in better shape than when we got him," Sooner coach Jeff Capel said. "He'll come back stronger."
Originally Posted by badger
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