Gonzaga forward Adam Morrison keeps his stash next to the water cooler.
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| Arkansas' Charles Tatum (right) hustles for a ball after being told he probably never would again.(AP) |
And then he goes back to playing -- and playing well. Morrison, a 6-foot-8 freshman, is the leading candidate for West Coast rookie of the year. He leads conference freshmen in scoring (11.4 per game), rebounding (5.5) and field-goal shooting (51.5 percent).
And he leads this story, which focuses on the kind of people needed by college basketball more than ever -- those worth admiring.
Here are five more.
Justin Allen of Arizona State: After practice or games, Allen considers the pain in his hips a blessing. The fatigue? That's a blessing too.
It could be worse. He could feel nothing. Ever again.
Three years ago, a month before practice began for his sophomore season, Allen asked Arizona State doctors about his weight loss, and about the lumps near his hips. Tests showed Allen was suffering from Hodgkin's disease, a rare form of cancer occurring in the lymphatic system. He was given a 75 percent chance of survival, and never thought about the other 25 percent.
"There are four stages, and they caught it in stage two," Allen said. "The doctors told me there was a 70-something percent chance of cure, so that was good news. I thought I would make it."
Allen is in his third year of remission. Two more years and he'll be considered a cancer survivor, although Allen already counts himself in that group. When he speaks at high schools or cancer fundraisers, he tells his audience he is lucky -- yes, lucky -- to have been diagnosed with cancer.
"People look at me crazy, like, 'Oh yeah, it's a blessing you got cancer,'" Allen said. "But it is. Before, I was 18 and thought I was indestructible. Now my grades have increased, and my whole attitude has changed. Getting that extra year of school, playing an extra year (of basketball), that means I'm still around here. Looking at the positives is the only way to do it."
Allen, a Pac-10 all-academic member, has his bachelor's degree and is working on a master's in educational administration. A 6-8 power forward who plays about seven minutes per game, Allen hopes to be a high school teacher and coach next year, and ultimately return to college as an athletics director.
Chance of me betting against his success: zero percent.
Yankuba Camara of St. Bonaventure: Back home in Gambia, Africa, they don't have great basketball shoes -- certainly not like the ones worn by Camara, the Bonnies' starting center, or by his teammates.
Camara is aware of this. Last month he badgered his teammates for their used sneakers, collecting about 25 to send to friends and former teammates in Gambia.
Camara's good will spread to Corning, N.Y., where high school sophomore Maura Collins collected sneakers from her schoolmates for the same cause.
Charles Tatum of Arkansas: One team doctor said it looked like Tatum had been in a car wreck, not a pick-up basketball game. Another doctor said it looked like a grenade had gone off inside Tatum's right knee.
His injury: three torn ligaments, and torn cartilage.
His career's prognosis: Not good.
Doctors gave Tatum, a 5-10 guard, a 10 percent chance of playing again for the Razorbacks after he was hurt in April 2002. Tatum, a senior who had played in 84 games with eight starts, beat those odds with a knee being held together by a cadaver's Achilles' tendon and part of his own hamstring.
After redshirting last season, Tatum has played in all eight games this season, averaging 1.7 points and 1.4 rebounds -- which is 1.7 points and 1.4 rebounds more than anyone thought possible.
Ray Lopes of Fresno State: Lopes, the Bulldogs' second-year coach, takes his players to the Poverello House in downtown Fresno to serve Thanksgiving lunch to the homeless.
While his players help prepare the meal in the kitchen, Lopes serves as a busboy.
Dan Woolley of Richmond: Woolley doesn't play for the Spiders, but he's still the toughest guy on the team.
Woolley, a team manager, suffers from Nephrotic Syndrome and had both kidneys removed eight years ago, according to a team spokesman. Woolley undergoes daily dialysis, taking a machine with him to road games. A transplant is a possibility.
In the meantime ... wow.
