SIU's Brian Mullins may done for the year

[Da Coach]

SIU is in the NIT, but their chances may have just taken a huge blow--
It's being reported, unofficially, that Brian Mullins will not play again this year.
Now reported that he has a stress fracture in his leg.

[cpacmel]

http://www.qctimes.com/articles/2008/03/17/ap-state-il/d8vf6m4o0.txt

Southern will have to play without starting junior guard Bryan Mullins, who's out for the rest of the season with a stress fracture.

[tornado]

Of course, BradleyFans was reporting this last week, for those who keep up...

http://www.bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=70868#post70868

I can still recall this kid's toughness back in 2006 when he played that MVC Tourney title game with a badly sprained ankle.

[BradleyBrave]

Hmm. Injuries are supposed to be considered when the NCAA (and NIT since it's being run by the NCAA) dole out bids to their tournaments. There have been teams in the past who've received lesser seeds because of significant injuries. Quite frankly SIU is not an NIT-caliber team without Mullins, and dare I say perhaps barely a postseason team. Perhaps they hid the injury, who knows. I know most people knew that he wouldn't have played against ISU in St. Louis had they beaten UNI.

[BUBraves06]

This is a big blow for their team obviously. I really can't see them beating OSU without him, even though they are at home I think he's that important to them.

[tornado]

A couple comments in the SIU press seem to make it appear that they made a significant mistake with Mullins by not getting him to a medical specialists and by continuing to have him play while he was hurt with a not-yet-disclosed condition.
According to the articles, Mullins had been hurting for an entire MONTH, and yet did NOT see a doctor until the pain was almost unbearable, and he couldn't even walk.
In other words...he had been playing for nearly a month on a sore leg that had a stress fracture, and

"It turned out to be a stress fracture in his left tibia.
The pain originated three to four weeks ago, Mullins said, and gradually got worse.

"It's been a rough couple last weeks, but I just thought I would try to help my team, play through it, and see if we could make the NCAA Tournament," Mullins said. "After that, I kind of agreed to go see the doctor."

Mullins, the Missouri Valley Conference's Defensive Player of the Year, did appear to be a little off in his last two games...

Mullins said he was only able to play in the games as much as he did through the adrenaline rush of the crowd and sheer willpower.

Playing without really knowing what's wrong was, maybe, not the smartest thing, but, again, you just want to help your team as much as possible," Mullins said. "We did the best thing that we could at the time....

Now..............
Doctors have asked him not to put much weight on it over the next two weeks. He originally considered playing the rest of the season, but if he aggravated the fracture, or broke something else, he might have been off the court for six to nine months."


These are all their words..not mine.......
I sure hope the kid's future hasn't been ruined by the "game plan" they pursued.

[BradleyBrave]

He sure looked healthy against us in Peoria. His 2nd half 3's were arguably the difference in the ball game and perhaps our entire season at that point (a win in that game and at Creighton lands us a #3 seed, a more winnable game against UNI, and another shot at ISU). He certainly gutted out the last few games.

[Drill]

SIU Impressive last night

SIU was very impressive in last night's game. It goes to show how good the Valley is. I thought that comment on them not being good enough to be in the NIT was a low blow. You should be glad to have the Valley with so many representatives. I was overjoyed to see Creighton win. Another win for the Valley. We need to root them on !!!!! All of them.

[tornado]

When I saw the late game score on Creighton I essentially gave up, and am glad they made a great comeback.

[tornado]

Article this morning says Bryan Mullins is still two months away from getting onto the basketball court.
He has been off the court for six weeks already, and is looking at June to begin on-court workouts.

http://www.thesouthern.com/articles/2008/04/24/sports/24225137.txt