...It was the Worst of Times

And Robbie can take my ACLs they’ve survived 6 years of football as a lineman and squatin 650lbs so I know they can take about anything. But the sad thing is, is that I’m one of the worst basketball players of all time. I got a better change of making half court shots than a lay up, but I can make free throws like Robbie can

but its also easier said than done. Like you TMill, I have waited my whole life for this season. I bleed Old Gold and Black on a daily basis and live for Purdue Basketball especially, but the shock is still real. We need somebody to step up and be like CK3… a true team leader! Give me a few days, and I will be with you TMill. Just need to adjust to all the A-Hole OSU fans around me running their damn mouths (I live 35 miles from Columbus). Hopefully the Badgers help me with that tonight.

I blame “Makers All” for tearing Robbie’s ACL again today. Maybe the marketing/research of “Makers All” started in February last year and is the root of the Purdue-ACL curse. Somebody check into that.

My user name may be deceiving but I am a Boilermaker at heart and I always will be. Robbie deserves to be part of a Final Four so its up to JJ, Smooge and the rest to let that happen. Boiler Up, Hammer Down, and time to prove the doubters wrong (again)

In section 117. I got the text message. Haven’t moved since. I don’t know if I can take this anymore. I feel terrible for us, and even worse for Rob. I mean terrible. I’m going to sit here until God tells me what we have to do to get off the shit-list.

Gotta believe. There has to be a reason this happened. Twice. Have no idea in hell why, but there has to be a reason. Feels so empty to chalk it up to bad luck. Twice. Can’t imagine the inner-pain Robbie is experiencing.

i was in the student secion today when rumors floated around.. i was stunned and now im pissed. minnesota took it away again, but this team can still do it. Andy Kats is a lunaitc for dropping this team all the way down to #23 in his poll. At least they are top 15, i still give them top ten. If this team doesn’t have the dry-spells of over 15 minutes without a bucket they will still be a contender. They are still gonna have the defense that can keep teams below 40 and im certain with E’twuan and JJ still on the floor they will have 40 combined not to mention toll players. I know it feels like the world is over but I believe a Final Four appearance is still available for this year. I still believe and BOILERUP

As others have mentioned…

I’ve banged my knees nastily after having surgery in college. I’m pretty sure I used some exercise machines incorrectly too. It’s been a while since then, and a week ago my kneecap hit a pole on the bus. The pain soon went away.

I was able to feel a bit better for myself and realize how lucky I was. Small comfort.

But for Robbie Hummel, I imagine it is tough. For his teammates, especially the two other of the big three, who stayed to be a part of something big—I think we all knew this could happen, that something previously injured could get injured again. Robbie doesn’t seem like a person you go around feeling sorry for, so there’s nothing sensible to say. Everyone close to the situation has said the right things. They’ve kept relative composure. But they’re probably even more torn than all of us fans.

Also, big credit to all the players and coaches who had looked to face Robbie in the Big Ten who threw out nice tweets and retweets. I don’t spend much time on twitter (don’t like it) but I refreshed the search a lot, just because.

It was nice to see the decency swamp the very occasional jerk.

I’m firmly aboard.

For anyone who isn’t, maybe this will help. If not, you’re already dead inside.

I am never jumping off of this train!

poppin ACL’s (5 at my count) like Orville pops corn…

it litterally halted sexual relations. I was that upset…..fuck

Granted, I was apparently blacked out last night, mumbling “there is no God” for a couple hours. The jello shots I made did the damn thing.

As we have all witnessed in previous ACL news cycles, the actual confirmation that the worst has happened always takes a couple of days into the new week. We’ve been told that it takes time for the injured player to get in to see an orthopedic expert, often down in Indy.

Did Dr Shelborne (or whatever his name is – his sponsership of injury timeouts on the radio feed pisses me off to no end) stuff his portable MRI in his fanny pack on his way to Ross Ade that morning?

Within hours of Rob’s injury on Saturday, it was announced nationally that it was definately a new ACL tear, he would be out for the season, and would redshirt and come back to finish in his eligibility in 11/12.

Now when something like this happens, you gotta figure the team, coaching staff and the injured player is in complete emotional shock for awhile. Hell, the open thread for the Minny game didn’t mention football for at least 30 minutes once the news broke. Yet Rob, his family, the coaching staff and whatever medical expertise was around Saturday morning was, within a couple of hours of the injury, ready to announce to the world that the ACL was indeed torn, he was lost for the year and would be coming back to play next year.

Now I apologize for going all “Oliver Stone” on this horrible event, but ya gotta admit, a great deal of planning was completed before the screams stopped bouncing around the Mackey dome. Does anyone else find this all a bit “neat”? Is it possible that Rob really wasn’t as far along in his recovery as we have been hearing? Maybe he actually reinjured his knee before Saturday, and there was some advantage to making the announcement once official practices started.

I’m just sayin’.

As a lifelong Purdue fan, I know false alarms don’t happen to the Boilermakers unfortunately… especially this year. We just need to take our medicine and try to move on. After 24 hours, I feel better… not good, but better. I’ve had time to put things in perspective.

As TMill pointed out, things are different this time around. We have depth that we didn’t have last year. With a new Johnson, a healthy Marcius, and an improved Bade, I firmly believe we can fill Robbie’s position. We have the time to adjust too. Also as somebody else pointed out, we have a month before the season even starts to prepare rather than losing Robbie mid-season. Lew-Jack is healthy. We all know JJ and E’Twaun will pick up most of the slack themselves. You couple all of that with the fact that JJ and E’Twaun will be pissed that they cannot compete with Robbie after they came back for their senior year, we will be just fine. BOILER UP and HAMMER DOWN!

Everyone and their mother have completely written off Purdue now, for the Big ten title or otherwise. People are saying we’ll be lucky to make it back to the Sweet 16.

WTF?! This team still has two legit POY candidates, as well as a metric assload of depth. Maybe we’re not the national favorites anymore, but a slip to #23?

This has got to be bulletin board material this week in practice. I mean, the national media just gave the rest of the team a giant collective FUCK YOU and said that you’re nothing without Rob. I hope in this case they DO take it personally, and play the entire season with a major chip on their shoulders.

I was looking forward to the great battles between MSU and Purdue this year. Purdue’s still going to be a very good team, but this had the potential of “rubber game on an April Monday in Houston”, and that just got a lot less likely.

Hard not to feel bad for the kid, who by all accounts is a class act as well as a hell of a player. Even as a fan of a rival.

Most of them were sympathetic, a few laughed, and a couple of them I kicked in the balls.

This just isn’t fair.

Shit.