Will Egolf and his outstanding recovery from a disastrous knee injury

First - everyone should watch this ---http://centralillinoisproud.com/content/fulltext/?cid=88181

It is a WMBD and Kurt Pegler piece on Will Egolf. It tells part of the story, but consider that there's really much more.
All "ACL tears" are not exactly the same, but all complete tears or complete ACL ruptures DO share the major fact that the biggest, strongest, and most important rope-like ligament that holds the knee together completely tears in half. It is as simple to understand as a rope that snaps and completely separates.

But - some full ACL tears do NOT have other associated internal injuries in the knee, making them a bit simpler and easier to repair and recover from.
Will Egolf's knee did however have numerous other internal injuries...almost as many as can happen in such an injury.
Will also had three other knee ligaments injured as well (PCL, MCL, LCL), two different cartileges torn, bleeding into his knee, underlying bone bruising and even a microfracture of one area of underlying bone....thus the year long period required to recover!

Any chance of recovery from such a severe knee injury is dependent on two main factors. One is the team of surgeons working on the repair, and in that regard, Will had the best. The local Peoria group headed by Dr. Mark Phillips (Ryan's dad), Jim Maxey, et al..did an outstanding job on Will's surgical knee repair.

But the other main factor is the patient himself and whether he is willing to undergo and perform the year-long process for the recovery which includes long periods of wearing braces, resting as well as properly excercising, and taking medications, then, of course, the incredibly difficult and grueling rehab and recovery program that simply wears out some people and causes them to quit or compromise.

But there was no quit in Will. He is just an incredible competitor and athlete, as well as being a fine individual who knows what's best for him and properly followed all the detailed plan laid out for him......except one thing...
and you'll have to watch the video in the link above to know what that is... ;)

But note this also........
In his first four games back at the D-I level, Will has played 82 minutes and averaged--
20.5 minutes per game, 6 pts, 4 rebs and has yet to be in foul trouble in any game.
(Hallejuah!)
I know those aren't staggering numbers, but how long has it been since we've had anywhere near that kind of production from a center, and it is only going to get better as time goes on.
That's better scoring and equal rebounding compared to what we got from Collins as a senior, and as decent as any center BU has relied upon this decade.... (except maybe one -- ;)).

Like I said...it is going to get better, and PTL that Will has come so far....
when you note a few other past players and other Valley teams' players with similar knee injuries, you just don't see many of them coming back anywhere close to 100%.
I made this argument a couple years ago when ISU's Jeremy Robinson tore his ACL, and oddly there were those who laughed as my suggestion of how hard it would be to come back from such an injury. Keep in mind, Robinson's injury was described as a "half-torn ligament", and occurred nearly 3 years ago and he's still not looking too good, and there's talk of even redshirting him this season - nearly 3 years after the injury!http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=34798#post34798

ISU's Bobby Hill likewise tore his ACL back in May 2008, and is still out, having never even come close to fully recovering.
So the evidence is quite strong as to how difficult it is and how few players ever get back to 100%. hopefully those other players can find encouragement to keep working and they might yet be contributors...maybe give Will a call and get some tips?
But Will may have actually surpassed the near-100% level....and already could be at 100% with the possibility of getting better yet.
That doesn't say he still won't have setbacks or problems - that's a real possibility, but I think a strong amount of great praise and credit should go to Will, his trainers and therapists, and to the surgeons who have done such a great job with Will.
Good luck and God bless, Will....have a great season....
and have TWO MORE great seasons beyond that, also...become the leader we know you can be!
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Presbyterian head coach Greg Nibert was pretty obnoxious the way he continually screamed at about 110 decibels right in his players' faces, and at them constantly up and down the court. I believe in the long run, when potential recruits see that crap, he's going to have difficulty getting certain kids to want to play in that situation.
The guy also sweats like a racehorse...and his shirt was sweated and soaked through before the 2nd half. Maybe wear a sweater??
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Lastly, we heard a ton about how great Presbyterian's freshmen are and how they're gonna be a really good team when those freshmen mature...
OK -- I'll bite....
Presbyterian's true freshmen scored 27 points in 70 minutes - .386 points per minute.
Bradley's true freshmen scored 16 points in just 25 minutes - .640 points per minute.
I'd say the Bradley freshmen weren't too shabby, even tho the press doesn't seem to drool all that much over them.

How about the sophs??
Well, Presbyterian's sophs (including RS) had 23 pts while Bradley's sophs including redshirts had 25 in about the same minutes.

One more things...the negative nellies have whined about BU getting outrebounded, shooting poorly, not getting more production in the paint, and having way too many turnovers especially from the PG's.
Hellooooo...have any of you guys stopped whining long enough to look at the stats??
This year's team has accomplished the goal of reversing ALL of those issues!
The season is only 4 games old and the first two of those games we didn't even have our top rebounder available.
But we are outrebounding the opponents, getting good production in the paint, shooting 45% from the field as a team, and have a 54 to 38 assist to turnover ratio coming from our two PG's! (A/T ration of 1.39)
(ISU's PG's in just 3 games account for only 28 assists compared to 22 turnovers, A/T ration of 1.27, and the other league favorite UNI's PG's (KA, AF, AJ) - actually ahve a terrible 10 to 15 ratio - 0.667!)

In the early running BRADLEY leads the Valley in A/T ratio-

Bradley's players have somewhat come to expect getting hammered in the press and by grumbling fans, but I feel it's only fair to give proper credit where it is due!
Our front court guys (TB, Milos, Will, Sam S., and Sticks) have done very well thus far -- keep up the work..
Also the guards have played hard and shown Bradley to be a better team than what would be expected of a predicted 6th-place Valley finisher.
Now let's get to Vegas and get some more work done.
It'll be hard to come home with two wins, and even getting one against such good competition will be tough...but I am quite hopeful that no matter what the outcome, our Braves won't be dominated and will use this experience to prepare well for the upcoming Valley season.
It'll prepare our guys a whole lot better than whupping 340 RPI teams on our own home court like some pretenders do.