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Scary moment for Parker

Left knee is solid, according to trainer

By Dan Fleser (Contact)
Originally published 10:13 p.m., February 7, 2008
Updated 12:14 a.m., February 7, 2008

Tennessee’s Candace Parker grimaces after suffering an injury to her left knee during the second half of Thursday’s game against Mississippi State in Starkville, Miss.

Rogelio V. Solis/Associated Press

Tennessee’s Candace Parker grimaces after suffering an injury to her left knee during the second half of Thursday’s game against Mississippi State in Starkville, Miss.

Mississippi State’s Alexis Rack, right, drives past Tennessee’s Shannon Bobbitt during Thursday night’s SEC game at Starkville, Miss. The Lady Vols won 87-69 but Rack racked up 32 points.

Rogelio V. Solis/Associated Press

Mississippi State’s Alexis Rack, right, drives past Tennessee’s Shannon Bobbitt during Thursday night’s SEC game at Starkville, Miss. The Lady Vols won 87-69 but Rack racked up 32 points.

STARKVILLE, Miss. — Instead of the stat sheet, the postgame injury report took priority for Pat Summitt Thursday night.

The Tennessee women’s basketball coach didn’t budge from her seat when Jenny Moshak, the Lady Vols assistant athletic director for sports medicine, entered the interview room following UT’s 87-69 SEC victory over Mississippi State.

“I’m not moving,’’ Summitt said.

The news was encouraging regarding All-American Candace Parker, who had to be helped from the floor and then to the locker room after suffering a left knee injury. Parker was examined by Dr. Bob Collins, Mississippi State’s orthopedic specialist. All of the major ligaments checked out fine, Moshak said.

“The knee is solid,’’ Moshak said. “We’ll see how it responds just because it went through that trauma.”

Parker has had two surgeries on the same knee. She had a torn anterior cruciate ligament repaired during her senior season in high school.

UT’s postgame release on Parker said it appeared “as though she hyper-extended it.”

The rest of Moshak’s report was mixed. Freshman Angie Bjorklund, who missed most of the second half with a bloody nose, might have suffered a broken nose. She will have an X-ray today.

Moments before Parker went down, the Lady Vols lost senior guard Alberta Auguste, who aggravated the left biceps injury she had suffered in practice last Friday. She was replaced by the injured Bjorklund.

Summitt didn’t see Parker’s injury, which occurred with 3:09 left. The junior was going for a loose ball under the Lady Vols’ basket.

“I was getting ready to go to the bench and I didn’t even see it,’’ Summitt said. I was turning around to sub. I’m like, ‘I should’ve substituted earlier.’ ’’

The fact that Parker was playing that late reflected the nature of the game for No. 2 Tennessee (21-1, 8-0 SEC). The Lady Vols needed more than 30 minutes to subdue Mississippi State (14-9, 2-6), which led by seven points at halftime before a crowd of 2,628 at Humphrey Coliseum.

Lady Bulldog Alexis Rack scored a career-high 32 points.

When Summitt turned to the bench in the first half, she received little response from the reserves. Auguste came through in the second half, with 10 of her 12 points.

Auguste was one of five Lady Vols scoring in double figures. Alexis Hornbuckle and and Shannon Bobbitt led with 16 points apiece.

“You have to look at it that we’re a blessed team,’’ Hornbuckle said. “It could’ve been a lot worse.”

It started out a lot better. A 3-pointer by Bjorklund gave UT a 24-11 lead with 12:52 left in the first half. At the point, a stunning role reversal took place.

The Lady Bulldogs reeled off 21 consecutive points, driving through UT’s defense and swarming the offensive boards.

“I thought our defense was water,’’ Summitt said. “They went right through our defense.”

By halftime, State led 40-33, matching North Carolina for the most points scored against the Lady Vols in the first half this season. They hadn’t trailed at halftime since last season’s SEC tournament semifinals against LSU, a span of 28 games.

Summitt directed her most stinging postgame criticism toward the reserves.

“They were miserable with the exception of Alberta,’’ Summitt said. “I’m not happy with them. They can’t do that to this team.”

Bobbitt, who had three treys in the second half, arrived beforehand courtesy of the UT plane, reaching Starkville about three hours before tipoff. The 5-foot-2 senior was unable to travel with the team on Wednesday because of a test in a Psychology class Thursday.

Bobbitt was accompanied by Lady Vols athletic director Joan Cronan and Kerry Howland, an assistant athletic director for academics. Injured teammate Kelley Cain also was on board.

Cronan said that originally Bobbitt was going to miss the game. She missed a game at Louisiana Tech last season because of a test and a heavy week of academic work.

The decision to transport Bobbitt was made two days ago, Cronan said. To those who might consider the gesture and the expense extravagant, Cronan said, “I will travel to four to five games a year and take donors. I decided to come to Starkville. Coming on the UT plane is not near as expensive as chartering a plane.”

The plane, which was secured for an hourly rate, returned immediately after the 1 hour, 15 minutes to Starkville, Cronan said. The traveling party went home on the team charter.

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.

       30 Comments

Posted by huntined on February 7, 2008 at 10:25 p.m. (Suggest removal)

WOW!! That hurts us for monday as we will need her BAD.
32 By Rack against the Vols!! Need better defence monday as they have some good shooters
GO VOLS!!

Posted by huntined on February 7, 2008 at 10:27 p.m. (Suggest removal)

se sorry about that

Posted by sannie82 on February 7, 2008 at 10:28 p.m. (Suggest removal)

hyperextended knee dont say how long she will be out

Posted by huntined on February 7, 2008 at 10:31 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Thought my computer had broken as it was 24-15 vols lead next score we got was 24-32 MSU leading
did we take all our players out for 10 min ???

Posted by wp4ut on February 7, 2008 at 10:39 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Let's look at this for a second,candace is a great player no questions ask,but it takes more than one to win a ball game,so this team will fair just fine and the diagnois is thought to be a hyper-extended knee.

Posted by sannie82 on February 7, 2008 at 10:53 p.m. (Suggest removal)

come i agree wp4ut but cp is a huge part of this team, i dont even think that word is big enough. if she was to be out for a couple of weeks i dont think we would be at number 1 for long

Posted by lempga on February 7, 2008 at 10:54 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Coach Summitt said in the post game interview that Angie's nose may be broke . She also said that Candace had been checked by Mosak and Miss St doc and she should be ok, just soreness and a little swelling. Albert Auguste had been playing with a strain shoulder.

Let's hope for best.

Posted by volguy on February 7, 2008 at 11:03 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Rough night physically for the Lady Vols in Starkville.

Posted by utchris2003 on February 7, 2008 at 11:22 p.m. (Suggest removal)

She will have her in the training room for about 12 hours a day for the next three days and then most of Monday as well. Assuming that it turns out to only be Hyper-extended (they will probably confirm with an MRI), I would not be surprised if she were able to go Monday. On the other hand, if they don't think that she is at least 90 plus percent, they will hold her out bc the rest of the season is more important.

Posted by pdhuff on February 8, 2008 at 7:03 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Great fight-back win, Lady Vols. Hope Parker is ok.

Off subject - this injury seems minor if you check Tennessean.com -articles on Macon Co storm damage. Six miles from home, very scary night.

Beat Rutgers.

Posted by LadyVolsEighTimes on February 8, 2008 at 7:17 a.m. (Suggest removal)

CP3 should be ok to go monday if it is in fact a hyper extended knee. I imagine Pat will start her and then sit her if the game is going our way. Fuller is a damn good shot as well.

Poor Rutgers! They are gonna have to set up two defensive game plans now.

Posted by King53 on February 8, 2008 at 8:31 a.m. (Suggest removal)

wow, we got beat up on the road in Starkville. 3 great players taken down in one night. sheesh!

Posted by johnlg00 on February 8, 2008 at 9:43 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Ouch! The Rutgers game was going to be tough enough before these injuries! It would make their season to beat both UConn and us in the same year. Also, they feel like they owe us for beating them in the championship game last year. IF the Lady Vols beat them AND avoid any more major injuries, they could go all the way to that 8th banner.

Posted by mad_poly_uct on February 8, 2008 at 9:49 a.m. (Suggest removal)

I only can hope MRI is negetive. After what happened to Greene & Thomas,& Player at Baylor, not to mention several others(2 girls at Purdue) enough is enough with the ACL injury's this year. My thoughts are with CP & all of you that this really is just a hyperextention & she'll be back soon. Good luck against Rutgers Mon......pdhuff....yeah, something like that sure puts things in perspective doesn't it.....

Posted by Merv on February 8, 2008 at 9:54 a.m. (Suggest removal)

It'd be good if our crack N-S staff would do a piece explaining why women athletes have more knee problems than men.

Posted by johnlg00 on February 8, 2008 at 10:01 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Merv, there actually was such a piece a few years ago. The ACL injury to female athletes is so common that it is probably a good idea to repeat that article, with updates, every season. I don't remember all the details, but the bottom line is that female athletes really do get that injury more often than males; it is one of the major emphases in sports medicine research these days.

Posted by brucealmightyfan on February 8, 2008 at 10:06 a.m. (Suggest removal)

If Parker is unable to go Monday, then the capacity crowd at TBA has to be a MAJOR factor. Make it so loud for 40 minutes that Rutgers can't even remember why they're there.

Posted by LadyVolsEighTimes on February 8, 2008 at 10:39 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Actually I think Lady Vol fans want UConn at full strength if and when Uconn meets us in the Final Four. saves on hearing the excuses.

Moshak said that the ACL tears are over twice as likely in female v male athletes.

Posted by utchris2003 on February 8, 2008 at 10:58 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Actually, they should write an article on how girl's/women can reduce the rate of knee injuries. They all wrote about the problem, but never the solution.

Posted by mad_poly_uct on February 8, 2008 at 11:07 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Actually UF, I think Pendav said that..another Uconn fan....I read an article in the NY Times last fall about the ACL "epidemic" in WCBB.Can't recall all that was written, but impression I got was that researchers are concluding that women have longer & thinner ligaments which combined with a slightly different skeletal structure(hips especially)causes a much higher torque ratio on womens knees, which in turn leads to a much higher incidence of serious knee injury's in the women's game.Article used a lot of medical jargon that was way over my head, but that's what I interpreted from the article anyway. Who knows, maybe I got it all wrong, but it seemed to make some sense of what's been happening as WCBB's popularity and involvement increases yr to yr.....

Posted by mad_poly_uct on February 8, 2008 at 12:09 p.m. (Suggest removal)

2001!!?!! Holy s**t time's a flyin!!! Guess that's what happens when one has 3 young girls(one of whom is a Vol fan,btw!), coulda sworn I read Times article last fall.Perhaps I read article in other paper, not Times, if not, I think I need to see a nuerologist....

Posted by adimatteo on February 8, 2008 at 12:27 p.m. (Suggest removal)

one of the earlier notes said it. Has to do with structure of females and hips, etc, creates more problems with knees.
Is a shame, seems that when it comes to lady basketball, whichever of the top teams doesnt lose a player/players to knee injury,ends up playing for the championship. It is a shame, so common at all levels for the girls.

Posted by Kwitcherbellyachin on February 8, 2008 at 12:33 p.m. (Suggest removal)

I coached girls basketball several years ago. After we had two players blow out ACLs, we made a decision to tell our girls to stop doing jump stops, and to cut as much as possible off of their dominant leg. We never had another injury after that, although I'm sure a lot of that is coincidence.

Posted by utchris2003 on February 8, 2008 at 12:59 p.m. (Suggest removal)

There have been other articles since that one. It has been proven that you can reduce the rate about 80%. The Santa Monica ACL Project (I think it will come up if you google it) showed a decrease in the injury rate. Another Project in the northeast showed a decrease as well. We have done it at my school too, and have significantly reduced the rate as well (guess my master's project went for something useful after all).

Researchers have been trying to pin point one particular reason for why this happens, but if you step back and look at it, there are multiple factors that cause the higher rate of incidence in women. You can reduce the rate of incidence, but you will never be able to completely eliminate the threat of the injury. We should keep in mind that the injuries that they are referring to are non-contact ACL tears. When you add contact in to the equation, the preventative measures you took go right out the window.

Posted by sgtvols on February 8, 2008 at 6:52 p.m. (Suggest removal)

whre is the blow hard exconn dude? what happened? let the 'nappy's beat the best team in the universe? guess you aren't the best team anymore. blow some more, blowhard. all you can do now is pray parker is cripple for life.

Posted by pendav on February 8, 2008 at 8:05 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Hey Uconn Fan

What makes you think I'm a UT fan? In fact I am a UCONN FAN. Just telling it like it is.

Posted by pendav on February 9, 2008 at 11:20 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Hey Uconn fan

WHY AM A JOKE?? Reading your junk makes it real easy to see why UT fans think you should get lost.

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