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April 2009
Gardner looking for 30-game finish
FAIRBORN — John David Gardner was in basketball shorts and t-shirt Wednesday morning, limping around the Setzer Pavilion with the help of a crutch.
He had a smile on his face as he glanced toward the Mills-Morgan Center court, where Wright State coach Brad Brownell ran some drills with Vaughn Duggins, N’Gai Evans and Will Graham (who has used up his eligibility but was helping out).
“I don’t want to sound like a doctor,” Gardner said, “but the labrum (in his right hip) is what the bone moves around in. They took my labrum off and shaved it and they shaved out some cartilage and shaved down some femoral head. Then they sewed the labrum back on. it took about four hours. My hip feels better. I mean, it hurts, but it feels better.”
As you may recall, Gardner has had foot and hip problems for more than a year. The foot injuries actually started well before that, and possibly could have led to the hip injury. While compensating for the foot, you know…
Anyway, Gardner was playing some all-league guard last season when a labrum tear was finally detected and when other treatmetns failed, it was determined surgery was the only way to correct the problem.
Gardner missed the final third of the season, and on April 2 had surgery.
He has been otherwise busy as well. He became engaged to Mallory Wyrick of the women’s basketball team, and will graduate at the end of this quarter before entering grad school.
In the meantime, he will undergo daily rehab and within five months expects to be cleared for full basketball duty.
That should be as good for WSU as it is for Gardner.
“All I want to be able to do is play 30 games, a full season,” Gardner said. “That’s my goal.”
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Big man to join Raiders
FAIRBORN — When you’re scouring the world for talent, sometimes the talent finds you.
A couple years ago, Paul Darkwa was playing basketball for the All-Navy team and thinking of ending his Naval commitment and going to college.
Monday, he signed with Wright State to play basketball.
Good for Darkwa, good for Wright State.
Darkwa, who was in the Navy nearly eight years after finishing high school in Riverside, Calif., is a Ghana native who arrived in the U.S. with his family when he was nine years old, 17 years ago.
His family moved here, he said, for opportunities not found in Ghana, and soon moved from New Jersey to Southern California.
He was a 6-foot-1 guard in high school, but after enrolling in the Navy with a buddy because he thought college was too tough and expensive, he discovered an education was something desirable and that he was growing taller than his buddy.
“My growth spurt came late,” said Darkwa, who expects to be in town later this summer to enroll in school and play pickup games with the Raiders.
He is now 6-foot-7, 230 pounds and coach Brad Brownell said he could have a scholarship even though Brownell never saw him play.
The reason was Francis Ebong, an Annapolis grad who played on the All-Navy team with Darkwa and is also the brother of WSU assistant coach Victor Ebong. When Darkwa advised Francis he wanted to go to college, Francis knew who to call.
There is still some paperwork to do as the NCAA must decide if Darkwa, who has never been to college, has immediate and four-year eligibility. Apparently, he did not take an ACT exam in high school (he did take it recently), but Brownell feels confident he will pass all the NCAA requirements.
Darkwa will be a much-needed big man on the WSU roster, joining 6-9 Ronnie Thomas, 6-8 Cooper Land and 6-7 Cory Cooperwood. Actually, Cooperwood is closer to 6-5 and Land is more of an outside player than inside.
That leaves one spot on the WSU roster with the loss of Kyle Pressley, who unexpectedly left the team with two regular-season games to go last season.
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Road to recovery: Duggins begins practicing
FAIRBORN — It was his first hard practice since late last November when Vaughn Duggins broke a finger in his right hand and eventually decided to sit out the rest of the season.
A couple months later, as long as he was already out, the Wright State junior had some calcium cleaned out of his ankle as well.
Now, he’s ready to go again, and that’s great for the Raiders, don’t you think?
Now, the really good news. Duggins thinks he and the team didn’t do well at the start of last season because, coming off two 20-win seasons, it thought things were going to be easy.
“I think we were thinking it was just going to come to us,” Duggins said. “I got a little over weight. I didn’t make good decisions (on the court). Maybe this injury was a blessing in disguise.”
That’s the attitude. It’s always best when your top player thinks everything could be a little better.
Let’s face it. Duggins was right. Even though the team recovered to go 20-13 — a third straight 20-win season (quite an accomplishment no matter what some other bloggers might think) — it wasn’t like the Raiders lost Magic Johnson or Larry Bird when he was out of the lineup.
Duggins hurt his finger after the third game, and played in the fourth, thinking it was only a sprain, not a break. He averaged 11.8 points in those four games, all of which the Raiders lost on the way to an 0-6 record to begin the season.
Still, hardly anyone could argue this was (and is) WSU’s best player. He led the team in scoring as a sophomore and was leading as a junior. He was the best defensive player on the floor. Can he carry this team alone? Probably not, but he’s a key element.
“What we need to do is concentrate on what we need to get done (to win),” Duggins said. “We got waxed in that last game (I played) at Sam Houston State. I didn’t practice after that, but I was there to help. It hurt watching.”
Duggins wants to make it better, and he was at the Setzer Pavilion today to lift weights. He’ll be practicing again Wednesday afternoon.
“I was pretty amped my first 10 minutes (Monday),” Duggins said. “Then the coaches reminded me of how bad of shape I was in. I spent more time bending over than standing up.”
The more he stands up, the better the Raiders will be. It sure is good to see him practicing again.
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Brownell won’t give in to speculation
FAIRBORN — Brad Brownell has his standard answer whenever his name comes up for another job, which it has for the current Xavier vacancy.
“You know what I’m going to say,” Brownell said. “I’m very happy at Wright State. I’m excited about what we’ve been able to do here.”
The job is open because Sean Miller left Monday for Arizona, and it didn’t take long for Brownell’s name to surface on a list of published candidates.
The Cincinnati Enquirer is even running an on-line poll asking fans who they would like among a list of nine names, including Brownell and Butler’s Brad Stevens. Topping the poll in the late afternoon was current Xavier assistant Chris Mack. Brownell was running fourth, also behind Stevens and Siena’s Fran McCaffrey.
“It’s always flattering to have your name mentioned for other jobs,” Brownell said. “At the same time, I’m happy here. You can’t control what other people speculate. There are few things people can control, and this is one of them.
“A lot of stuff that’s out there isn’t accurate. My name has been linked to a lot of jobs, and that’s going to happen if people think you’re doing a pretty good job.”
Brownell was head coach at North Carolina-Wilmington four years, winning 20 or more games twice and going to two NCAA tournaments. At WSU, he has won at least 20 games in each of his three seasons and is 64-33 in all. His team has gone to one NCAA and has won 20 or more games three straight times for the first time in WSU Division I history.
But, but, but…”I’m not talking about other jobs,” Brownell said. “We had our first meeting (of the quarter) Sunday and I spoke with the team (Wright State’s) about our individual workouts and what we have to do this off-season. I spoke about what we accomplished during this season.
“I also told them I was glad of what they did in the classroom. We had a 2.95 team gpa. I want that to continue.”
Brownell also reported junior guard John David Gardner had successful surgery to repair a muscle in his right hip, and sophomore guard Scott Grote had his right knee cleaned out. Both are expected to be at full strength next season.
Will that be playing for Brownell at Wright State?
“I’ve got to get to our workouts,” Brownell said. “I’m happy at Wright State.
