By Mark Bennett
With 15 games left in his senior season, Kelyn
Block sat on a table in the Hulman Center training room, slowly
bending his right knee Thursday afternoon.
Out on the basketball court, his Indiana State
teammates practiced. They were trying to salvage their season
after a rocky 3-9 start.
This wasn't the way Block expected his final
season as a Sycamore to turn out. Last summer, he had surgery
on an ankle injury that had nagged him throughout ISU's dramatic
2000-01 season. It healed nicely. Just before this season began,
Missouri Valley Conference coaches and media voted the 6-foot-2,
200-pound Kansan to the Preseason All-MVC first team.
One thousand and 18 points in just three seasons.
His heroic sprint out of the lockerroom moments before overtime
to help beat Oklahoma in the NCAA Tournament after his blood
and broken teeth were cleaned off the floor. There was talk of
MVC Player of the Year consideration.
Instead, the Sycamores struggled from the
outset. Block was leading the team in scoring (12.9 points per
game), assists (3) and minutes (34.2), to go with 4.9 rebounds
a night. And then in a home-court loss to Bowling Green, his
already bruised right knee took another hit. A few painful days
later, doctors determined his muscle was torn and needed surgery.
That happened last Friday. He'll miss at least three weeks.
As Roy Hobbs once said, life sure turned out
different.
"This is the one year I was counting
on not to be injured, after my [summer] ankle surgery,"
Block said Thursday. "I figured I'd be healthy. But this
is just one of those things I'll have to overcome and come back
from."
Anyone who saw what Block did last March in
Memphis couldn't argue with his optimism.
An accidental elbow thrown by Oklahoma guard
Hollis Price shattered three of Block's lower teeth and left
him curled up on the court in agony, bleeding. After a long delay,
he was helped to the lockerroom. Most people in the Pyramid watching
the first-round NCAA game between 13th-ranked Oklahoma and the
Sycamores were just hoping Block wasn't seriously hurt. Few could
have imagined he'd return.
He did.
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As ISU managed to force overtime, Block re-emerged,
re-entered, stole the first pass he saw, scored and totaled five
of the Sycamores' nine OT points. ISU won 70-68.
So who's to say that when Block returns, perhaps
for the Jan. 27 home game against MVC foe Southwest Missouri
State, he won't lead the Sycamores to a stunning season finish?
Block is too soft-spoken, too humble to predict
such things. Instead, he's thinking his younger teammates could
benefit by having to fill his void in the next couple weeks.
"It might actually give those guys some
confidence to step up and relax," Block said.
And when his rehabilitation is complete, Block
could be rejoining an improved team. He's anxious for that day.
"I just can't wait to get back out there.
I just really want to go back out there and play hard,"
he said. "The biggest thing is just to have fun and close
this year out like we have in the past."
That's as bold a statement as Block is likely
to make. He was subtlety referring to back-to-back NCAA Tournament
berths. This season, that's likely going to require another MVC
Tournament championship.
That's his priority on the court. The fact
that he's currently stalled at 20th in his climb on the ISU all-time
scoring charts with 1,148 points is something to which Block
pays no attention. And, though he would love the opportunity
to play professionally, he's also not dwelling on that prospect
yet.
"That's something I would like to do,"
he said. "If it happens, it happens. If not, that's why
I'm graduating in May."
Indeed, the 21-year-old's existence on the
ISU campus isn't strictly about basketball. While majoring in
technology, Block's academic work was strong enough to place
him on last spring's MVC All-Scholar team along with teammates
Matt Renn and Michael Menser. That's three-fifths of that entire
2001 honor squad.
Block knows the value of a degree, perhaps
now more than ever. The twist of an ankle or a knee can twist
fate too.
"You never know when it's going to end,"
he said. "Fortunately, I get to come back this year. It
could have been an ACL, and I'd be done."
Mark Bennett can be reached by telephone
at 1-800-783-8742, Ext. 377, by e-mail at mark.bennett@tribstar.com
or by fax at (812) 231-4321.
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