Hummel recovery slow but steady
Before Robbie Hummel went down with a season-ending ACL tear, the Purdue Boilermakers were cruising towards one of four first-seed spots in the NCAA tournament. They were riding a nine game win streak and sitting 23-3 on the season, but the injury to their star forward left them struggling to rebuild momentum. They stumblde to the finish, dropping three more games and looking lost without their All-American heading into the post-season.
An 11-point first half against Minnesota in the Big Ten tournament did nothing to convince onlookers of their NCAA title chances as they dropped to a four seed with the loss, but the Boilermakers made due in the national tournament, surviving to the Sweet Sixteen before being eliminated by eventual champion Duke Blue Devils.
Hummel, meanwhile, could only sit and watch.
"On the court he completes us as a team,'' said head coach Matt Painter of the 6ft 8in forward. "He really facilitates what we do. Sometimes you can't put into words what he does, but when he's not there, you can see it.''
With 27 of his family members in the stands, Hummel’s knee gave way during the first-half of a regular season game against Minnesota. Hummel, insisting he could continue playing, was sidelined and upon returning to home was told that he had torn his anterior cruciate ligament and would require season-ending surgery.
On 8 March, Hummel’s 21st birthday, Dr. K. Donald Shelbourne, one of the country's leading researchers on ACL injuries, performed a unique procedure that rather than grafting tissue from the damaged knee - in Hummel’s case, his right - uses a tendon in the undamaged one to repair it.
"Having a good leg and a bad leg, you end up playing at the level of the bad leg,'' said Shelbourne. "It doesn't make sense to take it from the already damaged leg. It just makes the knee weaker and makes it tougher to get back to normal. When you take it from the opposite knee, you rehab them both together, and our research has found people tend to recover more quickly and productively.''
Since then, Hummel has been working steadily with physical therapists and his coaches to rebuild his strength for the upcoming season.
"He's such a mentally tough kid and so positive,'' Painter said. "He sees the big picture. I actually think he got over more quickly than everyone else did. He just moved forward and started his rehab.''
“Welcome to my glamorous life”
Hummel has said that the most daunting part of this whole ordeal has been dealing with the frustration attached to a slow rehab.
“I’m so tired of lifting weights,” said Hummel, who has bulked up from 208lb to 230lb while waiting to get back on the court.
Working with athletics trainer Jeff Stein, Hummel is now up to 90 minutes of rehab a day, followed by 60 minutes of strength and conditioning to go along with some light shooting and agility drills.
"He's always challenging me - when can I do the next step,'' said Stein. "But it's just a gradual process. It has to be. You can't walk before you can crawl in this situation.''
“(I see my teammates and) they aren’t tired,” said Hummel of some of the more rigorous conditioning drills. “But I am. I'm a little nervous because I hurt it doing something so simple. It's not like I was doing anything crazy, so I'm a little apprehensive. I want to fall down and get back up again.''
The Boilermakers have yet to set a timetable for Hummel’s return though he could be cleared for full contact as early as the end of the month.
“I think there's a lot of excitement for us, because we believe we can be really good this year," said Hummel, whose 15.7 ppg and 6.9 rpg ranked second for the Boilermakers last season despite the injury. “I love playing basketball and I'm going to do whatever it takes to get back on the court."
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