Jan. 11, 2008
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By Adam Lucas
For Bobby Frasor, the reality of his season-ending knee injury doesn't hit him when the Tar Heels are on the floor. He's watched every game in a suit from the sidelines since he tore his ACL against Nevada on Dec. 27, but feels the postgame is more difficult than the actual game.
"When you're watching the game, it isn't that hard because you're into it and it's fun," he says. "You can see things differently than when you're on the court, and you get a better sense for how the team is playing than when you're part of it.
"But the hardest part is after the game. Everyone is joking around, laughing, and talking about specific plays. I remember being part of that and now I really have nothing to say other than, `Good job in the game.'"
In reality, the talkative Frasor rarely limits himself to just, "Good game." Surry Wood, his usual seatmate on the Tar Heel bench, recently turned to him mid-game after listening to Frasor dissect the action and said, "You have the voice of a coach."
But since stepping into the passing lane against the Wolf Pack--part of a defensive effort that resulted in him winning the coaches' defensive player of the game award--planting his left foot, and feeling his knee move in a way it had never moved before, Frasor has gone through a wide range of emotions.
"It was devastating to know my season was over," he says. "For the first few hours, I wasn't really thinking about what I would do or even what the team would do. I didn't want to talk to anyone about it."
Soon, however, his tight-knit family--and the Carolina Basketball family--began to pull him out of his funk. His parents, Bob and Donna, have been courtside regulars over the past three seasons and will be in Chapel Hill on Monday when Frasor undergoes surgery at UNC. And his oldest sister, a physical therapist, was in town immediately after the injury and has assisted with research into rehabilitation possibilities. <!-- STORY AD BEGINS HERE -->
<!-- STORY AD ENDS HERE -->He's also received numerous notes of support from Tar Heel fans, all of which have been read and appreciated. Sometimes, words of wisdom even come from unexpected sources. Valparaiso head coach Homer Drew, who watched Frasor play frequently in high school, pulled him aside when the two teams met in December.
"Coach Drew said his daughter, who is playing overseas, had the same injury," Frasor says. "He said there were times he saw her in tears trying to bend her knee with the therapist. Everyone says rehab will be a pain, but the more you put into it, the more you get out of it. I plan to give my all, just like I do in any workout, and be back sooner than expected."
Doctors say those expectations are for an approximately six-month recovery period, meaning Frasor would be back at full strength in time for preseason conditioning. That would be his senior year, but plans are already being made for an appeal to the NCAA for a Medical Hardship Waiver.
Three conditions must be met for a waiver case to be open and shut:
1. The injury must be incapacitating (Frasor easily meets this one)
2. It has to occur in the first half of the season (Again, no problem)
3. The injury must occur before the student-athlete participates in more than 30 percent of his team's scheduled games. Number three, obviously, is the part that must be appealed, and the appeal can't be filed until the end of the season. The way the NCAA counts games, the Tar Heels are slated to play 32 games this year (the NCAA Tournament doesn't count). Frasor played in 12, meaning he appeared in 38 percent of Carolina's games. By NCAA math, he could have appeared in 10 games and remained under the 30 percent threshold (the NCAA rounds up 9.6 to 10).
So two games are at issue. To admittedly prejudiced Carolina fans, that might sound like a tiny figure. But the NCAA makes rules for a reason, and all involved acknowledge that the chances of receiving the medical redshirt are slim. UNC has had some success with hardship situations in the past for football--Skip Seagraves and Brian Chacos each received an extra year on the gridiron--but those were different situations in which the players lost two of their five mandated seasons to injury and needed to appeal the NCAA's five-year eligibility clock for a sixth year of competition.
Despite the bleak outlook for an additional season, Frasor remains remarkably philosophical about his fortunes.
"This isn't a tragedy," he says. "Jonas (Sahratian) gave me a quote: `Champions don't make comebacks, they overcome setbacks.' That's been in my head ever since. This is an opportunity for me to get my whole body in tune. I'm planning to have the best year of my career next season."