To the surprise of no one, Josh Grant officially announced what everyone had long expected Monday afternoon: He will sit out the remainder of the college basketball season because of a knee injury.
Grant, a senior, had been determined to play this year, although others - namely, his coach and wife - had tried to convince him to do otherwise. But after playing poorly in a couple of games, Grant concluded that he hadn't recovered sufficiently from August knee surgery to play effectively this season."It's not healing as quickly as we had hoped," Grant told reporters at a press conference in the Huntsman Center. "We were pushing the knee to the edge with an accelerated rehab program. The rehab for this injury normally takes six months. We were trying to do it in three . . . (the knee) has flared up again, and it's too sore for me to do anything."
Grant, who led the University of Utah to a 30-4 season last year and was named the Most Valuable Player in the Western Athletic Conference, will apply to the WAC for an injury hardship case. To be considered for a hardship case, an athlete must not have played in more than 20 percent of his team's games, and the injury must have occurred in the first half of the season and incapacitate him for the balance of the season.
If all this weren't enough bad news for the Utes, there was more of it on Monday. Craig Rydalch, Utah's other senior co-captain, might require surgery on his right (shooting) wrist. Rydalch, who has already used a redshirt year, is also recovering from reconstructive ankle surgery and has seen little action this season.
Thus, the outlook for the Utes has changed considerably. They returned all but one player from last year's championship team, but now Grant - their leading scorer and rebounder - and Rydalch - the team's sixth man - are on the bench.
"This is the best course of action for Josh," says Majerus. "He has to look at this as an opportunity to come back and play even better next year."
From the beginning, Majerus has urged Grant to redshirt the season, fearing that he might hurt his chances of making the National Basketball Association. He recently told The Sporting News, "I told (Grant) he's killing his NBA chances if he doesn't redshirt, but apparently he's not that interested in the NBA. He's more interested in the (Mormon) church right now. Physically, he's about 45 percent right now, and I don't think he will ever be better than 80 percent this season. But he doesn't want to be in school for another year."
Grant resisted redshirting for a variety of reasons, but mostly because he wanted to play again with the team's other seniors - Rydalch, M'Kay McGrath, Paul Afeaki, Barry Howard - and because of the opportunity for an encore to last year's superb season.
"We came in together," says Grant of the other seniors. "We all went through hell together when coach came in. This is my team, so to speak. Next year will be a young team. There will be a lot of new faces. I may never again play for a team like the one we had last year. There was a chemistry there. There was something special about that team."
At 24, Grant already has sat out two years of basketball to serve an LDS Church mission, which was one more reason he wanted to play this year. "It's time to get on with life, whether that means playing in the NBA or getting a job in the communications field," he said. "It's time to move on."
Grant first began to consider the redshirt option seriously after playing his first game, against Bradley. Afterward, his wife Tina, a former Avia shoe rep, told him, "Josh, I think you're going to have to redshirt."
Says Grant, "She's in tune with the game. She's watched me play. She knew I didn't play well. I was really out of rhythm. I had no jump in my legs. I wasn't sharp."
A poor performance in an overtime loss to Utah State last week confirmed his wife's suspicions. In that game he missed all seven of his shots in the second half - some of them critical - and allowed his defensive assignment to blow past him for a dunk.
"That was an eye-opener for me," he says. "It was frustrating to try to play and not be able to do the things I can do."
Grant, whose knee had swelled recently, will let the knee rest completely for three weeks before resuming full rehabilitation therapy.
"I'm going to start from the beginning," he said.
Asked about his teammates, he said, "I'm sure they'll do well this season. (They) won't give up and die." Asked who would step forward in his place during crunchtime, he said, "Jimmy (Soto) will be glad to do it. He's thinking Judge Memorial (High) all over again . . . a lot of guys will step up. That's why we won 30 games last season."