Actually, it happened at 4:40. After a Miami free throw, Jack went to inbound the ball to Tre, but Tre was doubled, so the inbound pass went to Wendell. Wendell dribbled out of a double-team, but lost the handle and the ball went to Vasiljevic. Wendell tried to poke the ball away from Vas. Vas had his back to the camera, so you can't see the actual point of injury, but Wendell immediately grabbed his hand.
I was stunned that no one on the Duke bench seemed to notice, and no timeout was called when Duke regained possession at 4:33. There was a stoppage at 4:28; Wendell did not go to the bench even though he was visibly shaking his hand. He finally subbed out at 4:11 when Javin made two free throws.
Classy move, Hurricanes, going with a full court press trailing by 26 with under 5 to play.
No Moore!
I kant I buy D any Moore.
As always, there's limited information to base assumptions on, but here a few thoughts on healing:
Hopefully the fracture didn't involve the joint and was limited to just the shaft of the bone. (This is the most likely scenario, a "Boxers Fracture"). If it did involve only the shaft of the bone, it was likely treated with a plate and screws and it would be relatively stable immediately. That would allow immediate range of motion exercises and potentially a much sooner return to play, possibly with a protective splint. Conditioning-wise, the only limiting factor would be skin healing; swelling control and the prevention of infection would be the primary concerns. Once the skin heals sufficiently, conditioning would be unrestricted. Shooting touch would likely be most affected during the healing process.
If the metacarpophalangeal joint was involved (i.e. the fracture extended into the joint), the timeline for healing could be considerably longer.
Thanks for this information. I'm hoping for "Boxers Fracture" if that's the quickest recovery. If it's not, maybe he will do a Ronnie Lott procedure and come back even quicker. Oh, wait that was football and not basketball. Well, I'm sure we'll get the complete information any time now from Coach K.
GoDuke!
I don't recall if it was Brown or B.C. but Wendell tried to block a shot and ended up slamming his hand against the backboard. I don't recall if it was his left or right, but I remember the announcers commenting on the fact that the backboard was still shaking. They made a big deal of it and he was looking at his hand then on the bench. I wonder if that left him vulnerable to further injury or if he actually did something that game. At any rate, I wouldn't have been surprised if we got the broken hand news after that game as he performed quite a Hulk smash on the backboard.
If Wendell Moore ever wears a Duke jersey again, I will leave DBR forever.
Hard at work making beautiful things.
Sage Grouse
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'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013