This was my reply a month ago in the original Jason Carter injury thread. Reposted here since it applies. My feelings haven't changed. Once or twice is bad luck. When it spans half a dozen players (or more at this point) and spans multiple seasons - it's a trend and an issue.

And while I feel there's certainly some amount of truth to the over-training aspect of young athletes forced to focus on a single sport - then you'd expect to see similar results across all of college basketball. Granted, I haven't taken the time to explicitly look up % of games/minutes missed due to injury across the country but my gut says this is more an OU issue than a college basketball issue.

Just wondering but which of the broken feet do you think would have been avoided with better strength and conditioning?[/quote]

Strength and conditioning obviously focuses on muscles and soft tissues (ligaments and tendons) and not bones, but in doing so it allows the body to provide better support and proper posture/form for those bones. It should certainly vastly decrease the probability of injury even if it doesn't directly effect the skeletal system. It's how guys like LeBron James can land awkwardly and roll their ankle on someone and play the next day after treatment where most of us would have a broken ankle. Mind you, decreasing the probably of injury doesn't mean you completely avoid injuries. Sometimes tiny bones still break. Stuff happens. A lot of that comes down to not only how effective the strength and conditioning program is designed/tailored for the athlete, but how well the athlete follows the regimen (something I have 0 knowledge of with our individuals on the roster) and more importantly what genetic/physical limitations the athlete has. Some guys have short achilles tendons. Some guys have tight muscles. Some guys can't handle excess muscular weight (see mention of Z above). All of those things will make them "injury prone".

Which leads me to the second piece of my original comment.

[quote=GraffZ06]Also seems to me Saul's philosophy of recruiting fringe athletes with niche talents who fit his style may need some tweaking. If guys physically can't stay healthy (and it's not 1 or 2 - but an issue for multiple players over multiple years now) then you've got to start looking at root causes.

I'm all for role players, but if you're asking them to do things beyond what their body might be capable of on a nightly basis - your probability of injury goes up significantly. It's like - who gets injured in middle school gym while playing dodgeball? It's not the athletes. It's the kid in the glasses with two left feet who's trying really hard.

I just simply don't agree that the type of athletes he recruits are the reasons for the injuries.

-Wadley, Khari and Tony were all Christian recruits. And Tony had actually lost weight and got in better shape than he had ever been, then he broke his foot. No amount of strength or conditioning could have prevented that.

-I would be more inclined to agree with you about this if it were the football team, where bigger athletes smashing into smaller athletes can cause issues. But basketball? Cmon. It's a contact sport, but it's not a melee. The injuries the guys are suffering could happen to anyone.

He will have to improve his lateral quickness, especially if a team played a Laster type at the three. He would have to lose weight and get a lot quicker, if he grows to 6’9”. He can guard the 4 and get his shot off against other 4’s.

Just wondering but which of the broken feet do you think would have been avoided with better strength and conditioning? Does anyone have any inside information about what has changed in our training program the last two seasons that may have lead to this rash of injuries? Or are we just grasping at straws?

WE HAVEN'T SEEN HIM PLAY A GAME YET. How do you know how quick he is laterally, at game speed, against Division 1 competition? Nobody knows.

Taller people have to watch their weight. I remember when we the Cavaliers drafted Z, he had persistent foot problems and when he lost weight, the foot problems stopped. We can't blame the freshmen's injuries on strength and conditioning. As far a Jason Carter, I am sure that he was actively working to get ready for the season, he could have easily turned an ankle. Schools should avail the best technology and give the best guidance, but the athlete has to take care of his body. BVP had injuries in high school, so we took a calculated risk. Hopefully he grows a couple of inches because in our man to man defensive scheme, he will never be able to guard a three. He is a coaches son so he will come in with a great basketball IQ.

What do you mean "twisted his ankle"? His problem is a stress fracture .

As for BVP...you say "injuries" in the plural, but to my knowledge the only injury he had in HS was the foot injury identical to his current injury. Did he have other injuries I'm not aware of?