“I’d poked the ball out from behind on their point guard and it had kicked back to me. I was near midcourt and I turned and it was just me and the 5-man from La Salle.
“I thought it was going to be the first time I dunked on somebody in a fast break situation and I went up, but he jumped with me. He was about 260 – about the same size as me, but maybe a little shorter – and he fouled me pretty hard. And I hit the court on my side.”
Fueled by adrenaline and pride and some anger, Love immediately pushed himself upright.
“I played a little bit longer, shot my foul shot and even had a tip-in with that hand,” he said. “At first I was thinking, ‘It’s fine…it’s fine.’
“But then I was fouled again and that time I literally dropped the ball on the first one. My elbow had tightened up.”
He was taken out of the game for good and attended to by Raiders’ trainer, Jason Franklin, who wrapped his right elbow up
He said at first it was thought there was ligament damage, but by game’s end – as the elbow swelled – it appeared otherwise and he was scheduled for an MRI when the team returned home.
That test, he said, revealed “a fractured elbow.”
He said there was no structural damage and he was told he’d likely miss four to six weeks of the season. He now hopes he’ll be able to play again when the Raiders open their conference schedule Dec. 28 against Green Bay at the Nutter Center.
Since the Nov. 26 injury occurred, Wright State has been mostly mum on the condition of Love, its most celebrated player. He was the Horizon League Freshman of the Year two seasons ago and was a first-team All Horizon League selection last year.
This year he was a preseason first-team, all-league pick and is leading the Raiders in rebounds (8.6 per game) and is second in scoring (13.6 points per game).
Early this season he had had one of the most dominating games of his career, a 26-point, 14-rebound effort in a win over Miami at Millett Hall.
Thursday night Love talked publicly for the first time about his injury and the ordeal since when we sat down after the Raiders’ 85-62 victory over Southern at the Nutter Center
In that game, his two replacements — 6-foot-9 freshman Grant Basile and 6-foot-7 sophomore James Manns — combined for 49 points and 15 rebounds.
“Hey, by the looks of it, we’re in a pretty good spot right now in the post,” Love said with a smile. “And when you’re in my positon, the best way to get through it is to fall in love with other people’s success.”
He said he learned that from some of the walk-ons the Raiders had the past couple of years:
“Trey Stacey and Adam Giles both had the mindset that it’s a lot easier to be positive than to be negative and draw into yourself. That would be selfish and we’re winning right now.”
The Raiders are 8-3 and may well have won that LaSalle game – they lost, 72-70 – had Love played more than seven minutes.
After the game, Laura Love, Loudon’s mom who had been in the stands, came to the locker room door.
“She asked, ‘How’s the big guy?’” Love said. “The coaches talked to her and then I came out to make sure she wasn’t a mess. I didn’t want her to worry.”
Experience with injuries
Truth be told, everybody at WSU was worried until he had an MRI.
The team already had lost 6-foot-9 Aleksandar Dozic, an experienced grad transfer from Marist, for the season with a back injury.
Love said the MRI revealed “a fracture, not a break,” which was good news.
And it’s helped that he has dealt with injuries before and knows what to do and what not to do.
As a high school senior, he suffered a torn ACL and meniscus in his left knee in his final football game at Geneva High School in Illinois. He had surgery and missed the entire basketball season, although by then he’d already committed to WSU coach Scott Nagy, who at the time was the head coach at South Dakota State.
“But I really got out of shape after that,” Love admitted.
He said when he first came to WSU in June of 2016 he weighed 320 pounds. (He’s now 254.) He rehabbed with the WSU training staff, but it was decided he’d redshirt his first year at the school.
His freshman year he said he hyper-extended his right elbow, which was not as serious as this injury.
Although he watches film with the team these days, he then spends much of the rest of his time in the WSU training room or at the Wright State Physicians’ facilities nearby.
He said he’s gotten some added insight from people like Dick Nagy — Scott’s dad — who was a longtime college coach.
He said they talked about the things he could learn while watching others play that he wouldn’t see while he was in the game himself.
“In some ways I think this will make me a better player,” he said.
Basile, Manns step up
Scott Nagy said there has been one “blessing” in Love’s injury.
It has forced Basile and Manns — who was buried on the bench before this — to play more.
Basile redshirted his freshman season last year because of a foot injury. Manns didn’t play his first season here and last year averaged just 2.8 minutes in the 16 games he played in. He scored 31 points on the year.
Thursday night he played 21 minutes and scored 26 points.
In the four games that Love has missed – three of them WSU victories – Basile has averaged 15.8 points.
“They’re both playing great, but it’s no surprise to us,” Love said. “Maybe that surprises some of the fans because they’re not in the gym every day and don’t know how they work or what they’re about. But now everybody’s getting a little taste of it and they’re definitely going to like it.”
And everyone will like it even more once Love returns.
He said he’ll likely wear a compression sleeve under his regular padded sleeve: “Just for more support or maybe just for my own mental support.
“But right now I’m feeling good and once I start playing again I think I’ll feel even better.”
And that means he’ll finally be able to answer his mom’s nervous question:
“How’s the Big Guy?”
TUESDAY’S GAME
Mississippi Valley State at Wright State, 7 p.m., 106.5
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