What’s up with Maurice Creek, you ask. How is Indiana’s freshman guard, whose breakout basketball season was wiped out by a freak knee injury, doing in his rehabilitation from knee surgery?
Well, he’s not ready to soar to spectacular heights, or even work out full time with his teammates, but he is improving.
For this he can thank -– or curse -– trainer Tim Garl.
Garl is a nice guy, a great guy, except when he gets you in his rehabilitating clutches. Then he morphs into what some believe is the reincarnation of the Marquis de Sade. Who is that, you ask? Well, he was the French dude from the 18th Century who developed the reputation for inflicting pain on people. Actually, he was a writer who wrote about sex, violence, blasphemy to the Catholic Church and other topics that led to the birth of Howard Stern.
Anyway, Garl’s job is to get players back to full health as fast and as safely as possible. That means he has to push them. And push them. That means, sometimes, players don’t always like him.
And that pleases coach Tom Crean to no end.
“Maurice is probably ahead of schedule healing wise,” Crean said. “He has to continue to be diligent. The thing I like is Tim Garl is on his tail every day. I’m sure he has a picture of Tim in his room with darts and a fake mustache that he can throw at.
“You know what -– he needs a few more. This staff’s job is to push him and the great thing is we have the support of mom and dad because he has never been through anything like this.”
So what does this mean for Creek’s basketball game?
“He’s done some individual workouts with us,” Crean said. “He’s done a lot of shooting. We’ve had to back him off from time to time. We follow the pain-is-the-guide method with him and Tim continues to push him. If you ask Tim he would say Maurice could be doing a lot more, and that is exactly what you want.”
Creek was averaging 16 points when he got hurt just before the start of Big Ten play. The Hoosiers never really recovered. Getting Creek back to full strength is critical for next season. And if that means Tim Garl has to assume the persona of Darth Vader, well, rumor has it Tim looks good in black.
great inside article and character capture with a little humor rolled into words. I like your GREAT slam dunk on Howard Stern who is the equivalent fresh puddle of puke on hot side walk.
ReplyDeleteI made bad comment about tom crean . And im sorry to whoever this concerns. He will have this team on top again. Id like to see him recruit brandan dawson and cody zeller tho. keep up the hard work coach!
ReplyDeleteTim Garl trained under some drill Sargent when he an undergraduate at Alabama. He learned how to push his body to the limit, and he expects nothing less for the athletes he tutors back to health.
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