Why was Kramer playing?
After reading all the news articles about Saturday's basketball debacle, along with all the quotes from Purdue players and coaches, one thought keeps coming back into my head:
What the hell was Chris Kramer doing on the floor late in the second half?
Injuries are never to be taken lightly, especially those to the head. Yet there was Kramer, mask and all, back out on the court less than 10 minutes after this:
"He got me square. I blacked out and fell down. When I woke up, there was a pool of blood on the floor."
I have coached high school sports. I have had players get concussions during games. They didn't always black out, but a concussion is a concussion. We sat our best player for 3 weeks after he got a concussion. Painter slapped a mask on one of his interchangeable Gritty White Guys and sent him back in. As BoilerStation.com says,
Painter sent assistant coach Rick Ray to check on the 2008 Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year.
"Coach Ray walks in and goes, 'Coach (Painter) says you've got to come on,' "
Apparently the mask was causing some problems:
"I couldn't breathe. I tried to get a sub, and coach looked at me and shook his head. I had to keep going and get to each TV timeout."
I understand wanting to win a game. I understand wanting your players to give their all on the court. But this is not someone playing with a sore ankle or a broken finger. A blackout is a sign of a serious head injury, and Kramer should have been sent to the hospital, at least as a precaution, if he did black out. And now this from Lewis Jackson, who was famously concussed last week against Wisconsin:
"On Tuesday, Wisconsin's Joe Krabbenhoft threw a forearm while setting a screen on freshman point guard Lewis Jackson, who suffered a concussion and could not play Saturday against Michigan."
...
"Kramer, who has been fitted with a protective mask, is expected to play Tuesday at Ohio State.
If Jackson passes a test for concussions, he also will play."
I wonder what kind of test he has to pass? Maybe something like this:
1. You feel ok?
(a) yes
(b) if you pick (a) you can play.
February 2nd, 2009 at 7:14 PM ^
I don't think he blacked out. You generally don't roll around on the floor if you're unconscious. He just said that to make the injury sound worse than it was.
February 2nd, 2009 at 11:10 PM ^
I agree with the general premise that coaches should look out for their players' safety and health, but in reality coaches just want to win. Kramer clearly wasn't that hurt - only the refs believed that it was anything more than an errant elbow that looked far worse than it was because of the bleeding. I'm sure it went black for a few seconds, as anyone who has been struck in the nose hard will attest that your vision gets blurry for a second and your other senses are a little overloaded. But was it a concussion? Probably not. If I was the coach, I would still have at least had Kramer on a short leash, but Painter wanted to win and he knew that Kramer gave his team a better chance. If Kramer had been laid out for longer, I'm guessing Painter would have been more reserved about putting him back out there.
February 3rd, 2009 at 10:43 AM ^
Seems clear to me then that Kramer was not concussed.
My guess is to that Painter doesn't put Kramer back in the game if he doesn't receive medical clearance to do so. No coach in this day and age is going to be naive enough to believe he could make such a mistake. Something catastrophic happens to Kramer in those circumstances and next thing you know it's no longer Mackey Arena its Kramer Arena.
You get the idea.
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