A torn anterior cruciate ligament is the last injury a player who has dedicated her summer to playing basketball wants to suffer. In addition to nixing all offseason plans, it ends the player’s winter season before it even starts.
Two years ago, Northwestern forward Kristin Cartwright was faced with this situation after her sophomore season. She landed awkwardly after jumping up for a rebound in an early summer league game.
“That summer I was really excited to play a lot of basketball and kind of get in shape,” Cartwright said. “So it was frustrating to know that it was a waste of a summer.”
The upside to getting hurt between seasons was that it gave Cartwright plenty of time to heal. Returning for the winter was out of the question because ACL tears take about six months to rehabilitate, so Cartwright had more than a year to recover before she suited up for the Wildcats again.
Cartwright redshirted last season, saving a year of eligibility. Throughout the extensive rehab process, she worked closely with team trainer Courtney Jones. Fortunately, there were no major hiccups.
“It involved a little bit of everything,” Jones said. “Getting swelling down, getting the pain out of her knee, getting her range of motion back. And then after that you really focus on strengthening that quad back up.”
Each day, Cartwright spent at least an hour rehabbing her knee. As she got further along in the process, Cartwright’s workouts got even more intense as Jones added cardiovascular and basketball exercises to the training regimen.
As expected, progress came very gradually. Cartwright was basically starting over from square one.
“All your quad strength is gone,” she said. “It starts with little things – getting your flexibility back, being able to bend your knee. Once you get stronger, that’s when you go get some weights for your leg, do some leg raises and stuff like that.”
Getting to practice with the team after being away for so long was a tough adjustment at first. It took a while before Cartwright was able to trust her knee again.
“It’s kind of scary the first couple times you’re practicing,” she said. “I first came back and just stood at the 3-point line and let everyone else go in for the rebounds. You have to build your confidence back in your knee.”
This past summer, Cartwright did not go to summer school or get a job so she could completely concentrate on playing her way back into basketball shape and getting comfortable on the court again.
All the hard work has paid off this season. Cartwright leads the Cats in steals and free throw percentage and is second in points, rebounds and assists.
“She hasn’t really missed a step,” Jones said. “If anything, I think some of the rehab helped make her better – helped with her balance, helped strengthen that leg.”
Coach Joe McKeown said he does not even worry about the injury, since it happened so far in advance of his arrival last June.
New technology has cut the recovery time for ACL tears in half since McKeown first started coaching in 1979.
“Because she’s so far past it, I’ve tried to coach her like it never happened,” he said. “She’s tried to play at that level too.”
Cartwright said she does not feel any pain while she is playing but makes sure to ice after every practice and game.
A variety of minor injuries hampered Cartwright the first time NU (6-19, 2-12 Big Ten) played Indiana (16-8, 9-6) this season, and she played only 13 minutes in the 81-57 loss. Having her healthy and at the top of her game will be crucial to closing that gap.
