Marquette University Athletics
Travis Diener To Miss Remainder of Season With Hand Injury
2/23/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
MILWAUKEE, February 23 - Marquette University guard Travis Diener will miss the remainder of the season due to displaced fractures of the left fourth and fifth proximal phalanges, it was announced today by head coach Tom Crean.
Diener suffered the injury during a non-contact drill at the beginning of practice on Tuesday. Corrective surgery was performed and he is expected to make a full recovery in four to six weeks.
The 6-1 senior from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, leads the Golden Eagles in scoring (19.7 ppg), assists (7.0 apg) and steals (1.4 spg), and was second on the team in three-point field goals with 68.
He ranks first all-time at the school in three-point field goals (284), second all-time in assists (617) and third in scoring with 1,691. Diener was 83 points shy from breaking the school?s 35-year old scoring record held by George Thompson, and needed 16 assists to become Conference USA?s all-time leader. He was ninth in assists and 25th in scoring in the latest NCAA statistical rankings.
A candidate for all-American and national player of the year recognition, Diener is a finalist for the Cousy and Bayer Senior CLASS awards, as well as a mid- season candidate for the Naismith and Wooden Awards.
In five games since returning from a foot injury that sidelined him for nearly two weeks, Diener averaged 18.0 points and 8.0 assists in leading Marquette to three victories and a near upset of No. 12 Louisville.
In 120 career games, Diener averaged 14.1 points, 5.1 assists and 3.1 rebounds, while shooting 41.3-percent from three and 83.7-percent from the free throw line.
Quotes From The Diener Press Conference
Head Coach Tom Crean
?Unfortunately, we are in a situation right now where one of the all-time greats at this university?certainly one of the finest people I have ever been with and somebody that I have extreme dedication to, care for love for and respect for?we are going to close a chapter on what has been an outstanding career but we are no where near to closing the book on what will continue to be an outstanding career.?
?The chapter on Marquette closes now because he will have the pins in his fingers for the next three or four weeks and the recovery time is up to six. That is where we stand. Everything that he has done in this program and he has done back in Fond du Lac and that he has done on the national scene should serve as a reminder to all of us and to everyone out there that when you have complete faith in your dreams and when you have the love of your family and when you find a couple people that believe in you but more importantly when you believe in yourself, anything can be accomplished.?
?As far as where Marquette basketball goes from here, we have a program, not just a team. He is a part of 90 wins here at Marquette in the last four years. He is 83 points from being the all-time leading scorer, 15 assists away from being the all-time assist man in history of the league, the 90 wins put him on par with many greats and that will never be taken away. But the one thing he has brought this program above all else is the sense of teamwork. The one thing that Travis stands for like so many other greats?the real great ones, the special, special players?is that he made everyone else better. We just have to move on with him as a part of it and we move on trying to help him get to that next stage in his career. We are all very blessed to have worked with him because in this day in age when there are people that don?t epitomize class in all walks of life, this guy to my left (Travis) does. Bob and Vicki Diener deserve a lot of that credit for the way they brought him up with his sisters Rachel and Brittney. The story of the Diener?s is well documented, all you have to is pick up a national magazine or ask someone in this state and it is deserving. They have a tremendous amount of care and emotion for each other and they brought that to Marquette. Everybody who has come in contact with Travis at Marquette is better for it. In a sense it is a finality of his college basketball time with us, but it is not the finality with his time with us.?
?It was tough on the team, I told them after practice. As Jayd (Grossman) was making the arrangements to get them out quickly, he felt light headed so we needed to help him through that. I stayed with him in the training room for 20 minutes or so and when they left I returned for practice and found out about an hour and a half or so later that he was in surgery and I waited to tell the team until after practice. As you can imagine, they took it hard, really hard. They took it hard because they love him. When you have a program you have people that put their teammates ahead of themselves. That is exactly what this program is about. They feel far worse for him than anything else. But they know they have an opportunity to step up and respond to a situation and play with some of the spirit Travis has. They are a very close-knit team so it will take some time. We are going to have a very positive, focused game plan.?
?He (Travis) always did what he needed to win. His facial expressions were defined by winning and defined by losing. That is how he sees himself as a player. He has always done what is right for the team.?
?You need people that have a trained eye to see greatness. I think he is training a lot of eyes when he plays. I don?t think there is any question that he deserves that. His body of work has him leave a great program really on top, that is what he has done. First year here, we improve eleven wins. When you have 90 wins in four years and you have the numbers he has and the big wins he has, his body of work makes him (special). He is very deserving of it (All-American status), he is very, very deserving of it. His impact will always be felt here.?
?When surgery was over yesterday, we offered him the opportunity to get home. But he had a class this morning that he had an assignment due at ten o?clock and he wasn?t going to miss it. Now does that surprise us? No. Is that the way it is across the board in college basketball world? Probably not. That is who he is.?
Travis Diener
?I don?t really have much to say, but I would like to thank this whole university, the program for four great years. I would like to thank coach for believing in me when a lot of coaches during my high school career didn?t. It is obviously ending too soon, sooner than I thought. I want to thank my family, my parents who are with me right now, they mean the world to me. My goal now is to just help this team win more games and make the tournament. Our goals are still the same. With or without me, they will play their hearts out and play as hard as they can and we are going to try and win that game tomorrow night. The guys will put on that Marquette uniform with pride. It was just a freak accident and I expect in four to six weeks I will be 100- percent again and ready to move on with my career and hopefully that will be in the NBA.?
?It really didn?t hit me, I don?t think it has hit me yet. I think it is hitting a lot of other people before it hits me. Maybe tomorrow night when I see the guys come out and play and I am sitting there knowing that I can never play for Marquette again, it may hit me then. I?m sure it will hit me on senior day when I come out in street clothes. I have had a great career here. I probably surpassed a lot of expectations that people put on me before I got here, but I always expected to do great things here and be a part in this program and believe in what coach was telling me when he was recruiting me. For the most part, those expectations were met. I am disappointed and sad, but things like this happen. I am happy I am not worse off than I am now. I have my teammates and my family. I just have to move on now.?
?When I went down, I knew I had at least dislocated them because when I got up my two fingers were disgusting looking and I looked at coached and it didn?t hurt, but I went to coach and then to the trainer and then immediately to the doctor. I took an x- ray and he told me that I was going to have to have surgery and that likely my season was over. The pain didn?t start until 20 minutes after it happened. I kept a positive out look on it that I could put a sling on it and play. When I heard that I would need surgery I knew I wanted to get it done with and move on to rehabbing it right away.?
?For something that was non contact and a freak injury to end my career is weird, but things like this happen, there is no explanation for it. To be able to get up from al l the falls I have taken and hits I have taken and not be able to get up from this one?I am up right now and I?m going to stay up. I am positive and I am positive for my team. It?s tough, but we are going to move on and get these wins.?
?That defines the Marquette tradition. The comments George has made have all been positive towards me, that if it could happen to anyone he would like it to happen to me. I have the ultimate respect for George. That record was not one of my main goals coming in the season, it wasn?t during the season and it isn?t now. I just want to win as many games as possible. I am the third leading scorer here and that really doesn?t mean anything to me The 90 wins is what I am proud of, the Final Four trip, the closeness that I have had with everybody here is important. For George to say those nice things about me is important and he deserves to be on top.?
?A kid that went out there and played with a lot of effort, a lot of heart, he just played 110-percent every time he stepped on the court. That he won, he won big. For the most part I think I have done that. But, the legacy I want to leave and I hope I have left is just the hard work, the kid that maybe from the outside doesn?t look like he can play as well as he does and just plays hard. That would be the ultimate legacy that I would want to leave here.?
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