Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
BRIAN LANDMANAching to help FSU excel Andrew Wilson has been beset by injuries, but he gives Seminoles a healthy dose of defense.
GREENSBORO, N.C. - Florida State guard Andrew Wilson had to laugh when asked to imagine a day without visiting the team trainer for therapy, ice and aspirin.
"I won't know how to act," he said, shooting glances at his surgically repaired limbs and his currently ailing heel. "It'll be weird, honestly. I haven't been healthy in three years."
Wilson has persevered with a healthy dose of defiance and helped the Seminoles upset North Carolina, Wake Forest and Georgia Tech and push everyone else in the powerful ACC to the brink.
He also helped push the Seminoles to the brink of the NCAA Tournament, but they will settle for a first-round game tonight at Wichita State in the NIT. It is their first postseason appearance of any kind since 1998.
"Since he's been in the lineup we've become a much better defensive team," coach Leonard Hamilton said of the 6-foot-6, 206-pound sophomore. "He's so smart and heady and instinctive."
Former coach Steve Robinson recognized that too when he recruited Wilson, whose father Tom played baseball for FSU in the 1960s. He saw something else that sold him.
"He was a young man who played extremely hard," said Robinson, a North Carolina assistant. "I knew he'd never short-change himself. He has a will and you need that on your team, you need that guy who has that passion for playing and is going to give you that kind of effort every time he steps out on the floor."
Getting him on the floor has been the rub. He was a valuable sub as a freshman in 2001-02, but in the next year's opener against Florida, he tore the medial collateral ligament in his right knee. He came back and started the first four games last season, averaging 8.8 points and 4.3 rebounds. During the fifth game, against Miami, he dived for a loose ball and tore ligaments in his right (shooting) wrist.
Another surgery.
Another lost season.
"At first it was tough (mentally)," said Wilson, who was granted two more years of eligibility by the NCAA so he would still have three more years to play beginning in 2003-04. "I guess what kept me going was I knew I could get out there and help my team."
While working out last summer, Wilson, 21, began to notice a pain in his left heel. He spent the majority of the preseason in a walking cast for what specialists say is an inflammation in the bone where the Achilles' tendon attaches.
He will be evaluated again by a specialist in Charlotte following the NIT and might even consider surgery in the offseason.
Though known for his offense in high school, Wilson has become one of the Seminoles' better defenders and often draws the opponent's top perimeter threat. To prepare, he pours through tapes like a Blockbuster employee restocking the shelves from the night drop.
"I take a lot of pride in my defense," he said. "Obviously, whenever I go out there I'm not going to be the best athlete or the quickest guy, so I've got to learn a guy's tendencies."
He also can hurt opponents at the other end of the court. He averages 3.7 points, but made 7 of 10 shots, all from 3-point range, for a career-high 24 points against the Tar Heels in a narrow loss at Chapel Hill.
"He brings a lot to the table," said senior star guard Tim Pickett, who is nursing ankle injuries himself. "He's a leader who's always hustling and diving on the floor."
"Nobody's ever accused Andrew of being passive," Hamilton said. "He's one of the toughest kids I've ever been around."
Just imagine when he's healthy.