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I was getting ready for a business meeting and happened to catch the highlights and lowlights of the Georgia Tech / Duke hoops game. ESPN showed Matt Causey busting the back of his noggin, which resulted in a concussion. It then showed him both on the bench and in the game, with his eyes literally rolling in the back of his head.......... and still playing.
So here's my question...... how was he allowed back on the floor, and did anyone else see him acting strange......... or missing his eyeballs? We all know Causey is a competitor and one of those guys that will say he's fine after his arm got ripped off. However, my untrained knowledge and intuition says he was risking serious permanent brain damage. Maybe he was courageous and tough...... or maybe he was just knocked loopy.
Where was the medical staff? What is GT's official position on what happened? No blood no foul?
Just curious....
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UPDATE
Since my original post, AJC posted a story with quotes from Hewitt here. Here are the take-aways that Coach Hewitt wants you to believe:
- Causey was cleared by Tech trainer Richard Stewart.
- Stewart claimed Causey never lost consciousness and his symptons resolved themselves pretty quickly
- Stewart held Causey out for a portion of the 2nd half until he was sure the symptoms were gone.
- He did NOT have a grade 2 concusion, but a grade 1 concussion, which was less severe.
- Matt Causey wants you to believe that his weird eye movements were not an involuntary result of his concussion, but a voluntary motion trying to get his focus back. (Either way, it sounds like he was trying to overcome symptoms still impacting his vision).
- Hewitt says had he seen Causey's eye rolling in the back of his head, he would have benched him regardless of what the medical staff said.
I will say this much. That video of Causey is likely to be used for years and years in the future on shows debating the merits of sports injuries and letting kids play. Causey may just leave a basketball legacy at Tech after all.
10 comments:
No idea what medical staff looked him over, but I'm pretty sure the ones there were horrified to see Causey's eyes going whacky on SportsCenter.
Overlooked, and justly so, is that not even being planted and run over was enough to induce the "refs" to call a foul. We didn't shoot a foul shot until there were about 9 minutes left in the game.
I think just about everyone was wondering if Causey was OK and should be returning to the game.
I read somewhere (AJC?) this morning that he suffered a Grade 2 Concussion. Did a quick Google. In general it said that athletes should be removed from competition for the day after suffering a Grade 2 and could not return until they are asymptomatic, which includes no visual problems or dizziness.
With his eyes rolling, you have to wonder about his vision or if he was dizzy, at the same time he looked sharp when he was hitting free throws and passing the ball afterwards.
Have to agree with tlbriley - how can you not call a foul after getting run over?
Actually, there is video evidence that Causey did a complete flop. He was barely touched, fell backward and bonked his head. So technically, Causey knocked himself out.
Agree that Causey flopped. He got knocked out from overacting acting as he hit his head on the floor.
No excuse as to why he stayed in the game....I guess Hotel Hewitt runs whether your hot, your not, or your conscious.
I see a lot of comments on the refs. I beg to differ:
First: I didn't the refs were that biased. We got away with a LOT of fouls.
Second: We have EARNED the right not to get any fouls. We don't drive to basket, we don't draw contact, and we take plays off on D. This is what the refs expect.
Third: Duke, however, has EARNED the right to get calls as they go to the hoop constantly, look for contact, and play aggresive D every play. It's not the refs, it's just the way the game works.
Grade 1 or Grade 2, he should have sat the rest of the game. You err on the side of caution with concussions.
Ahh, the power of blogs... where everyone is a medical expert who knows far more than the people who went spent years in medical school and were hired for their expertise in taking care of athletes' health.
was at the game... we were joking that it looked like they sent out the Duke medical staff (1 doctor and 4 lawyers). After Matt had been laying on the floor for a while he tried to get up and slumped right back down. Didn't look good...
A different video look that supports the flop argument.
http://blogs.newsobserver.com/accnow/index.php?title=causey_knocks_himself_out&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1
lets define what we mean by flop.
did the contact from paulus' uncalled offensive foul of running into causey cause him to fall? - YES
did causey add a little bit into it, which caused his head to hit harder than it would have otherwise? - YES
I don't know if taking a legit charge can be characterized as a flop. for more on flops, look at some archival footage of shane battier.
What a stupid remark, Skoppy. What do you mean that Matt C. is leaving a legacy due to his noggin' gettin' rung. Geez, think beyond the obvious you anvil-headed blogster!
Mike Tomosavich
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