Ray’s injury puts everything into perspective

Believe it or not, there are things more important than sports.

Pulling a big upset, doing… Believe it or not, there are things more important than sports.

Pulling a big upset, doing the impossible on the field of play, winning a championship can all provoke extreme emotion in the world of sports, but absolutely nothing can be held above the welfare of a human being, teammate or foe.

With just over 30 seconds having elapsed in the second half during Pitt’s semifinal Big East Tournament matchup against Villanova, Panther senior Carl Krauser became involved in a scuffle for the ball with Villanova’s Allan Ray in front of the Wildcats’ bench.

During the scrum, Krauser inadvertently made contact with Ray’s face, resulting in one of the scariest moments in sports I’ve witnessed in my lifetime.

While Krauser swiped for the ball, his finger made contact with Ray’s eye, instantly dropping the first-team All-Big East guard to the floor. Although tough to determine, the one replay of the accident seemingly revealed Ray’s eye popping out of his head. The replay wasn’t shown again, and as ESPN’s John Buccigross said on SportsCenter after the game, the clip was “too gruesome” to re-air.

Ray remained crippled on the court for minutes, kicking in visible pain while being attended to by team doctors. The injury caused Ray and his immediate family to be taken to nearby St. Vincent’s Hospital.

What could be the most heart-wrenching part of the story was that while Ray was escorted out of Madison Square Garden, right eye being clutched carefully by a doctor, the ice-veined shooter who has victimized so many defenses in his career was heard saying, “I can’t see.”

Allan Ray: an immortal figure in college basketball, a god to fans and a pest to foes, was human – a college student – a kid.

Even though the Panthers were leading by 11 when he left, Villanova, with its senior leader Ray in the game, was still very well within striking distance. As the Wildcats showed earlier in the season with an upset of then-No. 1 Connecticut, Ray hit five 3-pointers in the span of six minutes to erase a 12-point deficit and upset the top-ranked Huskies.

Without him, however, the Wildcats were done.

The No. 2-ranked team in the nation deflated. Big East Coach of the Year Jay Wright showed no intensity the rest of the game, while the Wildcat players had only one thing on their minds, and it wasn’t winning the game.

Their only care – their friend.

“He’s a big part of what we do and we just have to come together,” Villanova guard Randy Foye said after the game. “We’re most concerned about Allan right now.”

For a moment, basketball wasn’t important. I even found myself more worried about Ray than any kind of victory the Panthers could put under their belt. Yes, I, the same guy who cursed him out in both of the Wildcats’ victories over the Panthers last season, was genuinely concerned about his well-being.

But perhaps the worst part of the game for me was something I heard at the end. With a Panther victory well in hand and Villanova just trying to finish with dignity, Pitt fans in the crowd began chanting, “Overrated.”

Think for a second. How would you react if the future life of one of your closest friends could have just been seriously affected in a negative way?

Then try to win a basketball game.

In all fairness to those in attendance at Madison Square Garden, the severity of Ray’s situation may not have been known by many actually there. But for the fans watching at home, the timing of the chant could not have been worse.

For the entire second half, the sports world was held in suspense. Until ESPN reported that Ray had been treated and no serious injury had occurred, a young man’s promising career flashed before everyone’s eyes.

Every so often, a moment in sports can result in a moment of clarity. While Allan Ray lay helpless on the court, there was no basketball game. After he left and the unknown situation seemed to be a worst-case scenario, I didn’t care if Pitt won. I didn’t care about a Big East Championship or a higher seed in the NCAA Tournament. All I cared about was the life of the young man who had worked so hard to get where he was. To take away his opportunity for success in an instant is unfair.

But it’s life.

We should all take a minute to look at our priorities. Think, when you openly degrade a student-athlete, does he or she not have a family just like you? Would your family be devastated if something tragic happened to you?

There will always be next year for sports. A win or a loss can be forgotten about as soon as the next game.

The game of life, however, doesn’t grant second chances.

Pat Mitsch is a senior staff writer for The Pitt News. E-mail him at prm17@pitt.edu.