Appel didn’t deserve that ending
It was quite simply an unjust ending to Jayne Appel’s career.
The player who will be known as the best center ever to wear a Stanford uniform didn’t deserve to have to stand up in the lockerroom on her injured right ankle and explain an 0-for-12 night that was the antithesis of all the contributions she’d made to the Cardinal’s resurrection over the past four years.
San Francisco Chronicle photo/Michael Macor
She didn’t deserve to have to say that she felt “like hell” and that admit that she needed a shot of painkillers on the bench just to be able to finish her final college game on the floor.
She deserved a better finish than that.
What’s happened in the four weeks since Appel turned her ankle in a lay-up drill at practice doesn’t define an extraordinary career, one in which she set the Pac-10 rebounding record, broke Stanford school records for rebounds and blocked shots and established a new standard for toughness.
But there’s no doubt now that day at practice that was a very bad day for the Stanford women’s basketball program.
And in fact a little worse that most of us knew. In addition to playing on a sprained right ankle, Appel was diagnosed on March 21 and subsequently treated for a stress fracture in her right foot.
According to information provided by Appel’s agent, Lindsay Kagawa, Appel’s foot injury was diagnosed after the Cardinal’s first-round NCAA game against UC Riverside.
Both injuries should heal with 3-4 weeks rest and more treatment.
The Cardinal could get through the Cal game without Appel, and the Pac-10 Tournament, and even the first couple of rounds of the NCAA Tournament. But starting with the Xavier game, Appel’s injury and the limitations it put on her game started to matter.
This isn’t about blame. It’s about bad luck and bad timing.
Without its centerpiece, Stanford’s offense began to sputter.
Tara VanDerveer admitted as much late on Tuesday night after the Connecticut loss.
“We have gotten here with the great play of Jayne,” VanDerveer said. “And she has battled. But she is hurt.”
The Cardinal averaged 76.1 points a game for the season and 56.0 points a game in the final three games of the NCAA Tournament. In the final three games, Appel was 8 of 31 from the floor.
Appel said after the Connecticut game, the first scoreless game of her college career, that she was not “effective.”
“It was just an unfortunate time to have an injury like an ankle where it’s not that serious, but it can keep nagging on,” Appel said. “I couldn’t practice. I couldn’t do any type of conditioning, so it was really difficult.
“This definitely wasn’t one of my better games, but I’m not a player who is going to blame it all on my injury.”
The Stanford team boarded its charter flight and Appel went in another direction Wednesday morning.
She went to New York City in preparation for the WNBA Draft on Thursday.
All season she has been projected as a top 3 pick. Her injury could change that.
The WNBA season starts in earnest in about six weeks. She will also report to US national team camp in Connecticut next week for head coach Geno Auriemma, but it’s unclear to what degree she’ll participate.
She was also invited to the USA national team camp last summer but was unable to play because she was coming off knee surgery.
One response so far
Jayne’s level of pain was 10/10. The doctor and common sense said that any other player would have been on crutches, wearing a boot, and practically non-weightbearing. Not Jayne. The toughest player in Stanford’s history who gave it her best shot. Strength and honor, team and committment. The WNBA is very fortunate to have such a woman join their ranks. It is people like Jayne who will grow the game, and who will open other doors of opportunity for younger girls in the future. I could not be any prouder and I look forward to her long career as a professional in every sense of the word.