40 Acres Sports

Holy crap.

After one of the most incredible first half performances I’ve ever seen, [tag]Kevin Durant[/tag] stepped on the ankle of a Kansas defender and went down. Looked to have somehow injured both ankles and limped into the locker room with his left ankle not looking so good.

Crap.

Update: Durant came back onto the court after a few minutes in the locker room and was able to reenter the game. Definitely not 100% he was hobbling a little and not able to get up and down the court at full speed. Didn’t look like it was bad enough to effect his shot but it could definitely wear on him during a game if it’s not fully healed by the Big 12 Tournament.

[tag]Roddrick Muckelroy[/tag] is healthy and will be back on the field when spring practice starts this week.

Muckelroy was the Longhorns’ best linebacker on the field through the first three games of the season before he was injured. He had surgery to repair a ruptured tendon in his right ring finger suffered against Rice and was forced to miss the rest of the season. I kept waiting for him to be back after a couple of weeks, and it sounds like he was as surprised as I was that a finger injury could be so serious:

“Everything feels good,” Muckelroy said heading into the opening of spring. “Sitting out that long after starting the first three games was a setback, but I understood the injury, and I had to get it fixed because I was worried about using my finger in the future. I think it was the best thing for me, and it’s good now.”

Muckelroy had to come to terms with how a finger injury could cost him the entire remainder season. However, after it was explained, it did not leave much of a decision as to whether or not to have surgery. “When I hurt it, I went to the sidelines and told them what happened,” Muckelroy described. “I thought my finger was just broken. I wanted them to tape it up and go back in because it was fourth down.

It’ll be huge for the Texas defense to have Muck back out there. He was playing incredibly well and he brings speed, nose for the football, and big hit ability to a linebacking corps that was missing all three of those things last season. While Scott Derry played very well in his place, he’s a solid player but not a difference maker like Muckelroy can be.

Muckelroy is just the type of player Duane Akina wants for his more aggressive new defensive attitude.

Cedric Dockery won’t be participating in spring practice but his recovery from ACL surgery is going well.

Former Texas quarterback Chris Simms had an emergency splenectomy today after the Tampa Bay Bucs lost to the Carolina Panthers. At some point during the game Simms ruptured his spleen but Simms played through the injury and led the Bucs to a go ahead field goal that did not hold up.

It was originally reported that Simms was in critical condition but that information was inaccurate. Simms had the surgery to remove his spleen, received blood transfusions, and will be Tampa’s St. Joseph’s Hospital for several days. He should make a full recovery but will probably miss several months and possibly the rest of the season. He’ll eventually be able to return to action and play without a spleen at no increased risk of injury.

This is very serious news for Chris and his family and our thoughts are with them as they get through this.