The Beast : The danger of off-season workouts

As fans, we want our athletes working year round. We want them to pack on the muscle and to be in better shape at the start of a new season as opposed to the end of the last one. We want them constantly working on technique and abilities, all with the hopes that guys stay healthy and avoid injury.

Unfortunately in the process of getting stronger, faster and better, the latter happened to Miami’s big man Reggie Johnson. The center suffered a torn meniscus in his right knee while playing a pick-up game with teammates early in the week. Johnson had surgery on Thursday and he’s expected to be out upwards of six months.

A perfect rehab period would have him back in action by the first of the year and the start of conference play, but again that’s best case scenario. There are usually setbacks in rehab and a realistic timetable could be closer to March for Big Reg.

Whenever Johnson is back in action, he’ll still need to work his way back into game shape. This is a devastating injury for Miami basketball and first-year head coach Jim Larranaga.

Big Reg did the right thing by coming back to UM after declaring for the NBA Draft (but not signing with an agent). There’s no questioning Johnson’s talent, but there are still some areas of his game that need to be refined before going next level.

The Canes are a much more potent squad with Johnson’s 6-foot-10 frame in the middle. We really saw this last year when Julian Gamble stepped in for Johnson and while he gave great effort Gamble isn’t the same caliber of player.

Miami also has 6-foot-10 sophomore Raphael Akpejiori, who is probably more suited to play the four than the five, but he did show good rebounding and shot-blocking skills in twenty games last season. Akpejiori may be able to fill the defensive void left by Johnson, but we’re yet to see his offensive game mature.

The Canes will also have the services of 6-foot-11 Florida transfer Kenny Kadji, but he hasn’t seen game action since the 2009 season. Kadji had corrective back surgery during his last season with the Gators and there’s no way to know how that back will respond to big game action.

Several of the college basketball scribes have said UM is one of the teams on the rise in 2011, but if you read their analysis a lot of that was based on the return of Johnson. Big Reg is a big part of what Miami intended to do this year. Without him, there’s still plenty of talent on this team – a team that will become very guard-heavy now – so you wonder what kind of line up Coach L will put out there.

Logic would tell you that the Canes will play small and fast, but we’ll see if that’s what the coaches have in mind. I’m sure the news about Reggie hit them even harder than it did the average fan. Let’s hope the big man gets through rehab without any setbacks and is back sooner than expected.

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