Stewart postpones surgery to be with team

Monday, April 7, 2008

SAN ANTONIO — The chant started softly, dissolving into the vast space at the Alamodome.

Rodrick Stewart still heard it, and sitting behind Kansas’ bench, his broken knee-cap elevated, Stewart broke down.

Photo by Mindy Ricketts

Senior guard Rodrick Stewart gives post-game interviews in the Kansas locker room with his leg propped up. Stewart injured his right knee during practice Friday, which left him unable to play in the Final Four. "It was hard to just be there watching my team," Stewart said.

“Rodrick Stewart, clap, clap, clap-clap-clap.”

The chant became louder and the tears more noticeable.

“That really touched me,” Stewart said after the game.

Stewart, a senior guard, won’t play for Kansas during the Final Four. Not after Stewart broke his knee cap while attempting a dunk during Friday’s open practice session at the Alamodome. But Stewart was still a part of Saturday night’s victory against North Carolina.

“We did all that for him,” junior guard Brandon Rush said about Kansas’ 84-66 victory against North Carolina.

Stewart spent the game behind Kansas’ bench with his right leg elevated.

“I just wanted to be out there with the guys,” Stewart said.

The injury caused Friday at the Final Four, normally a light-hearted day of open practices, to take a somber tone.

“Right when I was in the air, and I heard the pop, I was like, ‘Ah man, I tore my ACL,’” Stewart said.

Then Stewart turned over and realized it was something different. He said he didn’t feel the pain right away.

“Right when I turned over, the pain just hit me all at once,” he said.

Stewart’s injury will require surgery once he returns to Lawrence.

In some ways, Stewart’s ghastly knee injury was reminiscent of 1988, when starter Archie Marshall was lost for the season with a knee injury. Marshall still suited up for the championship game against Oklahoma and was a source of inspiration for the 1988 champs.

Stewart said he thought the team rallied around his situation as well.

“Anytime stuff like that happens with our team, it just motivates us,” Stewart said. “We’ve been through so much.”

— Edited by Daniel Reyes

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