Gore Comes Back From Injury

In college, spending a whole week in bed usually means one of three things has happened. One, mono has taken over. Two, six straight nights of drinking have just occurred. Or three, general laziness is afoot.
None of these apply to men’s basketball junior guard Adam Gore, though. He came out of surgery to reconstruct his ACL towards the end of his fall semester last year and was immediately ordered to do nothing.
“Right after surgery I was basically bed ridden for a week and didn’t do a whole lot,” Gore said. “But once I got back into rehab we were still in season so I just kind of hung out until Christmas. I was just hanging out with the guys.”
Gore was coming off a notable rookie season. He had set the school record for 3 pointers in a season. He was picked as a first-teamer in the Ancient Eight by many publications. Then, with a few minutes remaining in the Red’s season opening upset win over Northwestern, Gore limped toward the sideline. He didn’t play another minute that season.
“I’d come to practice and me and the trainer would go to the weight room and spend like an hour just basically trying to get back in the one leg,” Gore said. “After surgery I basically lost all my strength compared to the other leg. So I would spend an hour doing like leg lifts and stuff like that.”
The pattern was simple — an hour in the weight room, 20-30 minutes in the gym, repeat.
“I would spend 20 or 30 minutes over here in the gym just trying to get flexibility back and working on range of motion back,” Gore said. “That was the majority of my rehab for a few months, just getting the strength and flexibility back.”
Now, on the cusp of a new season, doctors, coaches and Gore himself claim he has all that strength and flexibility back — not to mention his game, almost.
“He’s recovered physically but you might see rust in overall game,” said head coach Steve Donahue. “He hasn’t played in a year. He’s had good days and bad days where he is just not himself. Over couple of months I’m confident you will see someone who is just as good if not better.”
For a player who’s game relies so much on cutting to get open off screens and shooting off the dribble from long range, Gore said that his injury hasn’t changed his style at all.
“I don’t think about it,” he said. “It hasn’t really affected me. I’m not hesitant at all. Some people say that after an injury like that that you start thinking about it more. But I feel pretty confident in it.”
Now that he is back, the focus is on getting Gore into a lineup that has a year under their belts playing together.
Neither Donahue nor Gore view this as a problem, thinking Gore will mesh fine with backcourt mates sophomore Louis Dale, junior Collin Robinson and sophomore Ryan Wittman.
“I think I’ll fit in well with the guys,” Gore said. “We all have our strengths. A lot of us have some of the same strengths in the way we play. We’re going to be getting up and down the floor.”