Creighton's Zierden Bounces Back Again From Knee Injury

http://www.bigeast.com/news/2016/1/8/MBB_0108163924.aspx

1/8/2016 3:35:55 PM
By Sean Brennan, Special To BIGEAST.com 

 

Ask Isaiah Zierden about his season-ending knee injury last year and almost before the question is finished being asked he's already coming at you with an answer.

"January 21," he said, referring to the anniversary of the night his sophomore season came to an abrupt end. "Unfortunately, I always remember the date."

Zierden and his Creighton Bluejays were at Butler. It was late in the first half and the 6-3 guard was falling back to play defense when he was bumped by a Bulldogs player. His right knee caved and Zierden fell to the floor. A torn medial collateral ligament (MCL) in his right knee would be the eventual diagnosis and Zierden and his team-leading 44 three-pointers were done for the season.

Zierden suffered the same injury to the same knee in his freshman season when he partially tore the MCL and injured his patella in a game at Xavier. Two seasons and two knee injuries which led to too many doubts about his future in the game he loves.

"Obviously right after it happened, that first night I didn't sleep," Zierden told BIGEAST.com. "I just thought about that this really could be the end of my playing career. There were a lot of doubts until I had the surgery (on Feb. 13 in Washington D.C.). Then it was just trying to focus individually day-by-day about what I could do and try not to think of the big picture because it was a little overwhelming when you look at it in the far view. Like in six months, I got to be back doing this and that. I just tried to take each day one at a time and when I was able to get back to doing some basketball stuff, getting the taste of it was pretty exciting."

There has been much Zierden has missed because of the back-to-back injuries. He was forced to be a spectator in his freshman season when Doug McDermott and the Bluejays reached the title game of the BIG EAST Tournament and went on to the NCAA Tournament. He also missed last year's BIG EAST Tournament as well and was still unable to play this past summer when the Bluejays made a trip to Italy for some exhibition games.

"Hindsight is 20-20 and it's always tough to look back and think about the stuff I've missed," said Zierden, who is averaging 11.3 points this season, third on the Jays. "The past two years have been pretty tough. When people are going out and having fun in the summer, I'm sitting there rehabbing and doing stuff that's not glamorous or fun. But you do it because you love the game. I'm just grateful for the here and now and hoping to play in the BIG EAST Tournament and an NCAA Tournament in the future. But I try not to dwell on the past with the injury."

 
Last January's injury kept Zierden on the sidelines for quite a while but that didn't stop the gym rat in Zierden from coming up with some unique practice techniques in order to stay sharp.
"It was about five and a half months to six and a half months before I could do contact stuff," Zierden said. "There was a lot of stuff that I couldn't do for the first four months. So I just focused on spot shooting on one leg and taking free throws. And I did a lot of ball handling in a chair."

But all the while Zierden was preparing to comeback for a second time, there were many days and nights when he wondered if he'd ever make it all the way back, to wearing the Creighton blue and white on the court again.

"Absolutely, there are always doubts," Zierden said. "There were some nights when I would be laying in my room by myself and all the negative thoughts would start filling my head. There was one time in particular when I called my dad (Don Zierden, an assistant coach with the NBA's Washington Wizards) and I asked him, 'Is it really worth what I'm doing to try to come back and play?' But he kind of talked me through it because he had a couple of knee injuries himself. The doubts come, but then the mentality kicks back in that, 'Ok, I'm a pretty competitive person and I'm not going to let this injury beat me. I'm going to come back and show that I could be better than I was before.' But there were doubts every day."

The date Zierden had circled on his mental calendar all through his grueling rehab was November 14. That was the day Creighton would open its 2015-16 season against Texas Southern at the CenturyLink Center. And when that day arrived there was Zierden standing on his home court in his Creighton blue-and-whites once again, the negative thoughts now vanquished. The warrior inside emerging victorious on what was an emotional night for Zierden.

"There was quite a bit. I don't want to say I teared up but there was a lot of emotion," Zierden said. "Everything just raced back to me in that moment, the love of the game but at the same time all the pain I've been through from the past six or seven months of rehab. So it was kind of an overwhelming feeling. But I tried to put it away as quick as I could so I could focus on playing the game. (Isaiah scored 15 points with three three-pointers in his first game back that night, a 93-70 Bluejays win).

Since then Zierden hasn't exactly eased back into playing. He has started all 16 games for Creighton (11-5, 2-1 BIG EAST), averages a team-best 30.8 minutes a game as of Jan. 8, is again tops in three-pointers with 39 treys and is shooting almost 39% from behind the arc. Not bad for a guy who wasn't totally sure he'd be back here this year.

"I think it's been all right," Zierden said of his season so far. "I still think there is room for improvement. I've talked to the doc multiple times and I still have, I wouldn't say problems, but I'm curious about why some days the knee feels different. The doc said it will probably take a full year before the knee really feels like it's my own again and on a daily basis I could do whatever. But I'm happy with the knee, it feels good. It doesn't always feel like it's my own some days but that's just how it's going to be."

Zierden says he doesn't think about the knee all that much when he's on the court, but there are times when it pops into his head.
"I feel after everything I've done I feel (the knee) is really solid so I don't really think about it a ton," Zierden said. "Obviously when it gets hit or gets tweaked then I think about it. "Is it something serious or is it something I can get through? But for the most part I don't think about it."
But what he does think about is how fortunate he is to be back playing a game he loves.

"Before you get injured you're always thinking I'll be playing tomorrow and you really don't think about it," said Zierden, who will be in New Jersey with his Creighton teammates to take on Seton Hall Saturday at 2 p.m. at the Prudential Center. "But now after two pretty serious injuries I don't take any day for granted. I love going to practice, I cherish the hard times of basketball, it's a beautiful game and I'm really blessed to be playing this game every day and I try to play my hardest out there and give my best all the time because I know at any moment it can be taken away."