Men’s basketball Point Guard Jonny Marlin (jr) is progressing on schedule with the rehabilitation of his thigh hematoma, or solid swelling of clotted blood within the body tissue. Marlin suffered the injury the evening of Jan. 31 after hitting the game-winning shot against the University of Saint Francis.
Doctors originally said Marlin would not be able to play for two to four weeks, which means the star guard will return some time in the next one to two weeks or so, Head Coach Greg Tonagel confirmed.
“He’s off his crutches and now he’s just trying to strengthen that leg and get that muscle firing again,” Tonagel said.
Tonagel added he and Marlin are both unsure of the exact cause of the injury, but have conjectured Marlin must have gotten hit at some point during the game against Saint Francis and not realized it because of adrenaline.
“He leaves the gym 100 percent [after the game], not limping, not feeling like he ever got hit,” Tonagel said. “And then two hours later, he ended up in the emergency room because his leg had some internal bleeding.”
Since Marlin’s injury, the Wildcats have won all three of their games in blowout fashion against Huntington University, Mt. Vernon Nazarene University and Taylor University.
Tonagel has attributed the team’s success without Marlin to improved levels of play from the Wildcats’ other guards in the rotation, Bob Peters (so), DJ Bettinger (sr), Zac Vandewater (sr) and Jacob Johnson (fr).
“When your players go down, other players naturally step up,” Tonagel said. “We’ve actually been playing better as a team, because I think there’s a sense of urgency and guys are making plays happen. Ultimately, what this means is, when he comes back, I think we’ll be that much better of a team.”