What began with a flash of hope turned into years of upheaval, injury and untapped potential.
But for senior Justin Reilly – who will be the only four-year Penn basketball player making his final appearance at the Palestra this weekend – it was all worth it.
“I think it can be somewhat disappointing looking at our potential from freshman year,” said Reilly, who, along with fellow seniors Darren Smith and Andreas Schreiber, couldn’t shake the injury bug throughout his college tenure. “But I’m not sure I’d do it differently. We still had highlights and some flashes in our career. And I felt very blessed to be at Penn. I could have gone without getting a ring at all.”
Reilly, of course, earned his Ivy championship ring as a freshman in 2006-07, and most fans have fond memories of the Dallas, Texas native’s contributions in the Quakers’ final game of that season. Facing many guys he played AAU ball with from his high school days, Reilly buried three big buckets in a competitive first-round loss to Texas A&M in the NCAA tournament.
“It was cool,” said Reilly. “But the dagger about that game is that we could have won. That’s the hardest part. I make another couple of shots in the second half and we keep Acie Law contained and we win the game.”
Still, it seemed at the time that Reilly and his two classmates — Fran Dunphy’s final recruiting class at Penn — would be able to keep the program moving forward, even with the graduation of a phenomenal group of seniors in 2007.
But then everything went haywire.
Smith, after starting that NCAA game as a freshman, missed two straight seasons after fracturing his kneecap and has been a shell of his former self this year.
Schreiber, after showing great potential as a sophomore, has missed most of the last two seasons with a recurring shoulder injury.
And Reilly has been hindered for the last three seasons with a stomach injury. According to the senior forward, he had a sports hernia and on his right side and a shredded ligament on his left side, making it so “my abdominal muscles were not connected to my lower body,” he said, adding that the played his entire sophomore year with that injury, which was misdiagnosed at the time. Two surgeries and one concussion later and Reilly’s not even sure if his body could even hold up for another season.
Unlike Schreiber and Smith, who both applied for – and should be granted – an extra year of eligibility, Reilly is on track to graduate in the spring and, in all likelihood, will leave basketball behind.
“It’s kind of crazy,” Reilly said. “I never thought I wouldn’t be graduating with them. I looked at taking a fifth year, but in Wharton it’s not as easy.”
So in a few short days, Reilly’s college basketball career will come to a close. And even though it will wrap up with a third straight losing season, the Texan is feeling content – mostly because he will soon graduate with a Wharton degree.
“Looking back on my career right now, I got hurt twice and had two major surgeries,” he said. “Another place that may have been tough to come back from. It looks like I did the right thing (by coming to Penn) – at least I’d like to think so.”
Reilly is also confident Smith and Schreiber can help the Quakers restore their winning tradition next season. He even thinks his classmates will get another ring before it’s their turn to enter the real world.
“Absolutely,” he said when asked if Penn will win the 2010-11 Ivy League championship. “I’ll be the first one to say it.”
