My Opinion
Potthoff comes back, pushes on to conference success

Exhausted, pale and dizzy, an intravenous tube invading her arm, women's basketball forward Angie Potthoff laid in the training room in Hinkle Fieldhouse last Sunday.

She had scored 17 points and snared nine rebounds during a 72-64 win over Indiana in the Big Ten tournament semifinals. But she had given too much.

Toward the end of the game, her shot was not itself, often clanging off the rim, falling short. She was not quick to the boards, as she had been all season. You could tell she was tired.

What you couldn't tell was that she was again battling an energy-sapping virus that hospitalized her two weeks earlier.

Would she be able to lace her Nikes for the tournament finals the next night?

"I was going to play, there was no doubt about it," Potthoff said.

And play she did, coupling 16 points with six rebounds as the Lady Lions topped Ohio State 68-63 for the title. It was just another remarkable comeback for a remarkable player who has had a remarkable year.

Those comebacks were evident all over Potthoff's body after the Ohio State championship battle.

They were evident in the six-inch scar that winds its way around her right shoulder. It poked out from under her jersey as she patiently answered questions in the post-game press conference, showing where she had surgery that kept her out all of last season.

The comebacks were evident as she partook in the on-court celebration she and her Lady Lion teammates fought so hard to have. Under her left arm, the game ball. In her left hand, a lacrosse shoulder pad.

The game ball she deserved for her efforts against Ohio State.

The shoulder pad she needed to protect her left shoulder, which she separated Feb. 23 when diving for a loose ball in practice. In practice.

Finally, her most recent comeback was evident in the redshirt sophomore's eyes. Still with a glint of title-game victory, they were dark, sunken, tired, indicative of the exhaustion she fought as hard as she did the Ohio State post players.

"She showed a lot of courage," Lady Lion Coach Rene Portland said. "If any kid had to get the Purple Heart Award, it would be her."

She showed a lot more than just courage this year, and she deserves more than just a purple heart. She showed she is the conference's best player, and that she deserves the Big Ten Player of the Year award.

But that award was given to Purdue center Stacey Lovelace. Sure, Lovelace led her team in four major statistical categories (not including tattoos) in the regular season, the games upon which the award is based. She averaged 14.4 points, 8 rebounds, 2.3 steals and 2.6 blocks per game.

None of those numbers led the conference, though, while two of Potthoff's did. She topped the Big Ten in field-goal percentage (59.6) and rebounding (10 per game). Her scoring average of 17.6 points per game -- fourth best in the conference -- made her the only player in the Big Ten to average double figures in both scoring and rebounding.

She also finished in the top 10 in free-throw percentage, blocked shots and steals. But people will say the award goes beyond statistics, that Lovelace was more valuable to her team.

That's a tough argument to support, considering Potthoff led the Lady Lions in scoring or rebounding in 16 of the team's 26 regular-season games, one of them coming when she played with a concussion against George Washington on Jan. 17.

And if her value to the team is still in question, ask Missy Masley, Potthoff's teammate who has seen her battle through the concussions, torn-up shoulders and heavy eyelids to become one of the team's most consistent performers and a possible All-American.

"Angie's a fighter," Masley said after the Ohio State victory. "I had no doubt that she would be in here just tearing people up. That's just the kind of girl Angie is. She will give you her best all the time. That's probably why she's sick, because she cares so much about the team."

That's also why she is the Big Ten Player of the Year.