Spring Break
PROFILE: DeLuca's comeback
A look at one of the school's all-time scorers
by Jeffrey Pickette
Senior writer
Sports | 5/19/09
Posted online at 1:44 AM EST on 5/15/09
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A knee injury has relegated the perennial all-star Garnett to the bench for his team's 2009 postseason run. Instead of patrolling the low post, he's only able to look on and offer his teammates words of encouragement.
"I know all too well how that feels," DeLuca said. "It's a terrible feeling. It keeps you up at night."
As a senior, DeLuca missed all but 27 minutes of the 2007 to 2008 season with lower back and leg injuries. He was sidelined while the Judges made their deepest NCAA Tournament run in school history, reaching the Sectional Finals, where rival Amherst College eliminated them 65-55 in Plattsburgh, N.Y. to advance to the Final Four.
"[You have] this helpless feeling like you can't do anything," DeLuca said. "I would give advice, … but that could only go so far."
DeLuca took a medical redshirt that season, making him eligible for a fifth year at Brandeis. During his return this season, he started all 27 regular and postseason games for the Judges, averaging over 32 minutes per game, and was named a Division III All-American by the National Association of Basketball Coaches, leading the team in scoring and rebounding for the third time in his career en route to the squad's third straight NCAA Tournament appearance.
His return to the starting lineup this season capped a comeback effort that was nearly a year in the making.
Men's basketball head coach Brian Meehan said he thought that DeLuca had brought his game to "an entirely different level" in the summer of 2007 between his junior and senior years.
But DeLuca injured his plantar fasciata soon after he returned from the team's offseason trip to Italy that summer. It took two months for him to heal; then, a week after his return, he injured his back.
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