Andre Logan lowered his eyes as he limped slowly across the Harvard court, an ice pack and brace strapped to his leg, avoiding everyone. It was Jan. 11, and Princeton had just defeated Harvard, 50-48, but as the sophomore forward shuffled past the remaining crowd, past the hanging nets and off the hardwood, tears leaked lightly down his face.
Then he entered the locker room and began to weep.
Moments earlier, Logan had been informed by the Harvard physician that a small stutter step move midway through the first half had likely torn the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. On the play, Logan had not fallen to the ground. He had not stumbled as he darted up the court. Then he tried to stop moving and felt the bones in his knee sliding past each other, and he crumpled.
He immediately left the court and was diagnosed at the end of the game. His season was over.
This past week, Princeton (9-7 overall, 4-0 Ivy League) played its first three games without the star forward and won them all, but the low caliber of the competition left the question open: How will the Tigers fare against tougher teams after losing their most well-rounded player?
In the opening minutes of the Harvard game, Logan had felt more confident about his play than he had in days.
"I felt really good," he said. "I thought it was an indicator of how I would play the rest of the season. I had finally snapped out of my slump."
But Logan's season statistics contradicted his self-critical sentiments. Logan started all 12 games he played in and, as of Feb. 1, he led the team in scoring, blocked shots (eighth in the league) and was second in rebounding. He shot 56 percent from the field — the best on the team among players who took more than 50 shots and good enough for 22nd in the league. Logan was also an outside threat, sinking 42 percent of three-pointers, and shooting 72 percent from the foul line. Against the Crimson, Logan scored seven points in the 15 minutes he played before being injured.
When the trainers informed Logan he would not play again this season, the news came as an eerie echo of a conversation he had hours before the Harvard game with teammate sophomore guard Ed Persia. As they sat together viewing the movie "Love and Basketball" the Tigers watched one of the main characters, a standout basketball player, tear his ACL.
The players agreed they did not know if they could muster the inner resources to come back from such a devastating injury.
Now Logan has to.
"It's such a long road," Logan said a week later, recalling the conversation. "It's frustrating and intimidating."
A gloom settled over the team when the diagnosis was confirmed.
"Everybody was down," said junior forward Ray Robins, who has stepped into the starting lineup in Logan's place. "It's a huge loss. No one person can replace him."
In the two league games this past weekend against Cornell and Columbia, no single person tried. Junior guard Kyle Wente led the Tigers Friday night with 17 points while senior guard Ahmed El-Nokali chipped in 11. Saturday, after roaring to a 32-9 halftime lead, reserves swept onto the court, allowing nine different Tigers to score, led by a career-high 28 points from Robins.
But against Columbia, Logan might have been matched defensively against stellar forward Craig Austin, who led the Lions with 13 points — including eight in the first half when Columbia cruised to a startling 26-20 lead. Against Cornell, his rebounding presence was missed as the sorely undersized Big Red managed to snatch 30 boards to the Tigers' 32.
"Rebounding is one of the key issues," senior forward Mike Bechtold said.
Robins averages 1.5 rebounds a game, compared to Logan's 3.9. But, according to senior forward Mike Bechtold, "Ray makes some things happen around the perimeter. Andre would probably make a couple of moves and use his body. Andre is a more physical player than Ray."
Logan's versatility was perhaps his most valuable contribution as a player.
"One of the great things about Andre was that he could do so many things," Wente said. "He's a really big guy so he could go in and get rebounds, but he could dribble and handle the ball. He's extremely quick for his size. He was always the one that was making a big play and getting everybody riled up together."
Robins relied on Logan for his calm presence, soothing spirits when streaks by the other team threatened to spiral out of control.
"Certain guys go out there and you just feel that they're in control of everything they do," Robins said. " Everything we do is so precise, that you get going too fast and you get out of the structure of everything. Dre was always calm, he didn't get rattled. He kept us going."
And, dressed in street clothes sitting on the bench this weekend, Logan continued to do just that. When Columbia was stretching out a lead during the first half, Logan spoke up.
"They made their spurt," he told them. "Now let's make ours."
"I think I'm a relaxed person in general," Logan said. "Freaking out about stuff," he continued, "is very detrimental in basketball and life."
The Tigers will need to adopt that attitude now. But they will no longer have Logan to lead them.
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