Nov. 18, 2005
Normal, Ill. -
Megan McCracken, the top returning scorer on the Illinois State women's basketball team, will be sidelined for at least four weeks with a stress fracture in her right hip. McCracken is one of three returning starters for the Redbirds, who begin regular-season play Friday at Chicago State.
It's the second year in a row the junior guard from Rock Island has suffered a November injury. She missed three games in 2004-05 because of a foot injury. McCracken spent her freshman season at Iowa State in 2002-03, then sat out the 2003-04 season at Illinois State to satisfy NCAA residency requirements.
Redbird coach Robin Pingeton was heartsick at the news.
"You hate it when this happens to anyone, but there are very few kids like Megan who are true `gym rats' and put in extra time every day, shooting and ballhandling, to improve their game," said Pingeton. "After she sat out a whole season, she got hurt last year at about this time and had to sit out again. That makes this situation just really tough to swallow."
But she recovered to help lead Illinois State to the 2005 State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament Championship and its first NCAA Tournament bid since 1989. McCracken's 15 points per game in the tournament included 21 in a 61-57 win over regular-season Valley champion and 2005 Women's NIT Champion Missouri State.
Last season, McCracken averaged 10.9 points and 3.3 assists while setting a Redbird record for first-year players with 53 three-point field goals made. She was in the top 10 in the Valley in three-point field goal percentage, assists, three-point field goals per game, minutes played per game and assist/turnover ratio.
The loss of McCracken makes a young team even younger. Now, eight of the 11 available Redbird players are freshmen or sophomores.
"This will be a challenge for all of them (players)," said Pingeton. "We have a young team and Megan is a veteran who has the respect of her teammates because of her passion for the game. Not one person can replace her, but all of us can do a little bit more. We won't make excuses--that's not who we are. We'll just have to go out there and do our best."
The Redbirds' regular-season home opener will be at 2:05 p.m. Sunday vs. Loyola Chicago in Redbird Arena.
