Bill Gramatica can relate. Malcolm Mitchell has been there, done that. Gus Frerotte also -- well, as much as he'd probably like to be associated with that group, headbutting a wall after a score is still in a separate category.
Add Georgia State head coach Ron Hunter to the club.
Hunter lead his team to the Sun Belt Conference tournament championship on Sunday with a 38-36 win over Georgia Southern. While celebrating after the win, Hunter hurt himself, potentially badly.
"I tore my Achilles years ago on the right side playing basketball when I was 26 years old," Hunter explained as he described the injury. "It was the exact same feeling. I hadn't jumped that high probably in 26 years, and I knew when I came done I had done it.
"Instead of stopping right there, I wanted to go celebrate with my team. But more importantly I wanted to go celebrate with my son. You don't get that many opportunities."
R.J. Hunter was the games second-leading scorer with nine points.
Because the Panthers won the Sun Belt tournament they earned an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament. Georgia State will play Baylor as the 14 seed in the West Region. Hunter doesn't plan to miss any time.
Hunter said the idea was to put a cast over his foot until after his team was done with the tournament. Then he'd evaluate where the injury was and if surgery was required. "Nothing is going to keep me from going to the NCAA Tournament with my guys," said Hunter who admitted the pain was a "17" on a scale of one to 10.
