Michigan State's Roe playing hurt on bad right knee

INDIANAPOLIS -- Delvon Roe knows he will be in excruciating pain on game days and he doesn't care. He wakes up in the morning and goes through the same routine in hopes of easing the agony. "Put an icepack on, put some tape on my knee to release the pressure off the joint where the pain is," he explains. It seems as if every Michigan State player is banged up heading into their Final Four showdown with Butler on Saturday night. Each has been doing enough to get the Spartans here, but perhaps none has reached as deep as Roe, who has put off surgery against his parents wishes in hopes of playing for a national title. His right knee, with a meniscus injury, is so badly damaged that he can't make things worse by suiting up. "The pain was getting worse and worse and worse, but I had to realize that the reason why I was playing through it was because I wanted to have the ability to win a national championship," he said. "Now, I'm just two games away from achieving that goal and making that pain and everything all worth it." Roe is contributing, though not as much as he'd like. The 6-foot-8, 230-pound sophomore is averaging 6.5 points and five rebounds per game after going through the same grueling process. "Come game time, I do a lot of stretching and rolling, ride a bike. Put some type of cream on my knee. Depending on where the pain is, I might take a shot," he said. At halftime, he usually rides a stationary bike and stretches. He says it takes at least two days for him to return to normal after a game, sometimes four. He practiced Friday at Lucas Oil Stadium with protection around his knee. He took it easy, and clearly wasn't comfortable. Sometimes, he wonders if he made the right choice, especially when the thought flashes through his mind that his next jump could be his last. "Why am I doing this?" he asks himself. "Am I crazy? I'm dying here right now." His parents ask the same questions. "They didn't like it at all," he said of his decision to keep playing. "They didn't think I should go through something that painful when I could just get the surgery and been halfway to getting myself back to the real Delvon Roe." Michigan State coach Tom Izzo didn't try to sway Roe either way, but he checked why he was making his decision. "He came to make sure, is that really what I wanted to do," Roe said. "He knew it was going to be a hassle to go through all of the things I was going to have to go through." But Roe decided after a loss to Ohio State on Feb. 21 that he was going to give his best, even if it was less than before. "You realize that, this is not going to be my last moment out here," he said. "I'm going to get better, I'm going to get healthy. If I'm going to play Big Ten basketball, I'm going to go all out." His teammates respect his toughness. "He's a warrior," guard Korie Lucious said. "I didn't even really know his knee was hurting until the Maryland (Sweet 16) game. I don't think he likes to play through pain, but he wants to help the team win." The pain, though, has made him a shadow of his former self. He won several national awards as an underclassman at St. Edward High School in Euclid, Ohio, but missed all but one game his senior year with a knee injury. He had microfracture surgery, but recovered in time to start 31 of 38 games as a freshman at Michigan State. He averaged 5.6 points and 5.2 rebounds per game. He has played hurt for most of this season. It isn't the same injury as he had in high school, though it is to the same knee. Instead of being a dynamic, athletic player, he must rely on fundamental skills. "Completely different," he said. "You're have to think the game a little bit more. Your quickness is not going to be as quick as it is. You've got to be sure you're mentally able to handle the fatigue because you're not able to practice much." He's having surgery in a few weeks. Before that, he wants to give his senior teammates a championship gift: "I wanted to send the seniors out right, and I knew that by me having surgery, our chances of getting to this level wouldn't have been as high."