Despite being rivals for 40 minutes on Sunday, Rutgers and Iowa showed that the brotherhood of college basketball goes beyond the playing surface.
“I just want to say what a class operation Rutgers is,” Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery said. “Pat Hobbs came by practice yesterday to offer his well-wishes for my Patrick [McCaffery] and the Rutgers basketball team filled out a card to wish him luck with what he's going through.”
On Jan. 3, Patrick McCaffery offered a statement saying he would step away from the court for an indefinite amount of time due to anxiety.
“I have been battling anxiety for a while, and recently it has peaked, which has inhibited my preparation and performance on the court,” McCaffery said. “It’s not fair to myself or teammates to be on the court when I am not myself. The anxiety has affected my sleep, appetite, and stamina, which has resulted in not having the energy level necessary to compete at my full capabilities. My struggle with anxiety affects every aspect of my well-being and makes it incredibly difficult to function normally. This is what I am battling right now. For this reason, I am taking an indefinite leave to address my situation. It might be two games, it may be four games, it may be more, but I will return when I feel like myself. My leave of absence is not related to my past battle with cancer.”
As a result, what started as a postgame press conference talking about the Scarlet Knights’ 76-65 loss to the Hawkeyes became a healthy discussion about the not-so-healthy side of college athletics.
“College basketball is tough, what these kids go through, and if you heard some of the messages that kids get. He's a great kid, a great student, and a great basketball player,” Rutgers head coach Steve Pikiell said regarding the team’s support for Patrick McCaffery. “The things they have to deal with mentally are just really tough and I have a ton of sympathy. I'm so out of social media and don't spend any time on it but I knew what life was like without the phone in my hand, they don't. Mental health is so important.”
Pikiell continued to offer his support for McCaffery and expressed hope he could one day step back onto the court and enjoy playing basketball again.
“For what the McCafferys are going through, I just want him to be better and to have fun playing basketball,” he said. “And I want that for all the players, it's a special time in your life if you're not bogged down with the mental stress of all that stuff.”
Pikiell also mentioned Trayce Jackson-Davis’s tweet regarding a piece of hate mail he received.
“What these guys have to deal with, I think Trayce Jackson-Davis put out something said to him, if you ever saw some of the things I read that these guys share with me, it's tough and I feel for them mentally,” he said. “I just hope he gets better and that it was just something little. I really root for kids, kids in this league, and kids that are playing college athletics. I want my son to enjoy college and not worry. You can't play every game great and you're going to have some tough days and you just move on from it. I'm really just rooting for him and want him to get back healthy and feel good about what he's done because he's a special young man playing basketball in this league.”
Although social media is an entity that has its positives and negatives, Pikiell does his best to warn his players of its dangers and even brought in 2019 NCAA Champion Anthony Ashnault to explain how it played a role in his wrestling career on the banks.
“Cam [Spencer does it best and doesn't have social media,” Pikiell said. “I try to get them to stay off and try to tell them to put it down. We had Anthony Ashnault come in and speak to us about the year he won the national championship. He spent four years listening and his mood was going up and down with the social media but that year he honed in on what was important to him which was winning wrestling matches, taking care of his body, and getting the sleep he needs at night and said it was his breakthrough year.”
However, Pikiell understands even he does not have an axe big enough to chop down the global village.
“I try to get different people to talk but I also will tell you they never live without the phone,” he said. “I know what life was like without it and what it's like with it, there’s some great things about it but there's some tough things too and these kids have to deal with a lot of stuff that we didn't. I don't have any experience in that area so you’ve got to bring in people that do and can handle those kinds of things. We have some terrific sports medicine people here that do a great job for us so we're blessed. Pat [Hobbs] does an unbelievable job with the whole athletic department with those resources but you’ve still got to use them and try to avoid some of the pitfalls of it.”
At the end of the day, sports are supposed to be a fun outlet to get away from the stresses of the outside world. However, sometimes the stresses of the outside world creep their way into sports so it is important to try and recognize and understand how they should be handled. Whether it is the reaction to Damar Hamlin’s life-threatening injury or the love being shown here between Rutgers and Iowa, hopefully moments like these can be a turning point for sports and the outside world alike.
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