Are You a Great Teammate?
Great teams are made up of great teammates. How much are you willing to put your team ahead of your own best interests?
This is an incredible story from Dana O’Neill about Trey Hicks from Longwood.
FOR SEVEN MINUTES OF PLAYING TIME, HE BURNED HIS MEDICAL REDSHIRT
Dana O’Neil - The Athletic
Most of March’s magical moments – the buzzer-beaters, game winners and monster dunks – come with an exclamation point. This was an ordinary substitution, a basketball exchange that happens countless times during the course of 40 minutes. Yet it left Longwood head coach Griff Aldrich in tears.
Seven months ago, Trey Hicks, a junior forward from Louisville, Ky., injured his knee for the second time, this time an MRI revealing a complete tear of the meniscus. Surgery followed, the latest setback for a walk-on turned scholarship player who already missed time with a broken ankle as a sophomore. Aldrich and Hicks talked about it, agreeing that Hicks would redshirt, getting a fifth year that would not only give him a better chance to play, but also pursue his MBA.
But when he checked into the Big South Championship game against UNC Asheville four minutes into the second half, on what could be the Lancers’ next-to-last game of the season (as a 16-seed, they’ll play No. 1 seed Houston in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday), Hicks burned his shot at that redshirt season. An improbable confluence of circumstances put Longwood in a situation to need Hicks; but it was Hicks who answered the call. “I told Coach, if you need me, you got me,’’ Hicks says. “For a program that has done so much for me, that’s the least I could do.”
After graduating from South Oldham High School, Hicks did a prep school year at the Hill School, hoping the extra year would get some more basketball bites. Instead, COVID-19 happened and he only got nibbles, mostly from Division II schools. Longwood offered him a chance to come as a walk-on sight unseen, and wanting the D1 experience, Hicks took it. He spent his first year happily on the scout team, played in 11 games as a sophomore, but the broken ankle robbed him of a chance to do much.
At the end of that season, after Longwood won the Big South tournament, Aldrich awarded him with a scholarship. Two weeks later, Hicks injured his knee playing pickup. An MRI showed no damage, so Hicks participated in summer workouts. But then he felt the same tweak again, an MRI this time showing a tear of the meniscus capsule. He went with the team for a European trip. Didn’t play but as he toured around, he noticed his knee kept ballooning up. Another MRI, this one showing the tear. “It was emotionally draining,” Hicks says.
But with the safety net of the redshirt year, Hicks settled into his rehab. He didn’t so much as practice. “I hadn’t run 94 feet in seven months,’’ he says with a laugh. Nor did he intend to. And then the dominoes started to fall.
In the Big South tournament semifinal, starting big man Elijah Tucker got banged in the thigh, but the seemingly innocuous injury turned into a real issue. Blood pooled from the contusion, meriting a hospital visit and stay, and knocking Tucker out of the championship game. Knowing his team would be shorthanded, Hicks tossed and turned all night, mulling over his own situation. He talked with his dad, Brian, who was staying at the team hotel, the next day, and then sent a text to assistant coach Quinn McDowell. Aldrich shared the text. Just talked to my dad and I’m ready if y’all need me. The team comes first in this situation. I’d be pissed if I passed up on that.
“I showed my wife and we both started to cry,” Aldrich says. But Aldrich also wasn’t immediately on board. He texted Brian Hicks, telling him how impressed he was with Hicks’ selfless offer but his inclination was not to accept it. “It’s just a game,” Aldrich says. “His life is so much more important.” Brian Hicks, however, told him that his son not only had his blessing, he was immensely proud of his choice.
That morning, Hicks went to athletic trainer Leah Dunagan, asking her to tape his ankles. Dunagan looked at him quizzically. “I told her what was going on, and to her credit, she just shrugged,” Hicks says. “We checked with my doctor and he gave me the all clear.” At walkthrough, the coaching staff reiterated there were no expectations.
“I told him we’d only ever use him if there was an emergency,’’ Aldrich says.
With 18 minutes left in the game, the emergency came. Asheville’s Fletcher Abee was ejected for a flagrant two. In the chaos of the play, backup big man Johan Nziemi stepped onto the court – “a foot fault,” Aldrich called it – and by rule, was ejected for leaving the bench area. “I looked down the bench, and Trey looks at me,’’ says Aldrich, tearing up. “He just said, ‘I’m ready.'”
Longwood fans cheered as Hicks entered the game. “He’d been through all of those injuries, but I don’t think anybody truly grasped what was going on,” Aldrich says. “He burned his redshirt year for his team. For one game. I’ve never seen anything so selfless.”
Tucker is being evaluated for his NCAA Tournament status. Regardless, Aldrich does not intend to play Hicks. Instead he wants to appeal to the NCAA, asking them to consider the circumstances to see if they’ll restore his redshirt year.
Hicks is philosophical about it. “I would love to get the year back,” he says. “But I wouldn’t trade what I did for anything. No regrets. None. All of the pleasure I’ve gotten from this program, the chance that the coaching staff gave me, I was happy to do something for them.”
Longwood’s Trey Hicks dunks in the final minute against UNC Asheville on March 10. (Isaiah Vazquez / Getty Images)
Hicks played seven minutes. In the first, he fouled twice and missed a layup. He issued another layup, pulled down a defensive rebound and turned the ball over.
But with 25 seconds left before Longwood secured the title and NCAA Tournament bid, he scooted down court on a fast break. He got the ball, blitzed down the lane and flushed a dunk for Longwood’s last points.
And Trey Hicks’ magical March moment, with an exclamation point.