Thomas close to ditching knee brace

Louisville, Ky. — Brittney Thomas is just about ready to shed her knee brace.

The junior guard has been playing with it all season after tearing her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) near the end of last season and steadily has been coming on as the season has progressed.

“It’s getting to the point where you use it and you need it, but then you get to a point where it’s clunky and it’s in the way and it’d be easier if it was off,” Thomas said. “I’m at that point, but I’m going to hang on to it until the end of the season.”

Thomas said she’s played with it off in “a couple of practices” but always in non-contact drills. She’s been able to run up-and-down without it.

“It felt free,” she said. “It just felt so free. That’s the best word I can use to explain it.”

Head coach Suzy Merchant said Thomas asked before the team left for Louisville if she could take the brace off. She was told no, but Merchant saw the request as a good sign.

“What it says is that she’s kind of freed her mind of worrying about (the knee) and is just really focusing on the gifts she was given,” Merchant said.

Thomas has started to assert herself more on the offensive end the last three months, raising her scoring average from 5.8 to start 2010 to 7.3 now.

She took nine shots Saturday against Bowling Green, her third highest total of the season. She finished with 11 points, three assists and three steals in 35 minutes.

What’s impressive about Thomas is that, if you didn’t know and didn’t see the huge brace, you would never guess she tore her ACL about 13 months ago. That’s because she plays a team-high 31 minutes per game, including 35 against the Falcons.

In her last 18 games, she has averaged about 35 minutes per game, all while playing the most stressful position on the court and almost never getting tired.

And against a Kentucky team that is going to run her up-and-down the floor, Thomas is going to need every ounce of energy she has.

“Trying to guard athletic guards without fouling, that’s going to take a lot out of you,” she said. “Luckily, we’re deep and a lot of people can play D and we’re working really well together. … It’s not just going to be one-on-one and then race down to the other end.”

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