LOUISVILLE, KY. (WDRB) -- University of Louisville senior guard Mike Marra suffered what Cardinals coach Rick Pitino said likely is a career-ending knee injury in his first practice session back with the Cardinals today.
Marra had been rehabilitating from an ACL tear in his left knee suffered last November, and Pitino said he tore the same ligament today in a team workout.
Speaking with Terry Meiners of WHAS radio in Louisville, Pitino said that Marra would begin a transition to coaching.
"We've been working Mike Marra out individually for the last two months," Pitino told Meiners. "He'd passed all the tests. Literally, the first 10 minutes of practice (today) he blew out the same knee with another ACL."
Pitino said the injury was non-contact in nature, just a pivot that resulted in something in the knee snapping.
"These ACLs are the strangest thing," Pitino told Meiners. "In football, it happens with a clip. In basketball, it happens with no contact but just pivoting. . . . It's always with a pivot the other way. And (trainer) Fred (Hina) knows this, and they pivot for two months making sure it's strong enough, and go through a battery of tests, but it wasn't meant to be with Mike, and we're going to get him a head start in a different profession."
In fact, those were the words Pitino said Marra used in talking with Hina after the injury occurred.
"Mike told Fred, before I could even get in there, 'You know Fred, it wasn't meant to be. So I'll get a head start on coaching.' He didn't pound the table. I think he realized he was going to contribute in a small way physically, this will give him an opportunity, just like my son Richard in his senior year, this will give him a head start in coaching.
"Mike wants to be a coach," Pitino told Meiners. "I just told him, 'Mike, having all these injuries, you're not going to be a professional basketball player, so you're getting a year's head start on being a grad assistant in a top 10 program. You're starting your coaching career off a year early. You have to look at this as a positive. I know it's not right now, but in a week's time you'll be on the sidelines coaching as a grad assistant and you'll get a head start on everybody else."
Marra came to U of L with a reputation as a sharpshooter out of Northfield Mt. Herman School in Smithfield, R.I. He saw action in 27 games as a freshman and 82 of his 94 field-goal attempts that season were three-pointers. As his career went on, he became a better defender and rebounder, and Pitino praised his understanding of the game repeatedly. He scored in double figures in 11 games as a sophomore and had at least four assists in seven games.
Marra wasn't expected to start this season, and his chances for playing time were shrinking because of U of L's talent at the guard and small forward positions, but Marra brought experience and a great understanding of Pitino's attack.
Pitino spoke to Meiners barely an hour after the workout, and no official diagnosis of the knee had been offered. Derek Anderson, a Louisville native, former University of Kentucky star and 11-year standout in the NBA, Tweeted to WDRB after a post announcing the injury, "Tell him not to give up, because I had 2 ACL surgeries on both knees and played 11 years in the NBA. I know the mental pain too!"
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