Grace Agbai watched the tape dozens of times. Uka Agbai, stationed underneath the basket, jumps for a rebound before a Holy Cross player knocks Grace’s son upside the head and to the floor.

On the surface, the play appears harmless. But as it turned out, Agbai, Boston College’s starting center, broke a bone in his neck on the play.

‘When I went to Boston I watched the tape,’ said Grace, who lives in Queens Village. ‘It was just a simple foul.’

That seemingly simple foul ended Agbai’s 2002 season. Agbai suffered a broken bone in his neck in two places, leaving BC with a gaping hole in its starting five. Now, though, Agbai is back, averaging 11.2 points and 4.4 rebounds for the 12-4 Eagles.

‘When it first happened, I kind of looked at it like, ‘Why me?’ ‘ Agbai told the Boston Globe earlier this year. ‘I felt like I never had done anything bad to anyone, I never harmed anyone, and I had always treated everyone with kindness and respect. And so I thought, ‘Why me?’ And then, after a while, people were trying to cheer me up, and I wasn’t even trying to hear it. But they were trying to get me to focus on the positives.’

Like how this season Agbai reached the 1,000 career point plateau with a 10-point effort against Sacred Heart. And how he’ll graduate with a master’s degree, not despite of but because of one seemingly harmless foul.

In fact, no one even considered Agbai seriously hurt during the 71-70 loss to Holy Cross. He continued playing, scoring 15 points and grabbing four rebounds after the injury occurred.

‘That’s why I couldn’t figure out what happened,’ Grace said. ‘He kept playing. I figured it was just because they were losing.’

‘It’s not a common injury whatsoever,’ Associate Head Athletic Trainer Stephen Basiel said. ‘This was the first one I’d seen. It was the first one I’d heard of. I’ve been doing this for 20 years and I had never seen this.’

Because of the rareness of the injury, BC personnel failed to realize the severity until after the game, when Agbai’s neck began swelling. When hospital officials informed Agbai of the injury, he and the Eagles were shocked.

That’s why BC sat Agbai for the season rather than risk playing him early. Originally, the recovery was expected to take six weeks. As it turned out, Agbai wore his neck brace for three months.

Quickly, Agbai accepted the situation.

‘We went to visit him in Boston when it happened,’ Grace said. ‘He came straight up to me and said, ‘Mom, don’t worry. I’m going to be all right.’ He looked strong. And I never doubted him after that.’

During the time, though, Basiel called Agbai’s ability to move ‘severely limited,’ and Agbai couldn’t accelerate the recovery process, which frustrated the 6-foot-8 center.

‘It was simply a matter of time,’ Basiel said. ‘It wasn’t like he was rehabbing. It frustrated him, yeah, but he also understood it was something that we took very seriously and that there’s not much you could do.’

Agbai’s frustration level almost boiled over during BC’s 72-67 loss to Northeastern on Jan. 5, 2003. Agbai, stuck on the bench with his neck brace, nearly walked off the court in protest to how poor the Eagles were playing.

‘I just told him, ‘This isn’t a one-man game,” Grace says, laughing at the memory. ‘Everybody has to do their part. I just told him to do his part and support them.’

Despite losing Troy Bell, last year’s top scorer, the Eagles are still 2-2 in the Big East, good for seventh place. Agbai and fellow big man Craig Smith have become one of the conference’s premier post duos.

Basiel said the injury has fully healed without any increased chance of aggravation. Still, Agbai keeps the neck brace in his locker – as a keepsake.

‘I don’t know why that kid would do it,’ Grace said. ‘It’s good to keep as a remembrance, I guess.’

Streak stoppers

Jamie Dixon has run up and down sidelines during games, coaching his team to continuous winning. He’s run efficient practices. He’s run drills for his players. He’s run his streak of consecutive wins to 18.

Problem is, on Monday, the Pittsburgh coach ran into Connecticut, the No. 4 team nationally.

Pittsburgh made a valiant effort to knock off the juggernaut Huskies, coming up short, 68-65, after a last-second 3-pointer was off target. Pittsburgh fell to 18-1 and 4-1 in the Big East.

‘We played at our speed,’ Dixon said. ‘We pushed them when we wanted to, we executed in the half court when we had to. We were playing the No. 1 team in the country on their home court. We had a number of shots where we wanted (them) to be. It was a great college game between two obviously very good teams.’

Dixon broke Pitt’s old record of consecutive wins for a rookie coach, which was five. Dixon surpassed North Carolina’s Bill Guthridge’s total of 17 consecutive wins to start a season at North Carolina (1997-98) but fell short of the national record, 33 straight in 1978-79 by Indiana State’s Bill Hodges.

‘Jamie Dixon has done an incredible job,’ UConn coach Jim Calhoun said. ‘Eighteen straight, and they came in here and got down a couple of times, seven, four, six, etc., and yet they still had a shot at the buzzer to tie the thing and send it to overtime. They’re the real deal. They’re a really good basketball team – and they faced a really good basketball team.’

Said Dixon: ‘You can’t win every game. That’s what we told our guys.’

St. Johnny be good

St. John’s is the only Big East team without a conference win (0-5) and an overall losing record (4-11). So it came as a shock to hear Villanova coach Jay Wright’s assessment of the Red Storm and its interim head coach, Kevin Clark.

‘They played aggressive and physical,’ Wright said after ‘Nova’s 85-74 win. ‘They drive me crazy, but I have to give credit to Kevin because he is doing a great job with them.’

Earlier this season, the Red Storm fired its coach, Mike Jarvis.

‘What St. John’s does well is they disrupt you offensively,’ Wright said. ‘When you’re in practice, you can’t simulate their toughness and athleticism – you just have to wait until you step on the court.’

Still, SJU has lost five straight.

Said Clark: ‘I am happy that we continue to fight and continue to show character.’

This and that

UConn lost the rebounding battle, 37-30, for the first time this season in its 68-65 win over Pitt. … With Providence’s 89-59 victory over Loyola (Chicago), the Friars completed a 9-2 non-conference record, the best in coach Tim Welch’s six years at PC. … Georgetown senior RaMell Ross will miss the remainder of the season due to shoulder surgery. … Boston College guard Louis Hinnant missed the Eagles’ 72-63 win over Seton Hall because of a sprained left ankle. He was expected to return last night but didn’t. BC coach Al Skinner won his 250th game with BC’s 66-65 win over North Carolina State last night. … Virginia Tech forward Bryant Matthews scored 33 points, the most ever by a Tech player in a Big East game, and grabbed a career-high 16 rebounds in the Hokies’ 65-59 loss to Miami. No other Hokie had more than five points.

Published on January 20, 2004 at 12:00 pm