Troy Cage may be the only active Division I college basketball player with a handicap sticker in the window.
It’s helped end the string of parking tickets he racked up in the fall semester, but is the result of what he thought was season-ending surgery.
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga forward has gone through a roller-coaster season filled with both hope and disappointment, then with possibilities and melancholy, again.
“There’s been so many ups and downs with my injury and ups and downs with this team,” said Cage, a junior who transferred from Kilgore (Kan.) Community College after two years at UNLV.
“Just going on all the road trips and not being able to do nothing has taken a toll on me emotionally,” Cage added. “But now, now I’m good.”
Cage arrived on campus with a good shot to be a starter. Then he noticed a lump on his leg that could have been cancer but turned out to be a stress fracture. That eliminated him from playing in the Labor Day exhibition trip.
Doctors gave him a time frame to return. That expired. They gave him another date. That expired too and on Dec., 3. He was told that he’d be out for the season. Then a few weeks later, trainer MacKenzie McDonald told him that with rehabilitation, he may make it back in time for the Southern Conference Tournament.
“Each time we’d think, ‘This is the week we’re back,’ then an X-ray would show something different and he couldn’t help but feel let down,” McDonald said. “The big blow was when we knew it wasn’t healing and he needed surgery. It couldn’t get any lower than that.”
Cage returned to full practice on Jan., 19 and played in his first game Jan., 25 Wofford in garbage time. When Shulman ordered him off the bench, Cage took off his shooting-shirt and jumped on the floor, completely forgetting to check in at the scoring table.
“It’s actually in my control now,” Cage said. “I look forward to practice every day. At juco and UNLV, I hated going to practice, but now I look forward to it every day.”
Cage also played at the end of UTC’s loss to Samford last Thursday. He’s 0-for-3 in seven total minutes.
“He’s a positive influence on our team and we miss his leadership,” Shulman said. “It just so happens that he’s in his second week of practice and it happens to be February.”