Neil Set to Return to the Court Next Season

Longwood University junior point guard Durann Neil is set to return to the basketball court next season following a lengthy layoff due to an injury. Neil has missed the entire 2009-2010 campaign with a sports hernia that he suffered sometime last year. He was recently granted medical hardship that will allow him to play two more years at Longwood. Although he will be counted as a senior academically next semester, he will still be considered a junior in relation to basketball.

Neil was riding high after his sophomore season as point guard for the Longwood Lancers Men's Basketball team. He started 30 of 31 games, averaging career-bests of 22.5 minutes, 7.1 points, 1.9 rebounds, and 3.9 assists. The Lancers posted 17 victories last year with Neil in the lineup, finishing the season with an above .500 record. However, Neil began to experience pain following the last game, a pain that plagued him from May 2009 all the way through last summer.

"I started feeling pain last May," said Neil. "I was hurting a lot; I thought it was just a pulled groin muscle. I took some time off going back and forth. I was told to see a doctor, but there is no definitive test to say that's a sports hernia. You have to knock everything else out and narrow it down to that. I had X-rays and all types of tests and finally they said you have a sports hernia. It's a tear in the oblique muscle in your torso. I had my surgery October 17."

The surgical procedure that Neil underwent is called a laparoscopy, which is less invasive with a shorter recovery period. The injury and surgery could not have come at a worse time for both Neil and the Lancers. The first game of the '09-'10 season was played a month later on November 13 against the University of Virginia. Head Coach Mike Gillian stressed how tough an injury like this is.

"I'm not sure if it's the type of injury that you can pinpoint a specific time when it happened," said Gillian. "It's a difficult injury because for a while you really can't do anything. It's difficult enough to get up and move around."

The recuperation period for Neil has been going well, however. "At first I did a lot of core work. I started running again and jumped right back into practice. I went really light at first maybe five minutes here, five minutes there. Then I started practicing every day," Neil said.

"He has been practicing every day," said Gillian. "The problem is your physical conditioning and strength is lost and it takes a long time to get back to that point. He's back at full strength, so from March 2 when the season is over to November when the first game of next season is, he has to be physically, mentally and emotionally ready to go. Right now all things are a go. People have done a good job monitoring him. In essence you have five years to play four years of eligibility. He will be a senior academically but a junior athletically. We can plan his academic progress along with that."

Having Neil back for the next two seasons will certainly help the Lancers compete more effectively. Without his help, the Lancers are currently 5-16 this season following last year's winning squad. Neil has high expectations that Longwood can get back to its winning ways next year.

"I really truly believe we can win 20 games," said Neil in a confident tone. "We are going to go for that. I'm getting ready now, and I have been since January. I run a mile everyday trying to get down to a five minute mile, shoot 500 jumpers a day, lift weights every other day just trying to get back.