Didn't Nurse have to sit out a few games after getting hit by the truck. And then wasn't his first game back against K State. We were down by a ton and he lead us back with a bunch of three's. Am I remembering correctly?
Nurse got hit by a truck the night of November 29, 1998 (Sunday). He missed the game at UNI (L, 57-61) and the home game against North Texas (W, 72-45). He didn't start the Western Illinios game on December 5th (Saturday) and was not expected to play but entered the game to a huge standing ovation and led the team back from a big early deficit to an overtime win (80-73). I was sitting in sweet seats in the parquet behind the scorer's table for that game. You could hear word spread throughout the arena as people noticed Mike was coming in. The place started rockin' when Mike came in the game and he made sure it never stopped.
In that game he scored 16 points on 5 of 9 shooting including 3 of 7 from 3. He hit 3 of 4 free throws, had 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 turnover and 1 foul in 22 minutes. Not bad for a guy that had stitches in his calf and head and could easily been killed less than six days before.
Yeah, I guess that is tough. I think up to that point Mike was just a good player. That night was when everyone knew we had someone really special.
