Roe healing well, eager to help MSU

Delvon Roe's right knee is exactly where he hoped it would be after six months of rehabilitation - free of pain, free of swelling and in East Lansing.

The next step for Roe, the most-celebrated Michigan State basketball recruit since Shannon Brown in 2003, is to get that knee to do all the things it used to do on the court.

"It feels great and I'm ahead of schedule," said Roe, a 6-foot-8 forward from Lakewood, Ohio, who had microfracture surgery on the knee on Dec. 17 and moved to campus on Thursday. "Now it's just a matter of getting all the fundamentals back, getting all the nervousness out of my knee and not being hesitant."

The Spartans, coming off a 27-9 season and Sweet Sixteen advance, will start playing regular pickup ball as a team Monday. Roe will ease into things with individual drills.

He's expected to be 100 percent healthy and competing for a starting spot by the fall, but MSU is definitely hesitant to cut him loose him now.

"Do I think he'll be fine by the time the season starts? Yeah," MSU coach Tom Izzo said Thursday. "Do I think he'll be able to play much this summer? No. We're going to err on the side of taking our time, that's for sure."

After a half year that was painfully difficult at times, Roe is prepared to wait a little longer.

The 'm' word

This was inevitable. That's what doctors told Roe about his knee injury. It was sustained in warmups for Lakewood St. Edward High's season opener, a Dec. 6 game against Campbell Hall (Calif.) High that was televised by ESPN2.

The knee had started bothering Roe a few weeks before that. He tweaked it before the game but played - icing it, rubbing Ben-Gay on it and popping aspirins during timeouts to minimize the pain.

He still ended up with 18 points, 12 blocks, six assists and five blocks in his team's 78-73 overtime win, with Izzo in attendance. He made ESPN's "Top Ten" plays of the day with a soaring, in-your-face dunk on a fast break.

It was a great night, but Roe knew his swollen knee was serious. He soon learned he had ligament and cartilage damage, and doctors told him his intense, year-round approach to the game had gradually worn down the knee.

"This kid pushed himself so hard, and I say it's God's way of saying he needed a little break," Izzo said.

Roe's high school career was over.

"It was tough, but it was a challenge I needed to have in my life," Roe said. "It came at the right time, before college, rather than in college."

When Roe first heard the word "microfracture," he was distraught. Microfracture surgery, developed in the early 1990s, has been associated with basketball careers ending - just ask Jamal Mashburn, Penny Hardaway and Darius Miles.

The procedure removes any calcified cartilage from the meniscus, then creates tiny fractures in the adjacent bones. A blood clot forms, and the body responds by generating new cartilage.

It sounds severe, but microfracture success stories are becoming the norm.

Phoenix forward Amare Stoudemire has returned to full capacity after a serious form of the surgery. Former Ohio State star Greg Oden missed his rookie year with Portland after having the surgery, but is expected to recover completely.

Jason Kidd and former Spartan Zach Randolph are others who have bounced back successfully.

In Roe's case, his youth is a benefit. And he said his surgery was much less invasive than the surgeries performed on Stoudemire and Oden. As much as 40 percent of the meniscus is removed in some cases, but Roe had about 10 percent removed.

"I'm going to be fine," Roe said. "The disappointing part was that I couldn't win a state championship. But now I've got a chance to win a national championship."

Looking forward

St. Edward still managed to get all the way to the state title game before losing. That was a difficult night for Roe, and he wrote a poem about it that was published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

"Obviously it's been a tough year," St. Edward coach Eric Flannery said. "Delvon wanted to win a state title so bad, but he kind of played the role of an assistant coach. Through it all he learned a lot about himself, about how precious the game is. He saw how the other side is a little bit, which can only help him in the long run."

Bolstered by get-well cards and MySpace and Facebook messages of support from MSU fans, Roe threw himself into the rehab. By mid-January he could put weight on the leg enough to shoot. He took advantage.

"A big positive is that this has helped my jump shot," Roe said. "People are going to be surprised this year with how well I'm gonna be able to shoot the ball on the perimeter."

Before the injury, Roe was a consensus top-10 player nationally according to recruiting analysts. It cost him a likely spot on the McDonald's All-America team.

It has delayed his overall progress as a player, but it won't change the fact that he'll compete for a starting spot right away. That's a goal for Roe; his primary goal is to cut nets at Detroit's Ford Field, the site of the 2009 Final Four.

"I think we can go all the way," said Roe, who picked MSU over North Carolina. "We have everything in place - size, talent, athleticism. It all depends on how hard we want to work."

In a way, Roe is an ideal recruit. He has the right work ethic, attitude and grades. He has high-level talent, as well, and he's ready to produce right now as a college power forward.

But at 6-8 and 220 pounds, Roe will have to play small forward in the NBA. It'll take him some time to get his game ready for that transition.

"He's going to be at Michigan State for four years," Flannery said. "He's said that over and over again. Obviously something could happen (early with the NBA), you never say never. But he plans on being there and obviously this injury has slowed him down some.

"People need to give him a chance early on next season to get comfortable on the floor, but everyone is going to fall in love with this kid. Even if he's not scoring, he'll still find a way to help the team win, which is what he does. He won't score 25 a game but he'll be one of the better players on the floor, and he'll always work hard."

Izzo isn't ready to make predictions on what Roe will give MSU on the court as a freshman. He has a good idea, though, what Roe will give off the court.

Moments after MSU's season-ending 92-74 loss to Memphis, Roe sent text messages to every one of his future teammates, telling them to stay positive and start thinking about next season.

"I mean, who does that?" Izzo said. "They say leaders aren't made, they're born, and I think he might be one of those guys. I think he can lead for us right away."

Contact Joe Rexrode at jrexrode@lsj.com.