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Healthy Hill a difference-maker for PSU-Abington

01/18/2018, 4:15pm EST
By Austin Petolillo

Penn State-Abington freshman Devin Hill (above) made a rapid recovery from an ACL injury more than a year ago. (Photo: PSU-Abington Athletics)

Austin Petolillo (@AustinPSports)
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On average, it takes around nine-to-12 months to recover from a torn ACL.

That’s something most Philadelphia sports fans are aware of at the moment, given that star quarterback Carson Wentz tore his ACL in December; if his recovery is typical, he should be available by the start of next season. Current Saint Joseph's guard Shavar Newkirk tore his ACL in late December 2016 and came back for the season opener in November this year, though not at 100 percent.

But recovery time for a torn ACL varies from person to person.

Former Chicago Bull and current Cleveland Cavaliers guard Derrick Rose tore his ACL in the first round of the 2012 NBA playoffs. He would then miss the rest of the following season and was never the same player with the same explosiveness that made him the number one pick in the 2008 NBA draft.

Penn State-Abington freshman guard Devin Hill made it back quicker than all of them. It only took him five months to get back on to the court.

Hill suffered a torn ACL and MCL while at an AAU event at Spooky Nook in the summer of 2016. To make things worse, Hill suffered the injury in the summer leading up to his senior season with Valley Forge Military Academy, a crucial time in his collegiate recruitment.

Getting back to the court was imperative. And Hill’s doctor initially gave him a very aggressive return date, midway through the season.

“When my doctor told me I could get back in five months, I was kind of scared because every ACL surgery and rehab process I heard of takes 12 months and longer.” Hill said.

He said he had no idea that he tore his ACL right as it happened but knew something was up when he heard and felt a pop and a vibration in his knee when he planted it.

“It was really tough,” Hill said. “The hardest part was as soon as I tore my ACL, I went straight to rehab because the pain was unbearable.”

After the surgery was performed at University of Penn hospital on August 11, it was time for the hard part of recovering from a torn ACL: rehab.

“My therapist was trying to flatten my knee because before I had surgery, my knee was bent,” Hill said. “So once I had surgery, they had to flatten my knee as much as possible; after it was flattened, we did a lot of leg presses and leg curls.”

“The fact that it was my senior year made me go hard in rehab,” Hill said. “It was my last year to show college coaches what I could do, either I go out and tough it out and play or I whine about it and sit back and cry.”

A month and a half after the surgery, Hill started to jog and speed-walk and by the third month, Hill was starting to run again.

“I was down and really upset but I think each month there was a new obstacle, a new thing I could do,” Hill said. “So once I hit my running program three months in, that’s when I was really happy and upbeat.”

Finally, on January 11th, Hill was cleared by his doctor to resume playing basketball again, an exact five month recovery that his doctor said he would have. Hill was back out on the floor playing basketball again.

Two days after he was cleared, Hill played in Valley Forge’s game against Calvary Christian Academy and won, 70-43.

“It was freaky how quickly he bounced back,” Valley Forge coach Francis Bowe said. “Our trainer said he’d never seen anything like it.

“When you usually hear 5-6 months, it usually turns out 8-9 [months to recover]. He was still stiff all of January and a bit of February too, but to be able to play on it, it was kind of mind-blowing, to me.”

Before Hill went down with the injury, the 6-foot-3 guard was getting looked at by a variety of schools including D-II Kutztown and D-III Penn State Abington.

But once Hill suffered the injury, the looks started to fade and Hill was ultimately faced with a decision: Sit out a year as a redshirt freshman at Kutztown or play immediately at Penn State-Abington?

He took the latter.

“Once the coaches saw me play once, they came to every single game,” Hill said. “That really showed I could be a big part here, and I believed it -- and I’m here, and I’m a big part, and I love it.”

“I think when he sat out (with the ACL injury), he took in a lot of the game,” third-year Penn State-Abington head coach Jon Tanous said. “I think he has a high basketball IQ, he’s just a terrific offensive player.”

Averaging 14.6 ppg, Hill leads the team in scoring per game, 2.2 points ahead sophomore guard Terrance Reese.

In addition to being the teams leading scorer, Hill also has the team’s best shooting percentage shooting 50 percent from the floor. He also averages 2.9 rpg and 2.0 apg.

Hill has scored in double digit points in 11 of Penn State Abington’s 14 games this season and has scored at least 20 points in three games this season, his most being 21 in a 91-64 win against Saint Elizabeth on Nov. 28.

But Hill isn’t the only freshman making a contribution for Penn State Abington. He’s one of seven freshmen on the roster, including former Penn Wood guards Jay Fitzgerald and Pernell Ghee. Fitzgerald and Ghee are averaging 12.4 and 10.8 ppg, respectively.

Penn State Abington’s record improved to 6-8 (4-3 in NEAC) in their 74-70 win at Bryn Athyn on Wednesday night, winning their last four of five games. Hill made his presence felt both on the offensive and defensive ends as he recorded nine points, four assists, four rebounds, three steals and one block.

“Devin is very unselfish because he played with other talented guys around him, and he’s in that same exact position here,” Tanous said. “He utilizes guys around him just as he did in high school, so that’s very comparable to what he’s done.”

Last season, Hill was on a Valley Forge Military Academy team that won the Bicentennial Athletic League, won the Class 3A District 1 and 11 championships and advanced to the quarterfinals of the PIAA State 3A Tournament.

On that team alongside Hill was current Bloomsburg point guard Myles Bunyon, and current seniors Abraham Deng and Arion Lewis, who will also play collegiate basketball.

“I felt like they molded me into a player to play with a high intensity throughout the whole game,” Hill said. “Playing with a D-I center and other college-bound guys, you can’t beat that.”

Hill says that because the practices are so intense and because he’s always running in practice, he’s shedding the pounds put on after the ACL surgery.

Hill gained around 20 pounds after the surgery and once he arrived on Penn State-Abington’s campus, he lost 18 of those extra pounds.

Like any other athlete who has suffered a torn ACL, some of, if not most of their explosiveness is evaporated. With Hill, it’s no different, Tanous noticed that Hill is half a step slower which Tanous sees as a blessing in disguise.  

“At the college game, when you have a freshman, you try to slow those guys down anyway,” Tanous said. “So that actually has helped him excel at this level so far.”

“But for what we are at our level, he’s right at the best speed he can possibly be.”


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