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Gold and Black Illustrated, Vol 26, Digital 2

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VOLUME 26, ISSUE 2 81 spect for that." Melanie Thornton never heard much complaining either, at least not for long. "I think my sister is one of the most positive peo- ple on the planet," she said, "so even in times she was frustrated, it was very short-lived, because she was kind of able to look at the big picture and what was best for the team." What'd be best now is if Thornton could turn in a healthy season. It's been a long time. As a freshman at Purdue, she knew her knees didn't feel right, an almost constant soreness, with it building up to a point where the pain was becoming intolerable. The diagnosis was tendonitis in both knees, a condition that requires removal of dead tissue and stimulation of growth in the remaining. "In retrospect, I had knee problems in high school, but it was just a little pain here and there and I was always the type to say, 'Ah, it's nothing. Just put some ice on it and keep playing.' So I kept playing," Thornton said. "My knee would give out every once in a while and I'd be like, 'Oh, it's fine,' and keep playing on it. "Then, getting to college and that level of intensi- ty with weights and conditioning and workouts, all that, it wasn't any more to the point where I could say I'd play through it. I was gradually putting that stress on it and it got to the point where I couldn't do it and I had an MRI. "(Doctors) were like, 'Yeah, I don't see how you were playing on it this long anyway.' It was crazy looking back." The injury forced Thornton to sit out her sopho- more year, getting the medical waiver that allowed her another year of eligibility. She was back for 2013-14 but still wasn't as healthy as she needed to be. She played double-figure minutes in five straight games near the start of the season, includ- ing a 23-minute outing in which she scored eight points; the game before, she had nine boards in 16 minutes. But the pain in her knees quickly flared up, and she ended the season averaging only 8.2 minutes per game. Back then, Thornton struggled to regulate her re- covery, not knowing when to push it and when to back off. Instead, she was always full throttle, want- ing to go 100 percent all the time, even in practices. "Because practices are when you want to get in and do repetitions and get better," she said. "I'm the type that I want to keep going in and keep doing things and Jess and Coach are like, 'You don't need to do it every time, you need to sit back.' It would be like I was going so hard all the time and (the knees) would have no rest and no break and then games would come and they would be super sore from a whole week of practice. "It was kind of learning when to give and when to pull back and that was the longest, hardest process for me to really understand. And understand that me going all the time is not helping me or the team." Thornton had her family to lean on. The Thorn- tons are an athletic bunch, with Melanie playing at Butler and older brother Brian at Vanderbilt then Xavier. Her mom Dierdre played at Louisville and dad Donald competed in track and field at Eastern New Mexico. And get this: Each has had a significant knee in- jury. Melanie's career arc was eerily similar to her younger sister's, in that she missed her sophomore year after having double knee surgery but returned to have her best season as a senior. "You go to a school, not only for the education but you really want to be a part of a team and do what you're able to contribute," Melanie said. "So I think it's really important to get to a point where you real- ly feel like you gave all that you could." "That's why I'm here," said Torrie. "I just feel like I haven't fulfilled what I came here to do. Granted, I have two Big Ten (Tournament) championships, so that was good, but I want to contribute in a way that I know I'm capable of, that I was recruited here for. That's what's driving me to be here." j

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