Tigers reap benefits of healthy Bridgewater
   The memories of last season are crystal clear to LSU forward Brad Bridgewater. 
   The 2000-2001 basketball season was to be his turn to step into the starting lineup and be a significant player for LSU … until one fateful Halloween practice.
After having a disappointing practice on Oct. 30, 2000, LSU assistant coach Kermit Davis challenged Bridgewater to come out the next practice with more fire and emotion.
“So the next day I came out and had a great practice,” Bridgewater said. And then came the freak accident in the last two minutes of practice that Halloween day that would define the rest of Bridgewater’s season.
“The last two minutes of practice, we were doing a defensive drill where I was closing out my man and he tried to drive on me over the top,” he said. “I tried to cut him off and planted my leg. He just kind of ran into my left knee and it popped.”
Bridgewater tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee and sat out the entire season. And all he could do was watch from the sidelines as an undermanned LSU team limped to a 2-14 Southeastern Conference record.
“It was tough to sit out there and see that if maybe we would have had one or two more people that it would have helped us out,” Bridgewater said. “A lot of games came down to the wire, and we were just more tired than the other team.”
After having his knee surgically repaired and with the help of LSU head basketball trainer Drew Shea, Bridgewater rehabilitated the knee through various exercises and was back on the floor working out within five months.
“It was a real strenuous rehab … and rehab is the hardest part of it because once the knee snaps you really don’t feel it anymore,” he said. “After I had my surgery, it was one of the most painful things I have ever gone through in my life. I had to make myself want to come out everyday and rehab.”
But there was one more thing the 6-foot-8, 250-pound junior from New Roads had to make clear.
“If it wasn’t for Drew Shea, I wouldn’t be out here right now,” Bridgewater said.
With the knee fully healthy, Bridgewater is back as a starter on the LSU basketball team this season, and is having the best season of his career, averaging 7.0 points per game, after posting averages of 2.0 and 1.7 in his first two seasons.
“He’s become a better basketball player,” said LSU coach John Brady. “There are some things I would like to see him improve more in, particularly rebounding the ball and defending the post. He’s even gotten better at those two. We’re pleased with his progress.”
Bridgewater leads LSU with a 57 percent field goal percentage and is surprising other teams as an offensive threat.
“As long as other teams don’t look at me and my teammates give me the ball, I am going to sneak up on [other teams],” said a grinning Bridgewater, who scored a career high 16 points against Houston Dec. 20, 2001. “[LSU guard] Collis [Temple III], he’s always calling me ‘The Big Unknown,’ because nobody knows who I am since I haven’t played much.
“I think it will be different for the next year if I keep playing well.”
These days, because of the short time between games, Bridgewater said his knee is often sore. But he knows that he cannot allow the soreness in the knee to slow him down.
“It’s something I am going to have to play through if I want to keep playing basketball,” he said.
Bridgewater also said the fear of re-injury to the knee has passed.
“Earlier, during the first couple of weeks of practice I was real scared about tearing it again,” he said. “But now, I don’t even think about it. It’s like it is new again.”
And the Tigers know that if they are to have further success this season, Bridgewater will be have to be a big part of it.
“Brad’s stepped up in some big games this year,” said Collis Temple III. “The games that we’ve played well, he’s really been a pretty big contributor.”  
Graham Thomas