UC recruit Eric Hicks works out under the supervision of UC trainer Jayd Grossman at Shoemaker Center. (Michael E. Keating photo) | ZOOM |

        Eric Hicks looked completely wiped out dragging himself across the Shoemaker Center floor.

        The University of Cincinnati freshman had just spent more than an hour working with athletic trainer Jayd Grossman on the basketball court, then lifting weights and conditioning.

        “Their weight program is something else,” Hicks said. “You can talk about it, but when you're doing it, it's different.”

        Hicks, a 6-foot-6 forward and one of the Bearcats' most promising newcomers, is recovering from a gunshot wound in his left leg suffered in June while trying to break up a fight at a Greensboro, N.C., park.

        He doesn't want to talk about the incident other than to say: “I just wish I wasn't there. You see what happened. I don't even need to be going through this.”

        While his UC teammates play pickup games in Shoemaker, Hicks is working to get the strength back in his leg.

        “There's no structural damage,” Grossman said. “It's all muscle damage. It's like somebody took a chunk of his muscle out. Muscle will heal, luckily, but it's just a matter of getting the thing strong. He's been sitting in a chair for five weeks.”

        A single bullet passed through Hicks' leg, a few inches below his knee, in between the two bones of his lower leg. It went out his calf. His ankle remains immobile and weak.

        The good news: On Tuesday, Hicks went up off his left leg and dunked the ball. Dunking was a specialty of the athletic player nicknamed “The Helicopter” at Greensboro Dudley High School.

        “So far, he's been great,” Grossman said. “He basically said to me: "You need to get me right. Let's do whatever it takes so I can get out there.' He'd rather be out there with all the other new guys.”

        Team orthopedic surgeon Angelo Colosimo cleared Hicks last week to begin working out.

        “I would say he's probably a week or two away from being able to run up and down full,” Grossman said. “The progress he's made in a couple days is amazing. It's just a matter of reteaching everything to work again.

        “He's to the point now where he can jog without a limp. It's getting him to feel comfortable enough to do his exercises without thinking about it. It's been sore, and he's been so nervous, I think.”

        Hicks had a monster senior season, averaging 30.7 points and 12.3 rebounds. He was rated the 40th-best high school senior in the country by PrepStars.

        UC is counting on Hicks to play and contribute right away. Hicks knows that.

        “I'm feeling good,” he said. “I'm going to be back to normal because all the muscles are going to heal. It's just a matter of time.

        “I can feel (the improvement). But you know what you're capable of and you're not able to do it. You see them out there playing basketball and you want to play but you can't. You've just got to wait.”
       

UC's Hicks rebuilding strength in injured leg

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