By PAT FORDE
The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal

LOUISVILLE - Last Dec. 26, Connie Neal's coach was unhappy with how she ran steps at practice. He told her she looked like she was "carrying a 10-pound weight." He was only about two pounds off.

Neal, 20, a sophomore at the University of Louisville, was eight months pregnant and playing Division I basketball - and nobody knew.

Now the Louisville athletic department turns to mush around Carsynn Diana Neal, a 7-pound, 12-ounce package who arrived on Jan. 31. The baby Connie was afraid to acknowledge has replaced men's coach Rick Pitino as the most fawned-over creature in the Student Activities Center.

"She's our mascot," guard Sara Nord said.

A baby endangered by months without prenatal care is healthy, bright-eyed and an enthusiastic eater. A traumatized mother who feared losing everything she cherished - her scholarship, her academic pursuits and her reputation - has retained it all.

And gained the evolving joy of motherhood, too.

Twenty-six days after giving birth, she returned to practice. Nine days after that, she was in uniform when the Cardinals opened tournament play in Fort Worth, Texas.

"At least it'll fit now," she cracked about her uniform. "It was getting a little snug."

Her 11th and final pre-delivery game was Dec. 20, at which time Louisville could have been called for playing six-on-five whenever she was on the court. "I welcome her back," coach Tom Collen said. "She's got a huge challenge ahead of her that is far greater than just being the best basketball player she can be."

Playing Division I basketball into the 36th week of pregnancy required two things: physical toughness and emotional denial. Neal had both.

Obstetrician Sam Buck, who began treating her in late December, had never encountered an athlete who competed at such a high level so far into a pregnancy.

"I was just imagining her running and jumping and diving across the floor for loose balls and taking elbows," Buck said. "It's pretty amazing."

Baggy sweats and billowing T-shirts helped conceal the truth for eight months. Neal's lean, 5-foot-9 frame and small weight gain (13 pounds) made her secret easier to keep.

"Everyone went back and looked at pictures from Christmas and said, She couldn't be,"' said Neal's mother, Debbie Guidice. "You just couldn't tell."

Workouts had become increasingly torturous as the season progressed. Neal was appalled at how slow she had become. Teammates had noticed that she had become withdrawn, and they began to speculate about her apparent weight gain.

Dec. 26 was the breaking point. She came home from practice, in agony with contractions that eventually slowed. She told her best friend, Kristin Mannix, then her mother. (Neal declined to comment on the circumstances of her pregnancy or the identity of the father, who is not involved in raising Carsynn.)

"It was just a lot to keep to myself," she said. "I didn't have anybody to share the experience with me. It was my fault, because I chose not to tell people out of fear of what they would think about me.

"But I had to tell somebody, or I was just going to pop."

The wall of secrecy broke at practice on Dec. 27. Neal left the court in tears when someone asked if she was OK. Graduate assistant Brandy Manning was the first person associated with the team to hear the stunning news, and returned to tell Collen, "You need to go talk to Connie."

Collen, instantly sorry for his 10-pound-weight comment, was in shock.

"As a coach, your first concern is, How could I have missed this?"' he said. "Then you wonder whether you've done anything to jeopardize her health. Then I turned into parent mode and asked myself, What does Connie need right now?"'

At that point what she needed was her first medical attention of the pregnancy. Initial health checks found a healthy baby. Emergency room doctors slowed the contractions, which had returned, sent Neal home and arranged her first visit with Buck.

As it turned out, her prolonged physical activity was an advantage. She was in great shape to have a baby - but she had to decide what to do with it.

Neal was scheduled to sit down with two sets of parents seeking to adopt a newborn. Instead, in tears, she called her mom and told her she wanted to keep the child. "I didn't know how I could handle it, with going to school and financially," Neal said. "But I knew in the future I'd just look back and think it was the dumbest decision in my life."

Mannix made a list of everything her friend would need to raise a baby. Connie moved back home and reworked her class schedule. She signed up for night classes so she could watch the baby during the day and then hand off to her mother at night.

And Nord and Mannix went to work on a surprise baby shower.

"I had nothing," Neal said. "Now I have everything and more. Everyone was so supportive. I could've smacked myself, because I could have told them so much earlier."

When delivery day arrived, the hardened athlete needed just five hours of labor and 44 minutes of pushing to deliver Carsynn Neal.

Neal spent the next few weeks with Carsynn, but she wanted to return to the team.

"It's very important to me," she said. "I've played all my life. I love playing. I love everything about it. That's been my outlet."

Neal, not yet in game shape, isn't likely to be a major factor during the tournament. The Cardinals (19-8 at the tourney's start) have gotten along well without her, closing with a flourish that makes them a likely NCAA Tournament team.

But she's a deadly three-point shooter who rang up 21 points against Ball State in her third trimester. You wonder what she might be able to do without a belly full of baby.

"If she made a three-pointer to help us win a championship, how amazing would that comeback be?" Collen said.