Just three weeks ago I was playing hoops with my friends. We were playing two-on-two and the game had just started. On the fourth play of the game, I fell and sprained my ankle.

Then, after needing help from my friends to get off the court and limping around for five minutes, I decided to play for another hour and a half.

This isn’t a story about how brave I am, or how cool it was to win despite my injury.

This is about how stupid it was for me to get up and play the rest of the game.

The next day I could barely walk, and work two days later was anything but fun. What I really needed was a good coach by my side to tell me when to quit.

What I needed was a coach like Rick Pitino. Kentucky head coach Rick Pitino recently told Derek Anderson, that even though doctors cleared him to play, he just wouldn’t allow it.

Derek Anderson had injured his knee earlier in the season, and wasn’t supposed to return until after the season ended, but a good rehabilitation brought Anderson back much earlier.

Pitino said that winning wasn’t everything and told the media that sometimes a coach sees a player as a son, and does things in the player’s best interest.

That sounds quite a far cry different from what coach Denny Crum of the Louisville Cardinals did this weekend. It should have been a day forever to go down in infamy for the Cardinals.

Early in the second half versus Texas, All-American candidate and star point guard DeJuan Wheat went down with a sprained ankle (my exact injury) early in the second half. Shockingly, the Cardinals still won the game, only to face North Carolina in the Elite Eight.

What was going to happen next was obvious.

No way would Wheat be able to play against the Tar Heels, and without Wheat, there was no way the Cardinals would win.

However Denny Crum cared enough about Wheat to let him play. Now, just for a second, set aside the fact how Wheat could further aggravate his injury, and think about how this decision would affect Wheat’s playing level.

With a sprained ankle, mobility is very limited, especially pivoting, and running is downright painful. However, Wheat has the heart of a winner and had to play.

Crum should have played the father figure role (like Pitino) and made Wheat sit.

Tar Heels head coach Dean Smith said their defense didn’t give Wheat any special treatment just because he was injured and it showed. Wheat’s line was six points on 2-for-11 shooting with two turnovers and eight assists. Wheat was one for five behind the arc and played 32 minutes.

Crum said later that his team didn’t play bad, but that the Tar Heels played very well. Well coach, you could have done it without Wheat.

A lot of coaches can have limited success in the NCAA tournament, but for Crum to return to the Final Four for his first time since 1986, he better follow examples like Rick Pitino of the Wildcats.

Crum needs to learn that the players are more important than the game, and unfortunately so do I.

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CADEREMSBURG is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Ames.