The whole gym went dead silent when Nate Mason collapsed grabbing his right knee in practice two weeks ago.
All eyes were on the sophomore that University of Minnesota basketball coach Richard Pitino said could eventually be one of the best guards in the Big Ten.
Players were hoping for the best. Pitino already was thinking the worst.
"My heart dropped when that happened," he said. "I turned negative real quick. I didn't let the team see it. ... We thought he was out. Torn ACL. Non-contact injury. We were 100 percent convinced of that."
But a magnetic resonance imaging exam the next day revealed it was just a bone bruise.