CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Max Johnson seethed as he stared at the clock on the wall in his hospital room. He could not move his right leg, bandaged from hip to foot after surgery to fix a broken femur. He smelled like days-old sweat. Though his foot felt numb, the pain up and down his leg sometimes brought him to tears.
He always had been a guy who relied on his faith, but this injury was testing him. Johnson had transferred to North Carolina for what he thought would be a fifth and final college season.