Man down... Jardine's road reaches its end

Never forget!!!

News broke today that Brady Jardine's career is over. The injury that has kept him out since the third game of this season is worse than initially believed, has been healing slower than it should and is going to require surgery.

As badly as this has been a blow to this year's team and now will affect next year's team as well, the real tragedy is that this kind of thing happened to as quality of a guy like Brady. For three years, Brady was the ultimate team guy. From his freshman year where his redshirt was pulled midseason to give the team some much-needed depth in the post, to the next two seasons where he was an ace off the bench for the team. As ambitious and competitive of a player as Brady is, he was still the ultimate "team first" guy, and the team's record in his three seasons of playing reflects that.

Utah State won an outright WAC championship in each of Jardine's three seasons, dominating the conference with a record of 43-5 over that span. He's also one of only seven Aggie players ever to be a member of three NCAA Tournament teams.

Utah State racked up a win percentage of .837 during three seasons with Jardine, the best of any player in Utah State history. On top of that, he was a prime example of qualities of leadership, hustle and highlight-reel plays. Accompanying the best win percentage in USU history is the best dunk in the history of Aggie basketball as well.

When it comes to a personal note, Brady is as great of a dude as I've ever met. Seeing a close friend have this happen to them and knowing the effect it'll have is just difficult to swallow as my feelings on the matter as a basketball fan. You just never want to see a great career of a great person cut short, but sometimes the worst of things happen to the best of people. This one is going to sting for a long time.

For senior night, I personally believe it would be a tragedy for Brady to not be in uniform and starting the game, just to have his name called one last time as he leaves the court at The Spectrum. A single timeout or two-point deficit would be worth that moment, and any four-year player is deserving of that honor, especially Brady.

There's an eternity now to wonder what could have been, how this year might have been different with him and what next season may have held with him. Rather than dwell on that now though, I think it'd be better off to focus on the good. With that said...

Thanks for all the hard work through all the adversity that made Utah State a better basketball team. Thanks for giving all of us a the thrills you gave us on the court. Thank you for blocking Luke Babbitt as part of the loudest moment in Spectrum history. Thanks for posterizing Mitchell Young for one of the most thrilling wins I've ever seen. Thank you for being everything that embodies a champion.

Most of all, thank you for being a part of something that means so much to so many of us.