SAN JOSE, Calif. — The phrase “just happy to be here” is a taboo one in NCAA tournaments, and yet one University of Washington men’s basketball player can throw it around freely this week.
Walk-on Brendan Sherrer didn’t know if he would be a part of the experience, and for awhile there he didn’t know whether he’d even be out of a hospital bed.
The sophomore from Monroe was recently hospitalized — twice — with viral meningitis. He hasn’t traveled with the team in more than a month, having missed the final three road games and the Pac-10 tournament while recovering.
“I was really hoping I would get over this so I could be here,” the Archbishop Murphy graduate said Wednesday.
Sherrer first felt the symptoms three weeks ago, when he got light-headed and lost feeling on the left side of his body. He was hospitalized for a few days to treat what was initially diagnosed as an infection, then Sherrer returned to the hospital a few days later.
“Being viral, it wasn’t as dangerous as bacterial,” he said. “But it’s a serious illness that, if it’s not treated can be pretty scary.”
While he’s unlikely to play this week — Sherrer’s only playing time this season has come during blowout wins at home — he is definitely just happy to be a part of the experience.
“It’s taking awhile to set in,” he said, “that I’m actually here, at the tournament.”
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