As Dymond Simon begins talking about her excitement to return to the court, it's easy to see what the ASU women's basketball team was missing last season.
Simon, a redshirt senior guard, was ASU's leading scorer in 2009 before an ACL tear, the second of her career, sidelined her for the NCAA Tournament and forced her to miss all of last season.
“I won't say it was a hard year for me, because I learned a lot sitting on the sideline with my coach, but it was definitely an eye-opener,” said Simon, who is using her extra time at ASU to complete a Master's degree. “It humbles you in a way and just let's you know that you can't take a lot of this stuff for granted. Right now, I'm just enjoying my time.”
The injury did test Simon's resolve, though, and came at a time when she was playing the best basketball team of her career on one of ASU's most talented teams to date.
It wasn't until the Sun Devils were about to square off against Connecticut in the Elite Eight that the emotions began to truly her.
“I just started crying,” Simon said. “I was kind of empty inside and I didn't know what to feel. I was mad, depressed, sad, any feeling you can imagine. … But it's true what they say, God does have another plan for you, and maybe he wanted this to happen to say, 'Hey, there's some things you need work on before you get to that next level.”
In addition to her faith, Simon said she has relied on a her friendship with former ASU guard and current WNBA player Briann January, as the two talk on a near-daily basis.
The rehab process has been a slow one, the team's medical staff aiming to help Simon strengthen the knee in an effort to prevent future injuries. Taking it slow has been, at times, difficult for a player who often operates at a frenetic pace.
“She wants no [knee] brace, no restrictions,” ASU coach Charli Turner Thorne said. “Our medical staff is taking it really conservatively, so that's been hard for her.”
Still, Simon said she has tried to make the most out her time away from the court, watching countless hours of film in an effort to improve the mental side of her game.
Now able to scrimmage with her teammates, Simon has been a vocal leader during summer workouts, something an inexperienced ASU team missed desperately last season — one in which ASU missed the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2004.
“If we get a rebound, she's always yelling, 'Set it up!” senior forward Becca Tobin said of Simon. “She's always talking to us and telling us what to do.”
For a team that returned just three players with significant experience last season, on-court leadership was often hard to come by. Simon's return has already begun to fill that void during summer workouts that players say are much more intense this season than a year ago.
“I've always said that your internal leadership is huge,” Turner Thorne said. “Dymond is a floor leader. The way she plays her position just gives you so much more poise and consistency. … She should be a huge boost to our team.”
ASU opens its season at home on Nov. 7 against Fort Lewis, and Simon is understandably anticipating the excitement she will feel when she runs back out on the court and hears her name called. But her injury has taught her, she said, to enjoy the present, and even in the dog days of summer, Simon is certainly enjoying basketball.
“I'm anxious and excited,” Simon said, “but at the same time I'm letting the days go by as slow as they can so I can prepare.”
