DETROIT (1/18/2013) -- 310 days. 15 games and the final 16:55 of the 2012 Horizon League Women's Basketball Championship. That is how much time junior Senee Shearer spent away from the game. Away from competing with her teammates. Away from suiting up and playing the game she loves. The game she has devoted countless hours putting up shots in the gym and numerous hours in the weight room, watching film, and summer pick-up games.

How long can a normal person go without doing the thing they love to do? Ask yourself, how many times do you visit your favorite restaurant in a month, watch your favorite movie, or play your favorite game?

The 310 days finally came to an end this past Wednesday, Jan. 16, as Shearer not only suited up, but was in the starting line-up as the Titans visited Wright State. UDM had lost three in a row heading into the game and some might say, “How does inserting a guard who hadn't played in a year help you in a conference road game.”

The answer, more than you think.

“It was too long. I never went that long without playing basketball,” said Shearer. “Not being out there for 10 months was hard, but I was just having fun playing. When she told me I was starting, I was like, really, but sooner or later I was going to play and I was ready.”

THE PLAY
It wasn't an ordinary game. This was the Horizon League Championship and a chance for the Titans to reach their first NCAA Tournament since 1997 and just their second trip to the big dance in program history. Just a month earlier on this very same court – the Kress Events Center on the campus of Green Bay – Shearer had 23 points as Detroit ended #9/9 Green Bay's school record 40-game regular season winning streak, the Phoenix' 36-game regular season winning streak over Horizon League teams and its 27-game home winning streak in a 70-58 triumph on Feb. 9, 2012.

In the title game, Shearer already had 14 points in the first 23 minutes, hitting 5-of-8 from the field with four 3-pointers as Detroit led by two, 35-33. She got the ball on the outside and went one-on-one with Green Bay's Julie Wojta, driving to the rim when her knee gave out. She stayed down on the court in pain. She just ended her sophomore season with a torn ACL and MCL.

“I remember Jalesa (Jones) calling my name trying to tell me to pass the ball back, but I just got into this zone and I was going to the basket and there were two or three people in there and I planted wrong and I just felt it pop," said Shearer.

A few minutes later, Shearer came back out to the court to let her coach and team know that she couldn't play anymore. The game was tied at 37-all, but the extent of the injury was about to show again as she nearly fell to the ground in pain a second time in trying to turn and sit down. This time she had to be carried back to the training room by teammate Julianna Glanz and Assistant Director of Sports Medicine Ashley VanMeter.

“I felt that there was something wrong with it, but I never thought it was that serious,” said Shearer. “They took me out and looked at it and I was saying I was ok because my adrenaline was so high and I was thinking that they could just do something to wrap it up and I would be ok. I then walked back out to the bench to tell Coach Rademacher and everybody that it was torn and I turned to sit back down and it just gave out again right there in front of the bench.”

“It was not only a sad day for the team, but for Senee, a kid who provided such a great spark a year ago that got us going on our run,” added head coach Autumn Rademacher.

THE REHAB
ACL recovery may not be as difficult as it once was, but like all injuries, the recovery is as much mental as it is physical. Athletes need to be able to trust that knee, plant, turn, start and stop, and sometimes the hardest part is just getting that first step going. The hard part is just getting over that initial phase.

“I remember the first couple of weeks, I was so over the crutches and I said I wanted a wheelchair and I had random people pushing me around campus. That lasted about a day and I went back to the crutches,” a laughing Shearer said.

“I never had an injury that I missed so much time with. It was so hard for me, watching the team in open gym the whole summer and watching the first game this year. That was hard.”

Shearer had her surgery a few weeks after the season ended. From there, it was off to getting her range of motion back and strengthening the knee before even taking part in light exercises. More and more was added as the weeks passed, gradually getting back to the point of actually getting on the court with the ball. 

“Everything is mental. It took me so long to get out and trust my knee to do layups,” said Shearer. “That was probably the hardest thing to do was layups. I couldn't trust my leg enough to land on it and well, until you can do a layup, you are not going to do anything else so you better get over it.”

Shearer's recovery went about as well as can be expected with no setbacks, and a timeline was developed to get her back on the court. She pushed herself in rehab and was taking part in drills by the time practice started in October. While there was no set date, no day circled on the calendar, Shearer was ready to return when she got the call.

“She is very intelligent and so into basketball and as she was sitting on the bench, I could just see and hear her being frustrated on the sideline, knowing that she could be out there making a difference,” said Coach Rademacher. “The more she sat, the more she watched and got fired up that she could help this team.”

THE RETURN
Fast forward to this past Wednesday and the Titans needed a win. UDM was already 0-2 in the Horizon League and an 0-3 start is not something that the HL preseason No. 2 team could have ever envisioned.

“I was told a few weeks ago that I was going to play and then I was told just this past Monday that I was starting,” said Shearer.

Shearer connected on the game's first basket nailing her first 3-point attempt. Right from the start, you could see an extra bounce in the Titans' step during warm-ups and who knows if that spark was caused by the presence of Shearer, but one thing was for sure, Detroit was a better team with the third-year guard - who finished with 75 triples last year, the second most in Titan history - on the floor.

Her first three ignited a Titan squad that was 15 for its last 68 from behind the arc into hitting five treys to open up the contest en route to a season-best 11 three-pointers and an 86-76 victory at Wright State. Shearer would finish the game with a pair of 3-pointers and seven points in 31 minutes of action.

“I didn't feel any pressure. I just went out and played and I tried to give my team energy,” said Shearer. “The first play wasn't set up for me, but they doubled Shareta (Brown) and she kicked it out to me and I was wide open.”

“She loves basketball. She loves basketball and when it was taken away, that really hurt her,” said Coach Rademacher. “It is her whole life and she has a new perspective now. A lot of student-athletes are tired and don't want to practice and all she wants to do is get out there and she displayed that against Wright State, cherishing every possession and she lived that to its fullest. It was amazing to see her out there, clapping, smiling, getting up and down the court, and it was the positive energy that this team needed.”

Shearer was second on the team in scoring last season at 11.1 ppg. She now has 83 career 3-pointers, just 12 away from etching her name in the top 10 in school history, but one thing that is already set in stone is that Shearer came back to help the Titans win. To help the Titans get back to the Horizon League Championship and to help the Titans close out that final 16:55.

No one knows what the future might hold on the court for UDM this season, but Shearer already knows what life is like without the opportunity to get on that court.