I finally got in touch with Long Beach State men's basketball coach Dan Monson earlier this week and he confirmed what I had heard from other sources:
Yuba Community College transfer Tristan Wilson underwent surgery on his right knee with the expectation that some small pieces of cartilage needed to be removed. Once inside the knee, surgeons discovered the damage was more extensive than originally believe and "microsurgery" was performed.
Microsurgery is a technique that has been on several high-profile basketball players of late, including Greg Oden and Amare Stoudemire. During the process, holes are drilled into actual bone in order to stimulate cartilage growth.
The recovery time is usually much longer than other knee procedures. Monson said he was told that earliest that Wilson could return would be in three months -- approximately Jan. 1.
"It's a big loss because Tristan (who is 6-5) is someone we were counting on to come in, play a lot and give us another physical presence on the wing (to go with returnees Larry Anderson, Stephan Gilling and Greg Plater)," Monson said. ``He can really get to the basket and would have been our best rebounding wing."
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