Glaze’s Shoulder Not So Grand-y

“It’s not looking great.”

Those were Coach Jim Crews’ words in response to a question about whether Grandy Glaze will be back this season for the Billikens. What seemed to just be a nagging injury at the start of the season, which many thought would take only a few weeks to heal, has now turned into a potentially career-ending injury for the Senior. Although Glaze has yet to suit up for the Bills this regular season, it’s a major loss to an already weak frontcourt.

A native of Toronto, Glaze wasn’t heavily recruited out of high school and opted to play and year at Notre Dame Prep in Fitchburg, Mass., where former Billiken Jordair Jett and current NBA players Michael Beasley and Steven Adams (was there the same season as Glaze) played. After that year, he held offers from Providence, St. Joseph’s, Iowa State, UNLV, Detroit, and of course SLU. He eventually committed to play for the late, great Rick Majerus. ESPN’s scouting report of him claimed “he’s strong as an ox and [is] absolutely relentless attacking the defense and rebounding the ball.”

After a very lowkey freshman year, Glaze received the nod for 20 starts his sophomore year, and another 5 last season. Each of his 3 seasons he’s averaged under 5 points and 5 boards per game, but was looking to take on much larger scoring responsibilities this season, and could have been the second scoring option they’ve been searching for, not to mention another veteran brain on the court to calm down the “Billikids”. Along with the scoring responsibilities, Glaze’s strength and force (6’6″, 235 pounds) in the paint could bring the rebounding and defensive edge the Bills need. Currently, SLU ranks 316th in the country in rebounding, out of 351 teams.

Jim Crews said that “he needs surgery”, which they knew all along, although they were opting to wait and see if it could heal on its own. That decision could come back to bite them. Glaze is set to graduate this year, and has the option to redshirt this season and return to SLU next year, or transfer somewhere without having to sit out a year (due to popular grad-school rule).