ST. LOUIS – Aldonis Foote turned from his team and walked toward the bleachers inside the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex, his stomach churning as he fought the urge to puke.

On March 9, the Blue Raiders were only 30 minutes into their final practice before the Conference USA tournament. Seconds prior, sophomore Ed Simpson contested Foote’s layup like he would during any drill. This time, Simpson’s left foot planted on the court while his right got tangled with Foote’s leg. Simpson hit the floor. His right ankle twisted. He screamed.

To Foote, whose eyes weren’t on the fall, it sounded like a yell from teammate Perrin Buford. When he turned around, he saw the scream was coming from someone else. He saw the facial expressions. He saw an ankle completely displaced.

Head coach Kermit Davis left the gym. He couldn’t bear to watch and had to gather himself. The question racing through his head: “What are we going to do with this team?” When he walked back in, the entire team surrounded Simpson on the floor while praying, a deafening silence permeating throughout the gym.

“At first I didn’t feel it, I didn’t feel the break or anything,” Simpson said Saturday. “…I was laying on the ground, just put my head down and started praying.”

On Friday afternoon, 15th-seeded Middle Tennessee State (25-9, 13-5 Conference USA) pulled off arguably the biggest upset in NCAA Tournament history with a 90-81 win over second-seeded Michigan State at the Scottrade Center. Simpson, who Foote declared both the team’s second-best defender and 3-point shooter, watched from the sideline. It’s the same spot he’ll take in the Blue Raiders’ matchup against 10th-seeded Syracuse (20-13, 9-9 Atlantic Coast) on Sunday evening with a spot in the Sweet Sixteen on the line and a chance for MTSU to become the second-ever 15-seed to reach that round.

But for Simpson, who sat on a black cushioned table with his right leg engulfed in a beige cast while grinning ear-to-ear, the outlook hasn’t been grim in the 10 days since he fractured his right ankle in the only severe injury of his career. The thick skin he’s developed in his life — from navigating his parents’ divorce and being molded into a resilient basketball player by a military father — has helped him cope. He’ll miss several months of basketball and possibly being a tangible part of history, but he’s become the inspiration for a team trying to be the next Cinderella of the NCAA Tournament.

“We can’t use that to bring us down,” Foote said of Simpson’s injury. “We have to use that as motivation.”

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Simpson’s first feeling when his parents separated was excitement.

He didn’t fully understand the concept of divorce, but knew he was moving from Mississippi to Alaska with his mother and the prospect enticed him. He lived there from first to fifth grade and played a variety of sports while being thrust into an environment far from what he was accustomed to in his home state of Mississippi. “It was cold,” he said. “Cold as hell.”

Simpson grew to understand the stigma surrounding divorce as he aged, but his parents’ working relationship that remains to this day watered down the fact that they lived more than half a country apart.

“I know some divorces go real bad,” he said. “They handled it well, so I think it helped me cope with it better.”

He returned to Mississippi to live with his father in sixth grade, but there was hardly any glamour that came with the start of his youth basketball career in the south.

Ed Simpson Sr. was his son’s first AAU coach and didn’t even start him. He said his son was too lazy and made him prove his worth for a starting spot that he eventually earned when he was 14. On his first AAU team not coached by his father, Simpson was told he needed to be tougher and more skilled. His father took him off the team since the money and travel wasn’t worth the criticism and time his son spent on the bench.

When Simpson Sr. was 17, he enrolled in the Air Force and later played on the academy’s basketball team. In what was then a tournament between the armed forces, Air Force was considered physically inferior to the Navy and Marines.

Before each game, Simpson Sr. took the insults. He heard the critics. He shouldered the doubt, the same kind that surrounded Middle Tennessee State before it shocked the college basketball world on Friday.

“‘Oh man you guys are soft, y’all ain’t battle ready and we gon’ beat y’all down when we get out here,” he’d hear. “They were always talking about how soft the Air Force was, and that just gave me the toughness and no-excuse attitude when it came to stepping out on the floor.”

Simpson has the same demeanor now and he credits that to his father, but he’s not on the floor, at least not walking on two legs with a basketball in his hand. He’s rolling on it with his knee scooter during practices, his right leg propped up on a cushioned surface.

After Simpson’s injury, Davis ended practice. The team returned to its hotel, where they all received an article from the head coach about former Louisville guard Kevin Ware and his far more severe injury. Ware broke his leg in the 2013 NCAA Tournament against Duke but returned just over seven months after the gruesome snap. If he could come back, so could Simpson.

On MTSU’s current seven-game winning streak that has it on the brink of duplicating history, the Blue Raiders are fueled by Simpson’s resilience. It’s been the source of inspiration throughout a memorable postseason despite Simpson being a lesser-heralded player who averages five points and 2.6 rebounds on an even lesser-heralded team.

It can be attributed in part to how he rubs off on others now, and how he has since high school. Simpson was the kid everyone envied. He was the star for St. Martin (Mississippi) High School on the court. The student body bowed down to him when his name was announced before games and they made signs with his name on them.

“Every girl wanted to date him, every boy wanted to be his friend,” St. Martin head coach Charlie Pavlus said. “He was able to walk that straight line.”

Simpson can’t even walk now, let alone in a straight line, but he hasn’t changed. After the Blue Raiders upset Michigan State, Simpson texted Pavlus, “The smell of upset is in the air coach! I’m just in awe right now.”

The next text read, “To be honest I just keep thinking ‘Is this really happening’ haha felt like a dream coach.”

Simpson didn’t consider reality when he hit the floor 10 days ago either. He just thought he sprained his ankle.

But he wasn’t fazed by something that could’ve torn him apart — not when his ankle took a shape ankles aren’t supposed to, not when his mom moved out of the continental United States and not when his own father benched him.

He’ll be on the sideline during Sunday’s game, but this time he has to be there. He might roll around on his scooter during warmups, flashing the smile that makes his teammates liken him to a little kid. He won’t look like a player taking a back seat in the next possible Cinderella story, but he’s just going along for the ride.

“You go down, but things happen for a reason,” Simpson said. “To say that they’re playing for me, it means I really absolutely mean something to this team…

“It means the most to me.”

Published on March 19, 2016 at 10:09 pm

Contact Matt: mcschnei@syr.edu | @matt_schneidman