Dick Harmon: A healthy Noah Hartsock pivotal for the BYU Cougars

BYU forward Noah Hartsock's long minute of grimacing on the gym floor at Santa Clara Saturday night looked prime-time serious.

Anyone who witnessed the crash Hartsock took to the floor, his leg twisted and unnaturally bent, would have thought the BYU senior was not only seriously injured but possibly gone for good with a blown-out knee.

The scene?

Hartsock is shown on his back, his face in angst — real emotional turmoil. Only he could fully explain how much pain was attached to that. It looked bad, really bad. He'd crashed to the floor like a sack of rocks. They're still looking for dents in the wood.

Hartsock told reporters later, as he was on the floor for so long, he was afraid. It was fear of the unknown. What just happened?

Hartsock's knee had just done what you do with pretzel dough as Santa Clara forward Yannick Atanga had leaped upon Hartsock's shoulders to fight for a rebound with just over nine minutes to play in Saturday's game. The charging Atanga had put all his weight and force of momentum on Hartsock's upper body and gave torque to Hartsock's leg, which immediately gave way underneath both men.

Hartsock's knee became the tumbling mat for about 450 pounds, plus momentum.

"It just felt like something happened to my knee, just the way I landed," Hartsock said. "I was a little scared. I came down and the weight was on top of me. It just felt like something might have happened."

"My knee was still bent," Hartsock said of the moment. "I was afraid to stretch it out because it felt like there might be something terribly wrong there. Fortunately, it wasn't anything too big."

As it turned out, Harstock's worst fears flew away as he got up and walked off the court. After a short examination, he returned and played the rest of the Santa Clara game.

We can file this one away with the rest in the Hartsock file, a folder that chronicles the tales of how tough this guy is: broken noses, black eyes, playing on swollen ankle sprains and all.

No question, this was a dramatic moment for Hartsock and his team. If he had gone down to a significant knee injury instead of what could still be a pesky MCI knee strain, this BYU team would be up the proverbial creek.