Completed Event: Men's Basketball versus Yale on February 13, 2026 , Loss , 70, to, 83
Final
Men's Basketball
vs Yale
70
83
Spotlight on Men's Basketball - Jason Meyer
2/15/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Spotlight on Men's Basketball - Jason Meyer
If fifth-year senior co-captain Jason Meyer had hung up his sneakers and hobbled away from basketball a couple of seasons ago, no one could have blamed him.
An unusual and tremendously painful injury that erased the better part of two full years of his promising career would be reason enough for anyone to quit.
He had at least one very good reason to continue: younger brother Jordy, whose severe learning disability meant he would never hit a gamewinning jumper or hear his name called out on the PA system the way Jason and younger sister Michelle — a freshman on the Dartmouth women's team — have over the years.
“I wouldn't say every day I'm doing this for my brother, but I know when I was home rehabbing for those two terms he was definitely a motivation for me to stick with it,” Meyer said. “It's easy to give up until I look at him and what he's had to go through. Even recently he had like an eight-hour scoliosis repair surgery in the fall. To see him and all the stuff he's had to go through just to be able to walk. Just to be able to live. It's motivation for me to keep sticking with it.”
Meyer came to Dartmouth after averaging nearly 22 points a game as a senior at Ohio's Covington High School. As a Big Green freshman he provided a spark off the bench, scoring seven points in 17 minutes at Penn, adding six points and five rebounds the next night at Princeton and appearing in 22 games.
With the graduation of a pair of forwards playing in front of him, Meyer seemed a lock for a big sophomore season until fate intervened. Playing pickup ball during his freshman spring, he sprained his right ankle. It turned an ugly shade of blue and left him on crutches, but Meyer knew almost everyone who has played basketball has been through the same thing.
What he didn't know is that when his rolled ankle snapped back into place it ripped the tendon on the other side of the foot.
The true extent of the injury wasn't immediately realized. “I had two or three MRI's and X-rays,” he said. “You couldn't see the damage done on the ankle, so when I was home that summer I played on it and worked really hard.
“When I came back to school I started a few games and was playing pretty well without knowing I had a blown-out tendon.”
In fact, he scored 15 points at Hawaii-Hilo and had nine points, three rebounds and three steals playing in front of friends and family at Ohio State.
But the game with the Buckeyes would be the last of his sophomore season. “It got to the point where I could barely walk around campus,” he said. “I could not walk up steps. I'd put a brace on it and do what I could but the pain was awful.”
Back home in Ohio that January, Meyer went under the knife.
“My surgeon said we are just going to go in and explore because we know something is wrong,” Meyer recounted. “If nothing is wrong we'll sew you up and it's our bad. But at this point we've got to do something.”
Upon discovering severe damage to his posterior tibialis tendon, which maintains the arch of the foot, the surgeon repaired it with a tendon from his big toe. And still his troubles weren't over. After 10 weeks in a cast followed by rehab, he pushed too hard and found himself on crutches yet again during his sophomore summer on campus. “It was just a mess,” he said.
He lasted only nine games the next winter. “My ankle was feeling fine but my right knee was all messed up because I was compensating,” he said. “To top that my left leg grew when I was in my cast. So my left leg is now an inch longer than my right leg.”
After another round of rehab, he returned last winter and, though rusty from two years off, played a full campaign. “It took me about half the season last year to finally get back to the point where I was comfortable doing the things I used to be able to do,” he said. “I know I never will be the same as I used to be, but my confidence level was finally getting back to where it used to be.”
This year he was third on the team in minutes played through 15 games. He posted a career-high 18 points against Hartford, had a dozen at Harvard and started early in the season before giving that role up to Leon Pattman, the Big Green's leading scorer.
“I don't care what it takes as long as our team is successful,” Meyer said. “Being a competitor I definitely want to contribute more. I want to score 20 points and get 10 rebounds. But that isn't my role. It's to hit the shots I get. To get the rebounds I can. To defend my guy and make sure the team doesn't fall off when I'm in there.”
He knows things might have been different if he hadn't been hurt but he won't dwell on it. “It crosses my mind,” he said a little sadly. “But if every day you wonder what it would be like if you did something different, it wouldn't be a very fun life.
“I realize I'm very lucky just to be playing. I mean, I shouldn't be playing right now, and I am. I overcame some big odds and I'm thankful for that.” (Bruce Wood)
Jason Meyer's recruiting trip to Dartmouth was made possible by the generosity of the late Alan Tishman '39 and Alan M. Nadel M.D. '64 through the Athletic Sponsor Program.
If fifth-year senior co-captain Jason Meyer had hung up his sneakers and hobbled away from basketball a couple of seasons ago, no one could have blamed him.
An unusual and tremendously painful injury that erased the better part of two full years of his promising career would be reason enough for anyone to quit.
He had at least one very good reason to continue: younger brother Jordy, whose severe learning disability meant he would never hit a gamewinning jumper or hear his name called out on the PA system the way Jason and younger sister Michelle — a freshman on the Dartmouth women's team — have over the years.
“I wouldn't say every day I'm doing this for my brother, but I know when I was home rehabbing for those two terms he was definitely a motivation for me to stick with it,” Meyer said. “It's easy to give up until I look at him and what he's had to go through. Even recently he had like an eight-hour scoliosis repair surgery in the fall. To see him and all the stuff he's had to go through just to be able to walk. Just to be able to live. It's motivation for me to keep sticking with it.”
Meyer came to Dartmouth after averaging nearly 22 points a game as a senior at Ohio's Covington High School. As a Big Green freshman he provided a spark off the bench, scoring seven points in 17 minutes at Penn, adding six points and five rebounds the next night at Princeton and appearing in 22 games.
With the graduation of a pair of forwards playing in front of him, Meyer seemed a lock for a big sophomore season until fate intervened. Playing pickup ball during his freshman spring, he sprained his right ankle. It turned an ugly shade of blue and left him on crutches, but Meyer knew almost everyone who has played basketball has been through the same thing.
What he didn't know is that when his rolled ankle snapped back into place it ripped the tendon on the other side of the foot.
The true extent of the injury wasn't immediately realized. “I had two or three MRI's and X-rays,” he said. “You couldn't see the damage done on the ankle, so when I was home that summer I played on it and worked really hard.
“When I came back to school I started a few games and was playing pretty well without knowing I had a blown-out tendon.”
In fact, he scored 15 points at Hawaii-Hilo and had nine points, three rebounds and three steals playing in front of friends and family at Ohio State.
But the game with the Buckeyes would be the last of his sophomore season. “It got to the point where I could barely walk around campus,” he said. “I could not walk up steps. I'd put a brace on it and do what I could but the pain was awful.”
Back home in Ohio that January, Meyer went under the knife.
“My surgeon said we are just going to go in and explore because we know something is wrong,” Meyer recounted. “If nothing is wrong we'll sew you up and it's our bad. But at this point we've got to do something.”
Upon discovering severe damage to his posterior tibialis tendon, which maintains the arch of the foot, the surgeon repaired it with a tendon from his big toe. And still his troubles weren't over. After 10 weeks in a cast followed by rehab, he pushed too hard and found himself on crutches yet again during his sophomore summer on campus. “It was just a mess,” he said.
He lasted only nine games the next winter. “My ankle was feeling fine but my right knee was all messed up because I was compensating,” he said. “To top that my left leg grew when I was in my cast. So my left leg is now an inch longer than my right leg.”
After another round of rehab, he returned last winter and, though rusty from two years off, played a full campaign. “It took me about half the season last year to finally get back to the point where I was comfortable doing the things I used to be able to do,” he said. “I know I never will be the same as I used to be, but my confidence level was finally getting back to where it used to be.”
This year he was third on the team in minutes played through 15 games. He posted a career-high 18 points against Hartford, had a dozen at Harvard and started early in the season before giving that role up to Leon Pattman, the Big Green's leading scorer.
“I don't care what it takes as long as our team is successful,” Meyer said. “Being a competitor I definitely want to contribute more. I want to score 20 points and get 10 rebounds. But that isn't my role. It's to hit the shots I get. To get the rebounds I can. To defend my guy and make sure the team doesn't fall off when I'm in there.”
He knows things might have been different if he hadn't been hurt but he won't dwell on it. “It crosses my mind,” he said a little sadly. “But if every day you wonder what it would be like if you did something different, it wouldn't be a very fun life.
“I realize I'm very lucky just to be playing. I mean, I shouldn't be playing right now, and I am. I overcame some big odds and I'm thankful for that.” (Bruce Wood)
Jason Meyer's recruiting trip to Dartmouth was made possible by the generosity of the late Alan Tishman '39 and Alan M. Nadel M.D. '64 through the Athletic Sponsor Program.
Players Mentioned
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