I know more than a few hearts in the state probably skipped a beat when word first came that UConn rising junior Maya Moore was dealing with a knee injury forcing the consensus national player of the year to sit out the recent World University Games.

Hey, I even brought up the topic when the media met with UConn coach Geno Auriemma at halftime of Saturday's WNBA All-Star Game.

But I would encourage even the most ardent of UConn fans to take a step back and realize how fortunate they are that their favorite players only have to deal with strained knees or other assorted ailments.

There is a Knoxville News Sentinel story written about a much more serious health scare facing Tennessee rising sophomore Amber Gray. Gray, part of Tennessee's highly-touted freshman class last season, underwent 12 1/2 hours of brain surgery after it was discovered that Gray had a brain aneurysm which was starting to hemorrhage. Had Gray not gone into the hospital for shoulder surgery which led to the aneurysm being detected, who knows what could have happened.

The next time you want to obsess on whether UConn will land gifted New York point guard Bria Hartley or if Tina Charles will be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2010 WNBA draft, I would suggest taking a deep breath and ponder the struggles that somebody like Gray and North Carolina's Jessica Breland, who is fighting cancer, will have to endure in the coming days, months and years. It does make one realize how precious life is and yes there are things even more important than Final Four appearances and national championship games.