Chris Lofton had a far more impressive senior season than I thought!

From the AP as published in the C-J...

Always the quietest member of Tennessee's basketball team, Chris Lofton managed to keep the biggest secret of his life from his teammates and fans during his senior season.

The Maysville, Ky., native was treated for testicular cancer after a random drug test last year tipped off school officials he had a tumor.

Lofton told reporters the cancer was the hardest thing that he's ever gone through but that he kept it quiet because he didn't want it to overshadow the Volunteers' strong season.

He's now cancer-free.

"Sometimes I wanted to tell all my teammates, but I just couldn't get it out to them," Lofton said yesterday. "I thought keeping it to myself for the whole season and waiting until after the season to say it would be better."

A drug test he was randomly selected for during the 2007 NCAA Tournament indicated potential steroid use or cancer.

How's that for a weird providence!

Coach Bruce Pearl said NCAA officials believed something was genuinely wrong with Lofton rather than accusing him of steroid use and allowed him to play through the tournament.

Tennessee officials didn't tell him and his family of the test results until after the Vols lost to Ohio State in the tournament.

Lofton underwent surgery March 28, 2007, then began a month of radiation treatments a few weeks later.

Lofton's treatments weakened him so much last summer that he couldn't work out or shoot a basketball until just weeks before the season started.

"It used to be that a bad game was the end of the road for me," he said. "When I went through my cancer, I realized basketball is fun, but it's not that big of a deal."

He was a pre-season All-American going into his senior season but started in a shooting slump. Pearl could never tell anyone that part of the reason was that Lofton wasn't completely healthy.

Lofton bounced back, averaging a team-high 15.5 points per game for the season. He was picked as a third-team All-American.

Since the news broke Thursday, Pearl said he's received calls and e-mails from coaches, fans and cancer survivors telling him what an inspiration Lofton is.

"I've never coached a player who's faced so much adversity and put it aside," Pearl said. "Chris is rare."