Ask Christian Cornelius about patience.

After graduating from high school in 2004 and attending prep school for a year, the freshman feverishly waited through his redshirt year for his chance to contribute to the SIU basketball team.

As the Salukis kick off their exhibition schedule tonight against Quincy University, the 6-foot-7-inch Cornelius will still be waiting.

Cornelius is out for the season with a torn ACL, a fractured femur and a torn meniscus he sustained earlier in the preseason.

For the third straight year, his hopes of playing Division I basketball have been put on hold.

“I don’t know anyone else who has more patience than me when it comes to college basketball,” Cornelius said. “It was tough last year. This year it’s frustrating. I wasn’t expecting it at all.”

The bad news came abruptly.

In an Oct. 2 two-on-two workout, Cornelius fell to the floor after going up for a reverse layup. Although there was no contact with anyone else, Cornelius felt a sharp pain in his right knee.

He thought nothing was wrong. An Oct. 10 MRI – along with increased swelling that trickled all the way down to his ankle – proved otherwise.

His mother, Donna Cotton-Cornelius, didn’t find out about the Oct. 12 surgery until the night before. Until that point, she thought her son’s injury was one that required “just a little icing.”

As it turned out, it called for an intensive surgery, a dozen staples and about four months of rehabilitation.

Cotton-Cornelius struggled to find the words to comfort her son – he had already heard them all a year before while being consoled about not playing because of the redshirt.

“It was harder for him to hear it this year,” she said. “He had already been through that and had those speeches.”

At first, Cornelius rejected the news. He had waited long enough. It was his time to shine.

But realization blindsided Cornelius after his Oct. 12 surgery, which repaired the torn cartilage.

“I kind of got the tears and stuff out,” he said. “I didn’t know why something like this would happen to me.”

Lessons in patience have come all too often for Cornelius.

After his graduation from Oak Park High School in 2004, Cornelius attended prep school at Brewster Academy in New Hampshire because he was told he wasn’t ready for a high-level Division I team.

The wait wasn’t over when he came to SIU the next year. Cornelius had to redshirt the 2005-2006 year to develop. His early October injury forced Cornelius to put his career on pause for the third straight year.

To put it in perspective, by the time Cornelius plays his first game for the Salukis, Matt Shaw, who also graduated in 2004, will be a senior.

“He has to be itching to get out there and play,” Shaw said.

Cornelius was supposed to take the floor tonight against Quincy University and showcase his newfound perimeter skills after converting from a post player.

Instead, he’ll spend the day down the hall from the Arena floor – in the athletic training room.

There will be no crossovers, inside-out dribbles or reverse layups.

Instead, it’ll be grimace-inducing leg-lifts, walking backward and painfully standing one-footed on a trampoline.

On the court, coach Chris Lowery will miss his versatility.

“The biggest blow is he’s a 6’7″ swing that we’ve been coveting for the last five, six, seven years,” Lowery said. “Once we got one, then he goes down with injury. It just hurt us.”

Yet, Cornelius won’t let the string of setbacks dampen his demeanor. He could toss in the towel and succumb to the undying obstacles in his path. He could feel dejected that his younger brother Justin is starting his second year of college basketball at Illinois Central College while he has yet to log any minutes.

But he isn’t.

He bottles up that frustration and continues to wait.

“I’m real determined,” Cornelius said. “I won’t let anything get in my way.”