Senior Katie Gross saw playing time in 21 games this season before becoming ill during the Tulane game. (Lindsey Perkins)

Katie Gross doesn’t remember much about the final college basketball game she played.

But she had no reason to at the time; the game itself wasn’t anything extraordinary. It was a normal game against a below-average team, Conference USA opponent Tulane.

“We lost the previous game to UTEP in overtime and we just wanted to beat them bad,” Gross said. “We won by quite a bit…that’s all I can really say.”

During the game, the senior from Austin started having some difficulty seeing.

But she didn’t think it was a big deal. Gross thought she just needed to replace her contacts.

SMU handily beat the Green Wave that Saturday afternoon at Moody Coliseum, 81-69. Gross finished the game with an offensive rebound during six minutes played.

The next morning she got up and things had gotten worse – not better. Her vision had deteriorated overnight and she started losing some of her basic motor skills.

On Monday Gross couldn’t walk and her speech started slurring.

By Tuesday she was in a doctor’s office. The people around her could not understand what she was saying because she was slurring her words so thickly.

During the appointment the doctor asked Gross to use her finger to touch things around her to test her motor skills. She couldn’t touch her own nose.

Gross was hospitalized that day and remained there for a week.

Doctors conducted a battery of tests that Wednesday, including a spinal tap and a series of X-rays and other scans. They determined she was suffering from primarily from influenza-based encephalitis – a swelling in the lining of the brain. She also had viral meningitis and cerebralitis.

The infection is rare – occurring in one out of two million people in the United States.

“For as scary as it sounds, really I never once thought I wasn’t going to be OK,” Gross said.

Gross’ father, Rick, said his doctors informed him that his daughter likely had the viral strains in her body for a month. Eventually the strains wore down the immune system and then began causing problems.

Despite the infections and loss of motor skills, Gross’ mental capacity had not been lost. She said she knew exactly what was going on around her but just had a hard time communicating it.

The entire women’s team visited her twice while she was in the hospital. Gross said she didn’t want them to feel uncomfortable about her situation, so she laughed a lot and tried to make light of it.

Head coach Rhonda Rompola visited Gross nearly every day. Gross said the visits from her meant a lot because she knew how busy the coach’s day can be: watching tape, running practices and creating game plans, among other duties.

Rompola said she was always impressed by how upbeat Gross was, despite everything she had gone through.

“I’ve never experienced anything like this,” Rompola said. “It reminds you to work hard and enjoy everything to the fullest because you never know when it will be taken away.”

During the first game after Gross was hospitalized, her teammates put her No. 4 on their arms as a tribute to her. They have done the same in every game since as a way to honor her.

“I feel honored they’ve rallied around me,” Gross said. “You don’t realize what a good group of people you have around you.”

Gross made progress while she was in the hospital. It took three to four days of a heavy regimen of antibiotics, fluids and rest for her to get better. Doctors were unable to pin down the exact strain that infected Gross, which is not unusual for what she was suffering from. In 50 percent of cases like Gross’, the exact viral strain is not identified.

After a week in the hospital she was moved to a rehab facility on Valentine’s Day. Two days later, she was walking without the assistance of a walker.

During the next week she continued to work on her walking and speech. She was able to make enough progress that she was allowed to check out of the rehab facility the morning of Feb. 23 – senior day for the women’s team.

Gross sat on the bench and watched her team extend their winning streak to seven with a gritty win over Houston.

Now she will do the same at the conference tournament in Orlando, where SMU’s senior class is trying win a first-ever C-USA championship and lay claim to an NCAA bid.

Gross has recovered remarkably quickly. If you see or talk to her, you wouldn’t know what she had gone through. But she can’t play and likely won’t return to the floor anytime soon.

“Anybody wishes they could finish up strong and play,” Gross said. “But I’m OK with it.”

Gross’ contributions will come from the bench as she encourages her team to a conference title and inspires them just by the fact she is there and doing better.

“I feel like a lot more positive came out of this than negative,” she said.

Spoken like someone who is already a champion.