CAMDEN, N.J. — The difference in tenor between messenger and message couldn’t have been starker as Jared McCain sat before microphones Wednesday afternoon.

The second-year guard, with his irrepressible smile, didn’t dim it even as he recalled what the last few weeks have been.

Of crying in the locker room after getting his right thumb tangled up and “hearing a pop” in a late-September workout, knowing instantly something was seriously wrong. Of being overcome by emotion and having to pull over on his drive home when the training staff reported results of an MRI that showed a torn ligament requiring surgery.

And of the fiery defiance of a player who saw last season ended by a knee injury only to have this season’s build-up halted by injury again.

“The universe is throwing haymakers at m

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