Photo by SJSU Athletics
By Matt Weiner (@MattWeiner20) — MBB Beat Reporter
Playing on a team that has lost 14-straight is painful. Sitting on the bench and watching the cycle of defeat take place sits just below on the hierarchy of pain.
One after another. After another. After another. After another…
But that all changed on Sunday for Majok Kuath and San Jose State basketball as it topped New Mexico 71-55 for its first Mountain West win of the year.
Kuath found himself in that undesirable position because of a potentially season-ending shoulder injury, which he suffered in the summer. He could use the medical redshirt option to make a full recovery and would enter next season as a sophomore.
Some harm, but no catastrophic foul in the long run.
As a surprise to no one, Kuath was all systems go for returning after getting the greenlight from his surgeon. The next biggest roadblock was convincing his mom that everything would work out.
“She was worrying about it and discouraging it a little bit,” Kuath said.
Her qualms about him returning too early went away when Kuath’s surgeon said that his return four months post surgery on his labrum was reasonable timing.
Kuath doesn’t have a specific moment when the injury started to occur.
“If I’m being honest I don’t remember how it happened,” Kuath said.
What he does remember, is that his shoulder started popping in and out of its designated socket while playing for Hutchinson Community College in Kansas.
“I just tried to fight through it, thinking that it’s probably like muscle soreness or something. When I got to San Jose, I finally got an MRI and that’s when I found out it [the labrum] was fully torn.”
When describing the injury, he used the word “pop” often enough to sound like a 6-foot-8-inch bowl of Rice Krispies.
“Going up for a rebound, if I tried to pull it one way and somebody else pulled it the opposite way my shoulder would pop.”
“If I tried to dunk it one handed and barely nicked the rim, my shoulder would pop.”
The last straw for him came in August when his shoulder popped out of place on a missed dunk following a baseline drive. He then decided to have the surgery and take a break from the snap, crackle, pop.
First step was rehab. The next and arguably more difficult step was building back the same cardiovascular strength to sprint for 35 minutes a night.
“When I first got back I could barely do two or three down-and-backs without getting winded,” Kuath said.
On top of conditioning, he also has had to find his touch around the rim again and learn an entire playbook.
“He has many different plays that we run,” Kuath said about head coach Tim Miles. “Back in my Juco we only had three plays that we ran the whole game.”
Trying to rebuild stamina and consolidate an entire playbook while going through the teeth of the Mountain West is a devilish prank. It’s like a child learning how to swim for the first time in Great White Shark infested waters.
Kuath’s first game came against an SDSU squad that beholds the number one defense in the Mountain West on Feb. 9, No. 1 in defensive efficiency according to KenPom. A couple days later, Kuath and the Spartans had to go up against potential All-American in center Graham Ike of Wyoming and following that went toe-to-toe with Nevada’s seven-foot center Will Baker. Not the caliber of Ike, but a former top-50 recruit who transferred from Texas.
“I just wanted to come out and be a defensive player and an energizer for the team,” Kuath said.
Kuath is admittedly undersized for the rim-protector role. One Ike arm equals both of Kuath’s arm plus half of his right leg.
“He’s a strong dude and has about 40 pounds on me, so when he first bumped into me I was like ‘ok this is the type of game it’s going to be,’’ Kuath said of Ike.
With a knee injury sidelining 7-foot transfer center Ibrahima Diallo for nearly all of the year, Kuath has to step up and fill this hole for the Spartans.
His gangly stature gets exposed at times while also allowing his lightning quick agility to snag rebounds and cover the floor.
In the offseason, he’s looking to pack on pounds so when he’s greeted by Mountain West monolith’s like Ike and Baker, he can hold his own and then some.
“I look forward to gaining weight so I can battle back,” Kuath said.
When I offered up the 20-30 pounds I’d like to get rid of he was more than happy to accept it.
