Matt Weiner (@mattweiner20) – Basketball Beat Reporter
Photo via SJSU Athletics
Ryen Perry saw the frustrated, intense face of San Jose State head coach Tim Miles with an index finger pointing directly at him.
Who me? The student manager turned walk-on thought as SJSU had 12 minutes left in its historic regular season.
Perry had played half as many minutes all year and didn’t have a field goal to his name.
He stepped in as SJSU was down 51-37 and within 12 minutes of regulation his name went from unknown to lauded. His role shifted from benchwarmer to lockdown defender.
The junior helped SJSU climb out of a 20-point second half abyss and hold Air Force to just 10 points in the final 11:35 to secure a 63-61 victory.
“I think he’ll remember this the rest of his life,” said Miles.
Without Perry, SJSU doesn’t clinch its second season with at least 19 overall wins since 1937 and first double-digit conference win total since 1994. He led SJSU with a +16, knocked down a key three-pointer amidst SJSU’s 33-10 run to close out the win and secured a key defensive rebound with 38 seconds left.
There was no astonishment in Miles’ voice when he sang Perry’s praises. “It wasn’t a huge leap of faith,” he said.
Last ditch effort to stop Air Force’s Carter Murphy and offensive onslaught? Sure.
Eyes closed 60-yard full court Hail Mary? Far from it.
It’s not like one night he heard a spree of “Kobe!” chants while traversing down a hallway and stuck his head into the locker room to find Perry draining bundled up dirty socks from 20 feet out into a hamper.
What happened Saturday was always supposed to happen.
Perry was a 40% three-point shooter for Fullerton College in the 2020-21 season and arrived to SJSU after one of the team’s assistant coaches, Devin Ugland, got in touch with then SJSU assistant coach and recruiting coordinator David Miller.
“I felt like there might be an opportunity to play. Just work as hard as I can and potentially make a spot,” said Perry.
There was also a need for independence from the Orange County native. Basketball was the vessel for swapping one city of palm trees for another. “After Fullerton, I wanted to get out of my area and grow up as a man,” said Perry.
But ultimately, it was about achieving a lifelong dream of playing Division I basketball.
Turnings dreams to reality began began with a year spent schlepping luggage through airports, folding towels and doing monotonous student managerial chores. Which was made manageable by the three guys he met along the way:
James Buchanan, Javon Harris and Mason Powell.
“Those were my first friends when I got here because the players are with the players and I have to do the dirty work in a sense,” said Perry.
“I ended up conversating with them and they’re actually really great people.”
When Miles let him know that he’d become a walk-on last spring before summer workouts begun and could start dishing out passes and not gatorade bottles during practice, Perry’s upgrade only changed his title.
When asked if he still sees himself as a student manager, Perry replied “I certainly do.”
You can still find Perry hanging out with Buchanan, Harris and Powell. “I still liking helping people and those are my guys,” he said.
After SJSU’s first bonafide Mountain West upset of the Miles era last month against Utah State, Perry went back to the hardwood to shoot around with them. The four played shooting games without any care in the world.
An hour earlier, when the postgame press conference following the win came to a conclusion, Moore made sure to say one thing before he and Ibrahima Diallo left the podium
“Real quick, I want to give a shoutout to our scout team this week,” said Moore before naming a slew of red penny clad Spartans, including Perry.
And on Saturday afternoon, as SJSU was down nine with 6:42 left, Moore, who couldn’t spin his way around an Air Force defender, kicked it to Perry at the top of the key.
Perry took the hip-high pass, cocked it back and unloaded.
First came the whip of the net and then came bedlam from SJSU’s bench.
“Omari put the ball in my hands and trusted me to shoot it,” said Perry of his first career three-point make and field goal, “The minute it left my hands I knew it was in.”
What fans saw was a byproduct of what they didn’t see. Not just the towel folding, equipment lugging, white board carrying and shot-clock setting from the year before.
But this year, the packed shots from Diallo, buckets given from Moore and all the phone calls to family back home when he didn’t know if he belonged.
“I had a lot of moments where I felt like I couldn’t compete in Division I basketball,” said Perry.
For a split-second Perry thought another of those moments might come again.
Just minutes after stepping onto the court Perry drew a quick foul.
“At first I thought he was going to take me out,” said Perry.
But Miles trusted him and let him play through it.
“We don’t win this game without Ryen Perry tonight,” said Miles.
“It’s so awesome to see that moment for him.”
