The scene played out like a typical exhibition of Michael Oguine’s athleticism. On the defensive end, he chased down his cover and swatted a layup away at the rim, then sprinted down the court to clean up a missed layup with a two-handed dunk. Moments later, Oguine fought through three screens, locked up Sayeed Pridgett and blocked the freshman’s 3-point attempt as the shot clock wound down to zero.
“I see you Mike! I see you!” shouted freshman forward Alphonso Anderson, standing on the sidelines with a ball between his hands.
From Anderson’s vantage point, the sequence was good enough to be cut into Oguine’s growing highlight reel. Despite the clean view, it wasn’t the one Anderson preferred.
“I’ve been dying to get back on the court,” Anderson said Thursday afternoon about 24 hours before the Montana Grizzlies held their first basketball practice of the season.
On Friday, there was Anderson off to the side of the court standing one-legged on a balance cushion under the watchful eye of Griz trainer Justin Hunt. While the bulk of the roster raced up and down the court in an intense 5-on-5 session, Anderson was working on building strength and stability in the muscles surrounding his right knee.
And that’s where he’ll be for the near future.
The highly prized forward from Seattle’s Garfield High is currently recovering from a second surgery on the meniscus he tore during his senior prep season.
UM head coach Travis DeCuire/ by Brooks Nuanez
“(He) came back a little soon and played on it in a race for a championship,” Montana head coach Travis DeCuire said of Anderson on Thursday morning. “It healed — or thought it healed — and kind of re-injured it in the spring in open gym and that’s when they decided to go in and do the surgery.”
A second surgery followed on August 18, further extending Anderson’s absence from the court. He hasn’t played since March and isn’t certain when he’ll be back. Best case scenario is two weeks, but it could be until mid-November, right around the time Montana opens its season at USC, that he could be healthy enough to fill the role DeCuire envisioned.
“He’s a gifted basketball player — he’s skilled in terms of his feel for the game and the places he can play and he can rebound at a high level and push the ball and make a play,” DeCuire said. “He was going to be a big part of what do.”
Anderson still could be, but in the near future he’ll spend more time in the pool than on the hardwood. Anderson, at 6-foot-6 and 218 pounds, was recently cleared to do some jumping and plyometric work in a pool to reduce the impact on the knee.
Anderson came to Missoula this fall with Pridgett as two freshmen Montana’s coaches exhaustively recruited to give the Grizzlies the types of players they believe will eventually make team into a dangerous mid-major poised for a run in the NCAA tournament.
While Pridgett has shown flashes of the athleticism and versatility that made him such an appealing prospect, Anderson has patiently waited his turn. He still can not run and his only basketball experience has been one-dimensional via NBA 2K17.
But he is eagerly awaiting his return to the court.
“Basketball definitely helps take my mind off (being homesick) — I can just go on the court whenever,” Anderson said. “It helps me relieve whatever I’m going through. I miss home, but when I get back on the court it will be all right.”
Without Anderson, Montana’s frontline rotation has been thrown into flux. Though presumptive starters Fabijan Krslovic and Jack Lopez are healthy and receiving plenty of reps in their positions, DeCuire has toyed with a number of different players at the 4, a spot vital to the execution of the offense.
Six weeks before the Nov. 11 opener in Los Angeles, DeCuire and his staff have evaluated lineups with Gavin DeJong at the 4 and others with Brandon Gfeller, Bobby Moorehead, Jared Samuelson, Aaron Ward and Pridgett, at 6-5, filling the vacancy.
It’s a juggling act Anderson will continue to watch for the time being.
“It definitely sets me behind, but that just makes me work harder,” Anderson said. “My drive is way higher than it was before so that will help me catch back up.”
