City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Josh Brown didn’t waste any time getting right back into the flow of things.

Despite being just a shade over six months removed from a major injury that threatened to sideline him for the whole season, the Temple senior guard was far from timid when he made his return.

Brown spent the first 13-plus minutes of Temple’s win over Saint Joseph’s on Wednesday night seated on the floor next to the Owls’ bench, stretching his left ankle with an elastic band.

The 6-foot-3 product of St. Anthony (N.J.) finally made his way to the scorer’s table with 6:29 remaining in the first half, received a quick embrace from sophomore Levan Alston Jr. -- and a nice ovation from the Temple faithful in attendance -- and then got right to business.

On his first defensive possession, he nearly forced a steal, though his foot was on the line. His first shot attempt came just a minute later, a long two-point jumper from the left wing, which caught nothing but net.

And he was back.

“It was a sigh of relief,” Brown said of watching the ball drop through the twine. “I was happy, and got back to my defensive assignment.”

That Brown was even back on the court was something of a miracle in its own right.

It was just six months ago, in May, that Brown suffered a torn Achilles tendon, undergoing major surgery for an injury that often takes upwards of a year to return to competition. That was crushing news for a program that would thus have to rely on a freshman point guard (Alani Moore) and a previously-little-used sophomore (Alston) without Brown, a three-year contributor who started his entire junior season.

But as early as the preseason, word got out that Brown had already begun practicing with the team, starting to get involved in certain drills. Still, it seemed like a long shot; Achillies injuries are no joke, especially for an athletic point guard who prided himself on his defensive abilities.

On Monday, though, Brown got the good news he’d been waiting to hear. After participating in a little more than a week of full team practices, Brown was cleared by the team doctor for live game competition.

“After I talked to the doctor, I spoke to coach (Dunphy), he said ‘alright, that’s good,’ said he was going to take it slow but expected me to be in there today,” Brown said.

Though the coaching staff initially planned for Brown to play five minutes in each half, he ended up playing 14 total, finishing with four points, two rebounds, an assist and a key block in Temple’s 78-72 win.

“It’s sort of remarkable, to be honest with you,” Dunphy said. “He’s had this attitude that he’s going to play and just about every piece of research we’ve done would suggest that this thing is a year in the making.”

His teammates were thrilled to have him back.

Both Alston (12.6 ppg, 5.1 apg) and Moore (8.0 ppg, .423 3PT%) have done an excellent job taking care of the ball and chipped in offensively, as has another freshman guard, Quinton Rose (13.0 ppg, 4.3 rpg). But having one of their tri-captains and the most experienced player on the roster back on the floor gives the Owls some extra swagger, a dangerous ingredient on a team that’s coming off back-to-back Top 25 wins and riding a four-game win streak.

“It’s a different feeling on the court, there’s security on both sides of the ball,” junior guard Obi Enechionyia said. “For him to come back so quickly from that injury, it’s great. When I saw him hit his first shot, that felt pretty good, I was really happy for him. It’s just his first game back, but I thought he did well.”

While it’s certainly an encouraging sign for both Brown and the Temple program that he’s back on the court and playing productive minutes, Dunphy cautioned that he’s “not out of the woods” in regards to his playing status the rest of the season.

Under NCAA guidelines, Brown can appear in the team’s first 13 games before he has to make a final decision whether to use up his final year of eligibility this season or take a redshirt year and return full strength next fall. That means if he plays in the Owls’ Dec. 28 game against Cincinnati, he’s in for the long haul; he’ll have six games before then to figure it out.

“Is he 100 percent? I don’t think that he is,” Dunphy said. “Is he capable of playing and helping us? Yes he is but I still think we need some thinking to do and I want him to be really sure of what he’s going to do.”