Jan. 24, 2016
SAN DIEGO -
By Mick McGrane, @GoAztecs Senior Writer
(@MickOnTheMesa)
It is a time routinely reserved for reserves. Not the sixth, seventh, eighth or even ninth man, but those whose playing time is accrued less due to length of service than width of lead.
It is a time to celebrate not only assured victory, but the efforts of those who seldom see the floor.
So when a certain San Diego State junior forward took the court with 3:30 remaining in the game, with boisterous chants of his name reverberating around Viejas Arena, it was time celebrate another victory: Matt Shrigley's return to the lineup.
Shrigley, who had not seen game action since suffering a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee on July 20, played nine minutes in the Aztecs' 70-55 win over Utah State on Saturday. And while he did not score, much to the chagrin of those wanting the fairy tale to end in the usual fashion, Shrigley's zero in the box score was nothing but a bonus in the eyes of coach Steve Fisher.
"I love Matt Shrigley," Fisher said. "From the moment he had the surgery, he was committed to whatever he had to do to get himself ready to play. We all feel sorry for ourselves, and I'm sure he did for a period of time after he found out he had the ACL injury. But he worked so hard.
"I didn't really think I'd play him nine minutes; I thought maybe I'd play him three minutes, maybe six minutes. When he first came back (last week), he was on the scout team. The doctors said he could do some five-on-five stuff, but we didn't think he'd be cleared to play in a game."
Nor did many others. It was initially expected that Shrigley's recovery period could take up to eight months. Fisher said he was told Thursday by the team's head orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Christopher Behr, that Shrigley's knee was structurally sound and that the junior wing was ready to return to the lineup, but that the final decision would rest with the head coach.
Shrigley, who is currently sporting a brace, started 17 of SDSU's final 21 games last season and finished as the team's second-leading three-point shooter.
"It was not an accelerated (recovery) program, it was an evidence-based recovery program," said Tom Abdenour, the team's head athletic trainer, who believes Shrigley is playing at about 90 percent. "We relied on the scientific evidence to guide us through with regard to some of the selection of exercises. We had criteria we established and that we met. There was a basis for what we did and why we did it. The calendar was the absolute last thing we thought about during the process.
"He did everything we asked of him. He didn't do any less, he didn't do any more. We were right on. Sometimes people get too motivated to rehab. And even with the Jam Center being available to us, he'd didn't say, ‘OK, I'm going to do my rehab with Tom at 1 o'clock and then I'm going to come over and get 1,000 shots up at night.' That only slows you down. We gave him the tools and he put it together."
Just in time to join a parade that has seen the Aztecs win seven straight and remain the only unbeaten team in Mountain West play. SDSU, which will visit Nevada and UNLV next week, improved to 14-6 overall and 7-0 against league foes on Saturday in a game in which it turned a two-point second-half deficit into a 20-point lead.
"I'm really excited to come back and help my teammates any way I can," said Shrigley, who finished 0-for-3 from the floor, with all three attempts coming beyond the arc. "I know my strengths and weaknesses and I just want to be able to do what I do well. I definitely thought a lot about this day."
So did his roommate. Shrigley and senior forward Skylar Spencer have been roommates since their freshman year. Yet unlike Spencer, Shrigley opted to redshirt as a freshman, which would likely make an additional year of competition unlikely even though he's missed the season's first 19 games.
"I'm with this dude every day and every night," Spencer said. "I know what he's gone through. I know how hard he was working in the summertime before he got hurt. That was a big blow. It means everything to us to have him back and I know it means the world to him.
"We all came here to play basketball. Anytime you're sidelined by something so unfortunate, everybody hurts; everybody's speechless. But he's worked really hard and now he's finally back on the court."
And in the process of creating a bit of a dilemma for Fisher, who typically employs a nine-man rotation. Shrigley makes 10.
"He really hasn't had many offensive reps," Fisher said. "But we'll keep him going and see it means. I really don't know what it will mean, to be honest with you. I like the nine guys that we've been playing. Matt gives us a 10th guy and I never play 10 guys. Will I play 10 guys? I don't know. We'll see what it means, but I like those kinds of problems. Problems like that I can deal with."