Akok is back, but his work is far from over
With 11 minutes, 14 seconds left in the first half of UConn’s game at Butler on Jan. 9, Akok Akok checked in during a timeout.
Thirty-two seconds later, Akok took a pass from Tyrese Martin under the basket, and the 6-foot-9 sophomore jammed home a two-handed dunk.
Not bad for a young man who, 11 months earlier, had torn the Achilles’ tendon in his left heel — often a career-threatening injury for a basketball player.
Not bad for a young man who, seven months earlier, was measuring success in his rehab by simply moving from left to right, “like a slow, old man.”
Not bad at all.
“It was amazing to see Akok come back,” teammate Tyler Polley said after that game. “He got that dunk and I was lit. I was really happy for him.”
“That,” added UConn coach Dan Hurley, “was a lift for all of us.”
Akok didn’t do much else in that 12-point Husky victory. He missed one 3pointer, and otherwise had all zeroes in his stat line in six minutes of action. Two nights later, Akok played just three minutes in a tight win at DePaul. He didn’t attempt a shot, block a shot, grab a rebound or even commit a foul.
On Monday, in his first game back at Gampel Pavilion, Akok entered the game with 12:12 left in the first half and the Huskies leading St. John’s by 14. He grabbed a couple of defensive rebounds, but otherwise didn’t contribute. When he left the game with 9:50 left in the half, UConn’s lead was eight. Akok didn’t play again.
The 11-month rehab process that got Akok Akok back into game action a little later than he had expected, but a lot sooner than many had predicted, isn’t really over yet.
Back in May, Hurley told Hearst Connecticut Media that it was his responsibility not to let Akok back on the court “until he looks the way he should look.”
Other than that twohanded dunk 32 seconds into his debut, Akok has hardly resembled the athletic, shot-swatting presence he so often was last
season as a freshman. And yet Akok, whose “life is basketball,” according to Mass Rivals AAU director Vin Pastore, remains anxious to play and contribute more to his team. In May, he told Hearst Connecticut Media he was confident he’d be ready to play in November or December. A few weeks ago, a video of Akok telling a friend he’d be making his debut on Jan. 5 against Marquette went viral.
Akok had to wait another four days for his debut, but his eagerness to return to play has remained a constant. Hurley admitted he and Akok have gotten into a few “dust-ups” over speeding up his timeline.
“Listen,” Hurley said after Monday’s loss, “what we’re asking Akok to do and what Akok is wanting to do … it’s a challenging situation. Because he’s a heart-and-soul, he’s a pillar of this thing. Akok and (James Bouknight) are guys that are building blocks that we’re building this thing around in Year 3, to make this big move (as a program).”
Bouknight is out for likely at least another couple of weeks after undergoing elbow surgery. It may be even longer before Akok is back to form.
“He’s gonna have a chance to help our team,” Hurley said, “but he’s just so far behind. Less than a year back from the Achilles … he’s really struggled while he’s in there.”
‘I FEEL LIKE I’LL GET IT ROLLING AGAIN’
The hardest part for Akok wasn’t the surgery, performed by Martin O’Malley (who also performed Kevin Durant’s Achilles surgery) or the initial thoughts that his career was in jeopardy, or the long, arduous hours of rehab which he labeled “boring as hell” back in May.
“Everything from after the operation has been a positive,” Pastore noted.
“Because you were at your lowest point — ‘Will I ever play again?’ ”
No, the hardest part was this past summer, when many of his teammates started returning to campus.
“Once they came back, they immediately started workouts and practices, and I wasn’t allowed to do all of that,” Akok said. “That was the hardest part. But it was pretty smooth, my recovery. Through this pandemic, there’s not a lot of basketball going on, so every day was like a 1-on-1 with me, just trying to get better.”
With most of the campus empty last spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic, UConn trainer James Doran helped guide Akok through his rehab, primarily inside the Burton Family Football Complex. It started extremely slow, with Akok spending hours on an Alter G anti-gravity treadmill that allowed him to build up strength in his calf while walking at a decreased percentage of his body weight.
Legwork, upper-body strength work and a little bit of shooting — mostly flat-footed — also marked much of the first couple of months of Akok’s rehab. Gradually, the workload and intensity increased. Akok said he had two sessions of rehab nearly every day — first to work on his Achilles and get it stronger, then getting in work in a SwimEx hydrotherapy pool.
He added that Hurley helped Akok rehab and exercise his mind through podcasts and other methods.
“He gave me a book throughout my recovery, told me to read more,” Akok noted. “I tried not to stand in front of the TV all the time. I feel like that would’ve been the wrong thing for me to do.”
Akok, who played for the Mass Rivals AAU program, would periodically text Pastore video of his personal milestones.
On June 1, it was moving left to right “like a slow, old man,” as Pastore described.
A month later, on July 2, Akok had progressed to jump-roping.
On Sept. 14, Akok sent video of him on the court, taking shots in place, then running north and south. On Oct. 8, he was on the floor moving laterally. On Nov. 12, Akok was playing against a teammate, live, and soaring in for a slam dunk.
Soon after that, Akok was cleared for contact drills in practice. The final hurdle came on Jan. 9, when he played against Butler.
“It was a great moment in my career, a special day,” he said after that game. “I’ve been waiting for this for a long time.”
He added that he felt 100-percent.
“I’ve just got to get more games in,” he said on Jan. 9. “I took a 10-month layoff. I’m trying to get the rust off. As soon as I get a couple of games under me, I feel like I’ll get it rolling again.”
But it hasn’t been that simple.
“He’s worked incredibly hard, incredibly diligently,” Hurley said. “It’s obviously a credit to his surgeon, a huge credit to James Doran, who, when COVID first hit, he and Akok got together in a critical time in his rehab and James got in daily with him to put in the work. An amazing job by James, an amazing job by Akok. He’s worked so hard.”
But plenty of work remains for Akok Akok, even if he’s back sporting his UConn uniform No. 11 and getting into games.
“It’s a fine line,” Hurley said. “He wants to play, we want him to play. But less than a year from an Achilles is a tough situation. We’re gonna really have to just try to develop him in practice and get him in a place where, maybe, he can help us at some point this year — but really building throughout this year into the summer, into the preseason, for a big second year.”