(10-04-2019 08:58 PM)Springboromark Wrote: I heard he hurt himself playing international basketball. I wonder since he is on scholarship, did he have to get permission by UT to play competitively somewhere else?
Edu's connection to the Philippines Junior National Team is well documented and a fairly epic narrative. If you understand his connection with that team you will better understand his participation internationally during his time at UT. here's a long piece of it based on a few articles i read.
Edu was born in Cyprus. It's a big island in the mediterranean that has been invaded or annexed over time by the egyptians, persians, romans, french, assyrians, ottomons, arabs, greeks, and most recently the british. it's a beautiful old complex island. that, while technically 1 country, is now divided between a greek zone and a turkish zone, cause in the 60s the right wing dictatorship in greece led a coup and political takeover of cyprus which triggered a partial military invasion of the mostly ethnically turkish part of the island by turkey and then a truce and a UN buffer area in the middle like a mini north and south korea. however, it has remained a part of the commonwealth and well connected to great britain and the european economy.
edu's parents were a nigerian scholar scientist basketball playing father and a highly educated filipina mother with good jobs in cyprus. however, the government did not recognize AJ's birth as one of a cypriot. he was literally undocumented with no nationality or passport the first couple years of his life until his mom lobbied the philippines government and they provided him full citizenship and the documentation to live internationally in an international family. while the Philippines was really his 2nd home growing up-he spent far more time in cyrpus, it was his 1st home as well.
filipinos love basketball. far more than any other place in asia or the really world outside of Indiana and Kentucky. unfortunately, they tend to be short which makes them a limited presence on the international, professional, or college court outside of the philippines which has 2 pro leagues. every year their national team will have a decent perimeter rotation but no big man to protect the rim. so, when AJ grew into this 6-10 talented smart big man who loved basketball he became the great hope of the next generation of philippines basketball. maybe, the guy who would get them over the hump of always near qualifying for olympics and FIBA tournaments and such. AJ played on their Junior national team in recent years and had strong friendships and connections to that team and playing for that flag. part of his recruitment to toledo was based on mutual support for his continued international play.
coach has stated publicly his medical timeline has been lengthened by 50% from 9 months to 14 months, simply because that longer recovery timeline limited to non contact rehab, strength work and mental trust of the knee is optimal. plus, it coincides with the start of 2020-21 fall practice.
on a related note, per the post above which also includes acunzo. it was also stated that he got poor treatment and rehab of a high school foot injury which never fully healed. doctors and trainers determined that they should rebreak the foot bone. set it properly and do a complete rehab from that. otherwise, he would have had to play through constant foot pain and discomfort. his injury rehab will be much quicker than AJ but i think they did the same thing and extended it 50% and are gonna have him strength train on get the foot right before practicing with a Nov 1 estimate of his return. the vibe is that he is the jewel of the recruiting class, but they're gonna ease him back from the foot, then tackle his mediocre conditioning. so, it might be a while before his game fully shows up.
i think this is plenty of information for the tell me more crowd
let's hope smith, etherington, moore, or the home school giant surprises. we need 1 or 2 more guys to fill out the rotation.
