Gonzaga’s Braden Huff opens up about knee injury, recovery process: ‘Would love to be back out there this year’

PORTLAND – After two weeks, Braden Huff was homesick.

He was at home, technically. In the house he grew up in 40 minutes outside of Chicago. Spending quality time with his parents. Getting spoiled with home-cooked meals from mother Stacey three times a day. All the reasons Huff felt a trip back to Glen Elyn, Illinois, was necessary days after suffering the left knee injury that’s kept him off a basketball court for two months.

At the same time, he was missing home. The one in Spokane, where the junior forward has spent four years developing his game on the court, learning in the classroom, building a social life and growing in all aspects.

“I was home for a little bit, but once I got back with the guys, I think that was the best kind of therapy for me,” Huff said. “Just to kind of be around these guys, have them uplift me, and just me be there for them, and that’s kind of the best way besides the rehab stuff, mentally for me.”

Gonzaga opened its locker room to media members on Wednesday at the NCAA Tournament and Huff spoke in a public setting for the first time since a routine play in practice turned into a prolonged injury that’s kept the team’s second-leading scorer sidelined ever since.

The Zags were a day out from traveling to Washington State for a Jan. 15 game in West Coast Conference play. Huff was playing defense when he took an awkward step and felt an instant pop. The forward’s left knee buckled. The next two months of his junior season were as good as gone.

“It was a normal play,” Huff said. “Just playing defense, then all the sudden it gave out. Pretty typical play.”

At worst, Huff was on track to earn All-West Coast Conference First Team honors in his first season as a full-time starter for a top-15 Gonzaga team. If he continued scoring at the same clip – 17.8 points per game on remarkable efficiency – WCC coaches would’ve have a hard time picking between Huff and frontcourt mate Graham Ike for Player of the Year honors.

The country’s most efficient 2-point scorer at the time of his injury, Huff have also shown up on many of the same All-American lists that Ike’s graced this week.

There’s no sense in running through the what-ifs now. Huff is solely focused on what’s next and a potential return to the court at the NCAA Tournament. Granted, that would still require significant progress over the next seven days and take the Zags winning multiple games this week at the Moda Center.

Huff won’t play on Thursday against Kennesaw State, or in a potential Round of 32 game against BYU or Texas, but if things continue to trend in the right direction, he’s cautiously optimistic he could share the court with Ike at least once more before the season’s over.

“Feeling good, jogging, getting up shots, just taking it day by day,” Huff said. “But feeling good, good to kind of get back out on the court and get some shots up and all that stuff. Trying my best to get better.”

And not fully closing the door on a return this season.

“Yeah for sure, leaving it open,” Huff said. “Doing my best to get better and would love to be back out there at some point this year.”

For two weeks back home, Huff’s viewing experience looked significantly different than it has since he returned to Spokane before a Feb. 10 game against Washington State.

“It was weird, you’re so used to being at these games whether you’re playing or not,” Huff said. “To not be there with them – I mean they were all checking in on me, texting before and after games – but to not be there with the guys, it was a strange feeling.”

Huff characterized himself as an average college basketball viewer, not getting too high or too low regardless of how the game was playing out.

“I’m pretty calm, it’s just weird with announcers and stuff,” he said. “Kind of hearing them talk. But pretty much the same as I am in person. Just watching, rooting the guys on.”

He usually watched with his parents, dedicated Gonzaga fans who still traveled to Las Vegas last week for the WCC Tournament and will be in Portland for the NCAA Tournament even knowing their son won’t be on the floor.

“My parents were tuned in, so it was us three (watching),” Huff said. “I kind of got to see how they react to watching games and stuff, which was funny. But yeah, we were tuned in. They’re both locked in. My dad, he loves basketball so he’s always locked in. They’re making the trip out here. They don’t care if I’m playing or not. They’re basketball lovers.”

In Huff’s stead, the Zags put even more on Ike’s shoulders. Nothing the senior forward couldn’t handle, even as opposing teams began to build scouting reports designed to take him out of the game. Ike missed three contests of his own with a minor ankle injury, but otherwise led GU in scoring 13 straight games before handing the baton over to Mario Saint-Supery (21 points) against Santa Clara in the WCC title game.

“He got a lot put on him,” Huff said of Ike. “He dealt with injury and then came back, obviously Jalen (Warley) got hurt. (Ike) has done such a great job. To me he’s been the best player in the country over that span. I think he’s going to continue to show up, but just the way he’s approached that has been super impressive.”

“Super impressive” would also be a good way to explain how Huff handled his rehabilitation.

“Absolutely, we know how much this mattered to B-Huff, how much he wanted to be with us on that floor, fighting with us,” Ike said. “It’s unfortunate, but it’s just the game. I’m just so proud of him for the way he’s handled this situation, the positivity he’s brought every single day. I haven’t seen one dull moment in B-Huff. I’m just so thankful and grateful that I can spend such great time with a brother like that.”

Since he’s been back with the team, Huff has given the Zags another set of eyes from the bench, sharing with Ike what he notices during the game and coaching the team’s younger frontcourt players.

“Initially, as there should be, there was disappointment, frustration,” Gonzaga assistant Brian Michaelson said. “But then just as I thought B-Huff would, starting with that very first day down at WSU, what a great teammate he was. How much he cared about the guys and the guys getting better and how he helped lead from the side and tell guys what he was seeing, what we needed to do and being a positive voice.”

Michaelson agreed with Ike that Huff has aced his rehab assignment, despite some dark moments at the earliest stages of the forward’s road to recovery.

“Some of those days at first were basically nothing,” Michaelson said. “Then watching him build it up and do the mobility and the strength stuff. I knew once he got hurt, that’s how he would attack. … Every single day, doing whatever was asked of him from the medical and strength staff to continue that process. It’s been cool to see, but it’s also been what I would’ve expected from B-Huff.”