After a hard-fought journey against his health to get back on the court, forward Akok Akok made his triumphant return on Wednesday in the Backyard Brawl loss against Pittsburgh and WVU men's basketball was ecstatic to have him back on the bench.
In the charity exhibition against George Mason on Oct. 27, Akok made his first appearance in a Mountaineers' jersey but the experience took a turn for the worst.
After playing 14 minutes and recording two assists and a rebound, the Georgetown transfer collapsed to the floor with a medical emergency, leaving his team in shock as he was taken away to the hospital.
Although West Virginia went on to win the game 85-78 right before its regular-season opener, Akok's future in basketball was completely uncertain until the week leading up to the matchup against the Panthers.
"Akok, he gets this scare he doesn’t know where his life is going to go just like all of us and he’s in practice clapping and laughing with us," teammate and fellow forward Quinn Slazinski said after Wednesday's loss.
"I don’t get emotional, but I love that kid. He’s been through so much and I’m just so, so happy for him," Slazinski said.
According to interim head coach Josh Eilert following Wednesday's 80-63 defeat to arch-rival Pittsburgh, his journey took many tests, confirmations and precautions to make sure he was ready to go in game action.
However, he said that Akok was able to get a few practices in before making his regular-season debut.
"We’re so happy for the kid and so much of these guy's life is built around the game of basketball," Eilert said. "Ultimately it was a day-by-day situation, any hiccup in game situation or practice would have hindered that. Leading into it, he had a good solid two or three days of practice and that’s limited as well trying to figure out where he’s at. We got to a point where we thought we could use him for a limited amount of time, so we’ll use him."
After averaging 6.5 points per game, 6.2 rebounds and 2.0 blocks per game for the Hoyas last season, Eilert understood the skillset he can provide for the Mountaineers and he showed some of those skills in limited action against Pittsburgh.
Akok finished Wednesday's contest with eight minutes on the hardwood, two rebounds and two energizing blocks, including one swat that ignited the crowd just minutes after he checked into the game to a well-deserved standing ovation.
"He gave us a defensive spark, that’s kind of his forte. He’s a guy that you can do a lot more things especially in ball screen coverage you can switch with him. He can sit down and guard guards he can help us protect the rim, he’s active, he really runs the floor well and I think we can utilize him in offensive transition," Eilert said.
"But you can see out there he is limited because he hasn’t been cleared for three or four days. Certainly, he isn’t in game shape yet, so seven minutes, eight minutes is probably top for him right now so that’s going to continue to improve but we certainly don’t want to force the issue with him and make sure we’re doing right by him that’s first and foremost," Eilert said.
Despite the loss, Slazinski represented him and his team's excitement to have Akok back on the court and what it means to a person like him, where basketball is such an important aspect of their life.
"This one is going to hurt, this game, but looking back I’m so happy Akok came in and did what he loves. We love basketball, that’s been our life, it's the only thing we talk about, we dribbled the ball in the hallways since high school," Slazinski said.
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