Temple University Athletics
Randall Return 20 Months in the Making
11.13.12 | Men's Basketball
KENT, OHIO -- As soon as his first trey ball forced its way through the twine netting woven onto the rims of Kent State's
Memorial Athletic Center, Scootie Randall heaved a visible sigh of relief.
The inimitable sound and the familiar feeling of the made bucket were nothing he hadn't experienced before, but the moment itself was 20 months in the making.
It was the physical exorcism of 20 months of grueling rehab, of intense pre-season conditioning, of watching the rest of his teammates participate, of addressing the buzzing rumor mill of doubt surrounding his return.
Will he redshirt? Will he return for a senior season? Will he be the same player? Can he be the leader that this Temple team needs?
Over the course of a tumultuous year and a half, Randall had heard it all.
In his mind, however, there was never any doubt: the answer was always yes to all of the above.
The problem lie within his opportunity to convince everyone else.
Randall's solution? Just shoot.
Shot after shot -- from the baseline, from beyond the arc, from inside the key -- began to fall for the 6-6 senior swingman. It continued on in such a fashion that if you looked away from the action on the floor for a second, you might have missed one.
But the three-point sniper sure didn't do much of that.
As the buzzer warbled on in the background signifying the end of the first half, Randall glanced up to the rafters before jogging to the locker room. There, on a video board suspended high above his head at center court, was a number illuminated alongside 33, his jersey number.
It was a red 17.
Seventeen points in the opening 20 minutes may have been a sufficient return for most players, but Randall wasn't content with complacency -- he continued his sharpshooting barrage well into the second half.
“I just like to be aggressive,” Randall explained. “My teammates are always telling me that's who I am, so I just needed to continue to be that and shots will come -- make or miss.”
So when Kent State tied the game on a Chris Brewer dunk with 15:33 to play, and the momentum started to shift into the Golden Flashes favor?
Randall answered with his 20th point of the contest on a rainbow trey ball from a feed from Will Cummings.
After the game, Temple head coach Fran Dunphy was asked to weigh in on the shift in momentum at that pivotal moment.
“They tied it and I was biting my tongue to call a timeout,” he confessed. “But I shut my mouth for once in my life and then Scootie made that shot to give us a nice lift. There was no question about [the importance of] that.”
It was the shot that finally put the dagger into the hearts of a Kent State team who single-handedly felt the wrath of the offensive firefight of which Randall -- who finished the game with a career-high 31 points and four steals, as well as four rebounds and two assists -- was first-in-command.
“I'm not really surprised that Scootie was as ready to go as he was,” Dunphy continued on. “I think he's been waiting for this moment for a long time.”
After the game, Randall appeared to emerge from the locker room lighter on his feet.
Maybe it was the freedom inherent in being no longer saddled with the heaviness of expectation and doubt, the barrage of constant questioning, or maybe it was his team's first victory of a marathon season, but the Scootie Randall that boarded the bus bound for the Akron airport was certainly not the Scootie Randall of years prior.
“Each and every day, each and every play, every time I throw the ball, I think about how hard I worked to come back, and how hard those guys -- my teammates -- pushed me,” he said thoughtfully of the road to his transformation.
It seemed finally the metamorphosis was complete.
He was better, faster, stronger, more refined -- and for the first time in 20 months: free of all the things that once held him back.
by Kami Mattioli, Owlsports.com columnist
