Please Get Well Soon, Jaylen

This was supposed to be our year. We have one of the top players in the nation and arguably the best backcourt in the country; around them, a great all-around player in Idris Taqqee, strong forwards and athletic youth down low.
Tourney, here we come. On the back of Jaylen Adams and Matt Mobley, the St. Bonaventure Bonnies are going to dance come March.
That is, if Adams can get back on the court.
Adams showed off his dominant play during the exhibition game against Alfred University on Nov. 4 for all of 12 minutes before injuring his ankle and being forced out of the game. He had seven points and four assists at that point.
As the team continued without one of its stars, Adams eventually made his way out onto the bench with a boot on his left ankle. It was assumed to be precautionary.
That precaution turned out to be more than originally thought; the player up for multiple national awards and named the preseason Atlantic 10 Player of the Year is currently forced to watch from the sidelines.
While it stinks Adams is out, it wasn’t too big a deal in the Brown and White’s first game against Niagara University on Nov. 10. Or so we all thought.
An atrocious first half left the Bonnies fighting from behind without Adams, needing strong play from Mobley, who turned in an incredible 29 points. It was a few points too short though, as St. Bonaventure fell in its home opener 77-75.
An underrated part of Adams’ play is his distribution. The senior finished last season as the only Division I player to rank in the top 25 in scoring and top 10 in assists, in which he was seventh in the nation and best in the A10 with 6.5 a game.
St. Bonaventure’s total assists against Niagara? Seven. The leader was Mobley with three.
While this start is not the one the Bonnies were looking for, the stats do give some optimism. St. Bonaventure outrebounded Niagara as well as finishing with more points in the paint, second-chance points and points off turnovers.
The bad part about looking at stats, though, is the Brown and White’s shooting. From three-pointers, the Bonnies were only 23.1 percent and didn’t even make 40 percent from the field.
A home loss to open the season with those kind of offensive numbers tells St. Bonaventure one thing: Jaylen Adams needs to come back as soon as possible.
However, I’m not so sure Adams will be back on the court soon, which means our chances of basketball in March go down every day Adams is in the training room rather than practice.
Running cross country and coming back from an injury myself, I’m in the trainer’s room throughout the week, and Adams has been a constant presence since his injury. I’ve seen him doing it all: tape covering his ankle, icing and strengthening therapy. Despite all these measures, two weeks removed from his injury, Adams’ ankle is still very swollen.
As a Bonnies basketball fan, I want to see Adams on the court every game. As a frequently injured athlete, though, I know rushing back from injury is the last thing I want to see.
So there is a conundrum: the team could let Adams get back to full ankle strength and hope the rest of the team can band together to save the season until that happens. On the other hand, the team could bring him back before his ankle is completely healed and risk Adams missing more time.
The first option sounds dangerous, but is much safer. The team can’t have too many more losses like Niagara, though, if its ultimate goal at the end of the season is to make it to the tournament.
Ultimately, it’s up to the trainers, head coach Mark Schmidt and Adams himself when he’ll appear again in brown and white. In a season full of so much promise, this injury really throws a wrench in the team’s goals.
As long as Adams can get healthy by the time A10 play rolls around, the Bonnies have a very strong chance of making it to the tournament through an automatic bid by winning the Atlantic 10 Tournament, as any more bad losses might doom the team’s hope of an at-large bid.
So keep praying that Adams can get better quickly, as it is a big calling to have the hopes and dreams of the entire Bona nation on your shoulders—or, ankle for that matter.