Middle Tennessee State University Athletics
In Year Seven of College Basketball, Jalen Jordan’s resilience grants him one final chance
12/14/2023 12:00:00 PM | Men's Basketball
"I've been patient for two years. Trust me, if I get an opportunity, I'm not going to waste it.”
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Near the halfway mark of the second half in the ball room of the Baha Mar, Jalen Jordan knew the shot clock was winding down with the ball in his hands.
Jordan stepped in, went between the legs, then stepped back. Finding himself with a ton of space, the seventh-year guard lined up his shot behind the three-point line as the shot clock hit one.
The space quickly closed, but well after the shot was on its way to hitting nothing but net. And when Allen David Muekba of UMKC undercut Jordan's landing spot, one could barely hear the whistle of the referee, signaling the and-1 foul, over the cheers of Jordan's teammates.
It was about as simple of a play at the end of the shot clock a guard could make. A smart dribble move, a quick step back, a 40-percent three-point shooter creating a shot for himself. And if Jordan wasn't wearing the bulky brace on his right knee, one might not have even guessed there was anything more remarkable happening on the court in the Bahamas than a senior leader trying to will his team to snap a losing streak.
But Jalen Jordan's path on the basketball court hasn't been the same one that his peers, his teammates, have walked. The fact he's in his seventh year as a member of a Division I men's basketball program as a player is evidence enough of that fact. The knee brace, a mark of the back-to-back torn right ACLs, is another.
And while his 18th, 19th and 20th points of a 21-point afternoon in the Bahamas on that three-pointer were key to MTSU picking up the win over UMKC, the water cup shower he earned from his teammates afterward meant much more than just a win.
"It speaks to just how much he loves ball, and he loves Middle," head coach Nick McDevitt said after Jordan played his first game in 971 days in MTSU's season opening win over Northern Kentucky. "He just didn't want to walk out of here having never played in the Murphy Center in front of our fans. He wants to go out playing with these guys and a winner."
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Measuring just from his graduation from Rockdale County High School in Conyers, Ga., Jalen Jordan has been playing post-secondary school basketball for eight seasons at the start of the 2023-24 campaign, having graduated in the Class of 2016. Born in the Bronx, Jordan didn't have the offers he was looking for out of high school, however, so he moved back up north for a year at a prep school, where he caught the eye of the program at St. Francis of Brooklyn.
"It was a full circle moment by going back home to New York," Jordan said. "I had a lot of family in Brooklyn at the time. It just made perfect sense to be in the city, now that I'm finally older...My campus was New York City, which was probably the best thing that any kid could want. As soon as you walked out of the school, you were in the city. It's just so fast paced. You could literally do anything."
On the court, Jordan quickly made his mark for the Terriers, making the NEC All-Rookie team his freshman year while averaging over 11 points a game both of his seasons at St. Francis, one of the four original Division I programs to have never made the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. Heading into his junior year in the summer of 2019, however, Jordan was looking for a change.
Andre Morgan, then an assistant on Nick McDevitt's staff, was one of the coaches that first recruited Jordan as far back as his freshman year of high school, making the connection to the Blue Raiders easy. Combine that with the bigger stage MTSU could provide in the Glass House and in Conference USA and Jordan committed easily in a pre-transfer portal world, when men's basketball student-athletes were required to complete a "year in residence" with their new programs before they could compete.
Jordan would thus sit out the 2019-20 season, thankfully able to use it as redshirt year to maintain a year of eligibility. But the COVID-19 pandemic hitting that winter meant Jordan would have to play the 2020-21 season, his first as a Blue Raider, in front of no fans. It wasn't ideal, but in that time away from playing in games, Jordan had found his role on a rebuilding MTSU squad.
"Coming into Middle Tennessee, I took a step back to really look myself in the mirror and realize 'What does the team need and what can I bring to the team?'" Jordan said. "Being from New York, I feel like I'm naturally loud. That's just my game. I know I'm a leader and I know I love to talk...That's not something guys do or find it cool to do."
McDevitt said that vocalness pays off in ways that are both obvious, like in leadership and motivation that Jordan shows in between plays on the court, but also during the in-game action.
"A quiet gym is a losing gym," McDevitt said. "Mistakes happen when guys aren't on the same page. You can reduce those moments the more guys you have out there than can communicate. He does so at a high level. He doesn't just talk, he talks loudly."
Heading into the 2021-22 season, Jordan was expected to be a key part of a team that those inside the program felt would be the one that would turn the corner, one that eventually won the CUSA East Division Title and won 26 games.
But all of those games were won without Jalen Jordan.
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In the auxiliary gym buried into the hillside of the Murphy Center in August of 2021, Jalen Jordan went up for a layup in a 3-on-3 drill, when he felt something pop in his right knee.
It was weird, certainly. Jordan said he barely felt like he could put pressure on it. But he was able to walk it off. McDevitt initially thought it was a sprained ankle, maybe a cramp or just a hyperextended knee based on how Jordan landed.
"It didn't appear to be something," McDevitt said.
The training staff, however, quickly identified the incident led to a knee injury, prompting an MRI to be ordered shortly thereafter. It gave the diagnosis no basketball player wants to hear: a torn ACL. Jalen Jordan, already having missed one year of college basketball due to transferring just before nearly everyone got the one-time transfer exception, would have to miss another year.
Jordan was initially devastated, he said, feeling sorry for himself as he slowly worked in rehab while his teammates prepared for the start of the season. But as he started to get better in rehab, started to feel progress in his recovery, a nearly year-long process when it comes to ACL tears, the Blue Raiders started winning.
"I kind of got over being mopey and feeling sorry for myself and could finally see some light at the end of the tunnel," Jordan said. "That was the best season just to be a part of a team that I had, because everybody was happy for one another."
MTSU would get all the way to the CBI final that season and only graduated two guards, Donovan Sims and Josh Jefferson, from that team, building plenty of hype around the future of the program in the years ahead. Jalen Jordan, with his sharpshooting that had carried over from New York City in his one year on the court for the Blue Raiders, was expected to play a huge role in continuing that momentum.
The summer was more work from Jordan, finishing up rehab and then getting back in the gym full-time. Jordan said he was playing the best basketball of his life when the first official day of practice came for the 2022-23 season.
And it all happened again.
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Nick McDevitt still remembers exactly where he was standing on the court in the Murphy Center the first official practice of the 2022-23 season, just to the right near the radio table, where you'll often find him as the Blue Raiders go full court.
It was a 2-on-1 drill, another one where Jordan exploded up for a layup.
"My knee was stuck inward for probably about a second and I felt it, and it kind of popped back out," Jordan said. "As soon as it happened, I fell to the ground."
Jordan knew what had happened. Everyone on the court, from those that described the sound of the pop to the collapse afterwards, knew what had happened. Everyone in the Murphy Center, within minutes, knew what had happened, given the sudden silence of basketballs dribbling that normally defines afternoons in the fall.
"When you saw it go out, you're just thinking, 'This can't be happening to this kid again,'" McDevitt said.
Jordan's right knee swelled up almost immediately. The MRI was only confirmation that he had torn his ACL again, the same one that had been reconstructed.
Some might've taken that injury as a sign that it was time to hang it up. Jordan, who was finishing up his fourth year in Murfreesboro, would already have his degree. He could hang up the basketball shoes and move on with his life, this chapter closed.
But Jalen Jordan wasn't done writing.
"I've never been a quitter," Jordan said. "That's never been something that I thought about ever doing. Basketball is my passion. I've been playing this sport since I was two years old. This is something that I really love to do.
"I know I'm the mentally toughest guy on this team," Jordan said of the second rehab. "I know this is nothing, I just have to overcome little obstacles. My journey is different from everybody else's. I know I'm built for it."
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Rehabbing his knee once again, Jordan had to get healthy enough to play again. He had to find a way to contribute on the court in maybe a different way than he could've when he joined the program. He wasn't as fast, as strong, or as explosive as he once was. But he did have one advantage entering Year Seven of college basketball that he didn't have before: knowledge and wisdom.
"The majority of the guys I'm playing against are much younger than me," Jordan said. "I know their mental capacity is not where my mental capacity is. I've seen all kinds of defense. I've learned from a lot of coaches, it's really unique."
Helping Jordan contribute right away, McDevitt said, was the skillset he came in with as a guard that could knock down shots and, perhaps more importantly, had a feel for when to take him. Unlike some NBA players like Aaron Gordon, who reinvented their game around outside shooting as either injuries or age zapped their athletic ability, Jordan has that trait already. And as he recovered, McDevitt said, the shooting touch came back quickly.
"It's kind of like riding a bike," McDevitt said. "It comes back when you get back on it."
It's a cruel irony that Jordan's increase in minutes in 2023 as the season goes on are, in large part, due to the ACL tear of Camyrn Weston. But that's made the need for Jordan's blend of leadership, long-range shooting and basketball IQ all the more pressing, even as Jordan comes off the bench nearly every night for the Blue Raiders, a role he is still getting used to, having been a starter nearly his entire career prior to this season.
But as MTSU begins to wrap up non-conference play, Jordan's hunger has only grown. And he's not going to let this final chance go away.
"I've been patient for two years," Jordan said. "Trust me, if I get an opportunity, I'm not going to waste it."
