Vijay Wallace stuck with Arizona State basketball when others left | Exclusive

Arizona State was playing Texas A&M at the Fort Bend Epicenter in a final exhibition game before the regular men's basketball season got underway. Vijay Wallace went up for a dunk. He was met at the rim by a defender and landed awkwardly.

Bryce Ford went to help Wallace to his feet, but he couldn't get up. Wallace was sprawled on the court, his foot at a 90-degree angle in a direction it wasn't supposed to point. It was one of those injuries where, if the game had been televised, the replay would have been shown only once because of its graphic nature.

He knew in an instant his first season in Tempe was over before it officially started. A broken left fibula.

"I knew right away, there goes the season," Wallace said. "Having to watch the whole season was super tough, so I'm more than ready to get out there and get it going now."

Wallace was fortunate in one regard. Houston was playing the next game, and its team physician tended to Wallace right away. The doctor was able to reset the bone right then, even before the player was put on a stretcher and transported to a nearby hospital. That prevented it from being a more serious injury and a longer recovery.

Wallace had surgery three days after returning to Tempe.

Despite the nature of the injury, Wallace said it wasn't that painful at that moment.

"I think I was in shock because I really didn't feel too much pain," he said. "It almost felt like I just rolled my ankle. I just saw my ankle and then just put my head back and closed my eyes. I didn't really want to look at it anymore. I felt like if I kept looking at it, then it was going to hurt. The pain was way worse after the surgery."

John Anderson is in his 14th season as the Sun Devils' trainer. He has seen his share of injuries but calls Wallace's one of the worst. He was impressed at how the player dealt with the setback, especially in the minutes after it happened.

"I tried to get down there with him and get his attention away from his leg," Anderson said. "He was really a trooper through the whole thing. He didn't cry, wasn't screaming. He was calm, cool, and collected. You see some guys, and you might say they're not tough. I told him, 'No one can ever say that about you.'"

The downtime after the surgery was difficult. Wallace passed the time in the usual ways: video games, television, and music. He also revisited a hobby he had set aside for a while and resumed drawing.

His parents, Lionel and Donyale, came to visit, as did his sister Danayanti. They helped him get through the early weeks when he was having trouble getting around and doing things for himself.

"They had their own things going on, and they just dropped everything," Wallace said. "I don't know what I would have done without them because I was living alone in my apartment."

Wallace, now 21, was on crutches for nearly two months. After that came a walking boot and a scooter. He tried to stay close to the team by attending home games. Despite being limited by the scooter, he regularly went to Weatherup Center to get some shots off, something he said has improved his mid-range game.

When Wallace was able to move around on his own, he traveled with the Sun Devils to road games, which only added to his excitement about playing in the Big 12. Right at the end of the season, he was cleared for normal physical activity.

The injury came at a challenging time for Wallace, a native of Chicago who had two successful seasons in community college before arriving in Tempe eager to test himself against top competition. Not only was he rehabbing from a major injury, but he was also doing so in a program undergoing a coaching transition, with Bobby Hurley out after 11 years and replaced by Randy Bennett, who had spent 25 years at Saint Mary's.

Hunter Eisenhower served as the basketball team's strength and conditioning coach for three years but left following the coaching change. He was impressed with the way Wallace approached the recovery process.

"It was devastating when he got hurt," Eisenhower said. "The whole team was deflated. You could see it and feel it. I had him in the summer and really thought he was in for a good season. When it came to the rehab, he did everything we asked and more.

"You set timelines for certain injuries, but I also go a lot on how the player is feeling and how he responds. Vijay was always asking to do more. He was there early, with a great attitude, ready to get to work."

Ford and Wallace are the only holdovers from last year's roster. Since Wallace was out the entire season, he didn't have tape for would-be suitors. And he hadn't played at the Division I level yet, so there was nothing for anybody to evaluate him on.

Wallace calls himself a late bloomer. He didn't play on the high-profile AAU circuit in high school and said he was still growing into his body. Thus, there were no major college offers. He first committed to Kansas City out of Triton Community College, but decommitted from there after drawing interest from ASU. Wallace's trainer knew Nick Irvin, a prominent figure in Chicago basketball circles and who was then an assistant under Hurley, and convinced him to take a look at his film.

Wallace visited ASU and was sold. Now he loves it even more than he did on that first visit.

Bennett met with the players upon his hiring. Wallace was out of town but joined via Zoom. When he got back to campus, he worked out for the new ASU coaching staff. Wallace wanted to stay, and Bennett welcomed him back. He wasn't that worried about fitting into Bennett's system because he thinks he is versatile enough to find a role.

The 6-foot-5 junior guard could have bet on himself and gone elsewhere, but he still thought staying was in his best interest. He had established a good rapport with the training staff who had helped him through the injury and was comfortable in his surroundings. Going elsewhere would have meant starting from scratch. Again.

"I know (Bennett) came from a winning program, so that was a big deal for me," Wallace said. "Staying put was important for me too. Just seeing the games and the atmosphere made me want to play in front of these fans. It was kind of like unfinished business too."

Bennett said Wallace is a soft-spoken player who lets his actions do the talking. Bennett admitted he had to approach Wallace's first workouts cautiously. He didn't want to be overly critical of the players' performance because he was only five months removed from surgery. But he likes what he has seen.

"We worked him out a couple times right after I got here, and he was the only one around," Bennett said. "He kept showing up. He's a good worker. You don't know if a guy is doing it because he's trying to impress you, or if this is how he is. This is who he is. He wants to be a good player, and he wants to get better."

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Vijay Wallace stuck with Arizona State basketball when others left | Exclusive