SE: K-State Senior Dean Wade Ready to Put Injury Behind Him, Lessons from it On the Court
Oct 19, 2018 | Men's Basketball, Sports Extra
By Corbin McGuire
Dean Wade's foot injury is in the past, but it's still very much a part of him and what he brings into the 2018-19 season. To start, a hunger for more.
"It kind of left a bitter taste in my mouth," Wade, named the Big 12 Preseason Player of the Year on Wednesday, said at K-State's media day a few weeks ago. "It motivates me every day, just thinking about it, when I was sitting on the bench, almost helpless."
The 6-foot-10 forward, who sat all but a few minutes of K-State's Elite Eight run on the bench, said it felt like he "played all the hard parts of the season and then it got to the fun part and I had to sit in timeout the whole time."
Still, Wade made the most of his timeout.
He cheered hard, trying to inject as much positivity into his team as possible. He studiously watched the game from a different vantage point, identifying areas he could improve when he returned. He did more upper body workouts and shot more than 1,000 free throws during the summer, doing whatever he could to improve while he was limited.
This Wade was in stark contrast to the one who broke his foot as a freshman at St. John High School.
"That was all kind of a negative situation where I was, like, 'This sucks,' and down on myself," Wade, also named to the Preseason All-Big 12 Team with teammate Barry Brown, Jr., said of his high school injury. "I think I'm mature enough now that I really handled it fine, and I really understood that bringing negative energy to the locker room would bring a lot of people down. That's what I didn't want to do."
Internally, Wade said this injury had a transformational effect. Combine it with the inescapable knowledge that this will be his last season at K-State and Wade said his mindset could not be in a better place.
"You never know if you're going to get hurt or something like that, so play every game like it's your last," he said. "It gives me motivation every day."
Wade, who shot 55 percent from the field and 44 percent from beyond the arc last season, said he channeled that motivation in a few different areas this offseason. A First Team All-Big 12 pick, he wants to be more of a weapon off the dribble and enhance his midrange attack.
"I've always been pretty good around the post, but I'm still working on my mid-post game a little bit, and I think I've excelled in that since I've been back. My mid-post game has grown a lot," he said. "I've tried working on mainly ball handling and my mid-post work. It's a slow process but it's paying off."
Coming off a junior season of averaging 16.2 points per game, the most a Wildcat since Jacob Pullen's 20.2 average in 2010-11, Wade said he also wants to implement some of the lessons he took in from the sideline while he was injured last season. At least one of them could lead to a few easy baskets a game.
"I saw a lot of low-post things, like pin-down screening actions and stuff like that, stuff I used to kind of skip out on in games and didn't do all the way, half speed kind of thing, but it really matters," Wade, also one of 21 watch list members for the 2019 Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year Award, said. "Watching that from the sideline is big. It helps you learn as a basketball player."
Ultimately, Wade's coaches and teammates have always said his level of play comes down to how much self-belief he possesses. They used to have to tell him to shoot more and remind him he's the best player on the floor on a daily basis. Now, he's the one saying what everyone else believes, including the Big 12 coaches.
"I've made huge strides the past three years, four years now, on the basketball court and as a person," he said. "I've got the utmost confidence in myself and I always think I'm the best player on the court, every time I step on the court. But that's just a basketball mentality. All the great basketball players always have that mentality. I think it was just me coming into my own and really realizing I could play basketball at the highest level."
Dean Wade's foot injury is in the past, but it's still very much a part of him and what he brings into the 2018-19 season. To start, a hunger for more.
"It kind of left a bitter taste in my mouth," Wade, named the Big 12 Preseason Player of the Year on Wednesday, said at K-State's media day a few weeks ago. "It motivates me every day, just thinking about it, when I was sitting on the bench, almost helpless."
The 6-foot-10 forward, who sat all but a few minutes of K-State's Elite Eight run on the bench, said it felt like he "played all the hard parts of the season and then it got to the fun part and I had to sit in timeout the whole time."
Still, Wade made the most of his timeout.
He cheered hard, trying to inject as much positivity into his team as possible. He studiously watched the game from a different vantage point, identifying areas he could improve when he returned. He did more upper body workouts and shot more than 1,000 free throws during the summer, doing whatever he could to improve while he was limited.
This Wade was in stark contrast to the one who broke his foot as a freshman at St. John High School.
"That was all kind of a negative situation where I was, like, 'This sucks,' and down on myself," Wade, also named to the Preseason All-Big 12 Team with teammate Barry Brown, Jr., said of his high school injury. "I think I'm mature enough now that I really handled it fine, and I really understood that bringing negative energy to the locker room would bring a lot of people down. That's what I didn't want to do."
Internally, Wade said this injury had a transformational effect. Combine it with the inescapable knowledge that this will be his last season at K-State and Wade said his mindset could not be in a better place.
"You never know if you're going to get hurt or something like that, so play every game like it's your last," he said. "It gives me motivation every day."
Arhwoooooooooo! ??#KStateMBB #PursuitOfBetter pic.twitter.com/bDb3cihDTC
— K-State Men's Basketball (@KStateMBB) October 18, 2018
Wade, who shot 55 percent from the field and 44 percent from beyond the arc last season, said he channeled that motivation in a few different areas this offseason. A First Team All-Big 12 pick, he wants to be more of a weapon off the dribble and enhance his midrange attack.
"I've always been pretty good around the post, but I'm still working on my mid-post game a little bit, and I think I've excelled in that since I've been back. My mid-post game has grown a lot," he said. "I've tried working on mainly ball handling and my mid-post work. It's a slow process but it's paying off."
Coming off a junior season of averaging 16.2 points per game, the most a Wildcat since Jacob Pullen's 20.2 average in 2010-11, Wade said he also wants to implement some of the lessons he took in from the sideline while he was injured last season. At least one of them could lead to a few easy baskets a game.
"I saw a lot of low-post things, like pin-down screening actions and stuff like that, stuff I used to kind of skip out on in games and didn't do all the way, half speed kind of thing, but it really matters," Wade, also one of 21 watch list members for the 2019 Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year Award, said. "Watching that from the sideline is big. It helps you learn as a basketball player."
Ultimately, Wade's coaches and teammates have always said his level of play comes down to how much self-belief he possesses. They used to have to tell him to shoot more and remind him he's the best player on the floor on a daily basis. Now, he's the one saying what everyone else believes, including the Big 12 coaches.
"I've made huge strides the past three years, four years now, on the basketball court and as a person," he said. "I've got the utmost confidence in myself and I always think I'm the best player on the court, every time I step on the court. But that's just a basketball mentality. All the great basketball players always have that mentality. I think it was just me coming into my own and really realizing I could play basketball at the highest level."
Players Mentioned
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