GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — It was a goosebumps, misty eyes moment.
Ethan Menzies checked into a game for the Colorado Mesa men's basketball team on Jan. 6 for the first time in 1,028 days.
"It was honestly a little surreal," said Menzies, a first-team All-America forward in the 2020-21 season who missed two full seasons and the first two months of the current season after twice tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.
Public address announcer Tyler Fransen knew what the moment meant, so he introduced the other four Mavericks who were checking in and then boomed: "and welcome back, Ethan Menzies!"
The crowd of nearly 1,100 loudly cheered the 6-foot-7 junior from Half Moon Bay, California, many of them rising to their feet.
"Kind of like an out-of-body experience. I didn't feel like I was there," Menzies said a couple of days after his first, albeit brief, game action since March 13, 2021. "It was a very cool moment for me, though. I just love how much my teammates really support me. I looked behind me and every single one of my teammates was standing up. That meant a lot to me because they all know how excited I am, but it makes me feel really good how excited they were, you know what I mean? And then you've got some people standing up in the crowd, too. That was a cool moment."
CMU coach Mike DeGeorge, who was standing on the sideline applauding his big man, said it was an emotional moment.
"I got emotional, to be honest with you. It was emotional for me and my heart was racing," said DeGeorge, who has seen firsthand what Menzies has battled through to play again. "I can't imagine what it was like for him."
The journey back to the basketball court started when Menzies, who was coming off a stellar sophomore season (2020-21) in which he averaged 15.9 points and 7.8 rebounds a game, earning first-team RMAC, West Region and NABC All-America honors, injured his left knee in practice in October of 2021. Tests showed he tore the ACL, requiring surgery and him redshirting the 2021-22 season.
Months of rehab followed, but he aced every test to return to the court a year later. As the Mavericks prepared for the 2022-23 season, Menzies was a full participant and was feeling like his old self. The Mavs traveled to Durango for a scrimmage against rival Fort Lewis a couple of weeks before their first game.
"I either went up for a rebound or to block a shot, I can't remember which, but I came down and my leg hyperextended," Menzies said. "I heard a pop, same kind of feeling as before, but not as bad. I kind of knew something was wrong."
An MRI confirmed that feeling — Menzies had re-torn the repaired ligament. He went to a surgeon at The Steadman Clinic in Vail who specializes in ACL re-tears, who ordered X-rays and a CT scan of Menzies' left leg.
Those showed his tibia, the large bone in the shin, is slanted in such a way that it put additional pressure on the ACL, so his knee would be prone to hyperextending, which leads to tearing the ligament.
Before the ACL could be repaired a second time, Menzies needed surgery to shave some of the bone in his tibia to flatten it out and alleviate the pressure on the knee. That took place in December of 2022, and three months later, his ACL was repaired again.
He said of the three surgeries, the second was the worst because of the pain associated with the bone healing.
"I did the bone surgery and healed from that and did my ACL and I was like, 'This is frickin' easy,' because I just got through that surgery where they were cutting a piece of bone out of me," Menzies said.
The rehab associated with ACL surgeries can be a long, slow, lonely process as an athlete regains strength in the leg and also builds up strength in the quadriceps and hamstrings to help prevent the hyperextention. When you go through that process twice in two years, you have to wonder if one, you can do it again, and two, if it's all worth it.
"Going through this entire thing, if I had any other teammates, I don't know if I could have done it," Menzies said. "The guys that are with me, they have my back with anything, and I'm the same with them. They include me and they always checked up on me if I needed anything after surgery, they were always there for me. The coaches were the same, but I would say my teammates were probably most important to me."
He was also going through rehab more than 1,000 miles from home.
"My family has always been very supportive. I could always call my mom, call my dad, my siblings, whatever, and I have a very supportive girlfriend who was there for me every step of the way," he said. "If I didn't have those people, I don't know how well I would have been able to continue and look forward to playing again."
The goal was to return to the court in January, eight months after his second ACL surgery. He started limited practices in October and each week progressed until he was cleared for full practice in December.
When the calendar flipped, Menzies put on his uniform and went through warmups with the team before the CSU Pueblo game on Jan. 5 at Brownson Arena. He didn't get into that game, but the next night, DeGeorge decided to play him a couple of minutes early against New Mexico Highlands.
"He's not really quite ready yet, but we felt like it was better, rather than to hold him out and have this thing build up, let's break the ice and get him out there and let him start competing a little bit," DeGeorge said after the game. "I thought the first time he went in, he didn't really compete enough, but the second time at the end, I thought it was more him and I think we'll just see him continue to grow into who he is over these next couple of months. We're excited to see that growth."
Menzies is quick to say he's not not close to the player he wants to be, but "obviously closer than any other time in the past 2½ years. It's just so different between practice and games, the intensity, the focus to detail, everything's so different. Playing harder in practice, getting more and more reps in games will definitely help me and bring me back to hopefully how I was playing."
He's wearing a large brace on his left leg, slightly hidden under the full-length leg tights he's always worn. His doctor wants him braced for two years, a concession Menzies is willing to make to be on the floor again.
He's still learning how his body reacts to playing again, but the work he does before and after practice and games, stretching, heat and ice treatments, and continuing to strengthen his legs in the weight room, is helping him feel like himself again.
Not only has Menzies had to adjust to playing again, he's had to adjust to an entirely different style of play. The Mavericks have switched from their ball-screen offense, which played to Menzies' post strength, to an up-tempo style leading to shots early in the shot clock and a lot of 3-pointers. Not exactly an offense for a post-up forward coming off three knee surgeries.
"I talked to Coach (Kyle) Bossier, he's kind of our offensive coach, and I was like, 'This is going to be hard.' I was used to ball screens whenever I was in, so he basically told me, 'Just do what you do, just in kind of a different manner.' I'll get stuck at practice holding the ball or dribble nowhere and he'll call it dead and be like, we don't do that any more. Yeah, you're right. I'll go set a ball screen if nothing's happening and he goes, we don't do that any more.
"It's different for sure and I think I'm gradually adapting to it. I think I can add different things to the offense that will help, like if we get stuck in a half-court thing, I can create advantages for other people or see the floor a little bit differently, hopefully.
"Mac (Riniker) and Trevor (Baskin) are so good at running the floor and being gazelles out there. Let them do that. I'll do different stuff."
Menzies knows working back into the rotation will try his patience. He'd like to get back to where he can play 20 minutes a game, but if that doesn't happen this season, whatever role he can play to help the Mavericks to another RMAC title and a deep run in the NCAA playoffs, he'll gladly play.
"I want to go out and I want to prove, kind of to myself and kind of to everyone, like, don't worry, I'm still me," he said. "I just want to try to help the team win, but I (tell myself I) haven't played a game in almost three years, you need to relax. It's going to take time.
"Patience is a big thing in this whole process, so it's annoying because I've been so patient and gone through all this and now I'm back and I have to be more patient. It's a little frustrating in that aspect, but I completely understand. I get it."
