A few weeks ago, in one of the first fall basketball practices of the preseason, CJ Fredrick ran down the court on his way to a fast-break layup and ended up on the floor in pain.
Surely, everyone who saw that scene and knew anything of Fredrick’s past must have been thinking the same thing. Here we go again.
“When he hit the ground, we thought he was out for a while,” John Calipari said. “And I’m like, ‘This kid’s bad luck.’”
This time, it was nothing serious. Simply a rolled ankle. Fredrick was back in practice and full go a few days later. But you can’t fault the Kentucky coach or anyone else for assuming the worst.
The injury history of Fredrick — now 23 years old with just two seasons of college basketball behind him — has been well-chronicled.
A few days before his freshman season at Iowa was set to tip off, Fredrick suffered a cracked rib in practice, leading to a redshirt year. He played much of the season that followed on a bad ankle. The summer after that, he had surgery to repair a fracture in his right foot. For most of the next season, he had to play through plantar fasciitis in his left foot.
Then he transferred to Kentucky and almost immediately was diagnosed with a stress fracture in his shin. And as he was coming back from that, Fredrick suffered a hamstring tear — in the layup line of UK’s 2021-22 opener at Madison Square Garden, of all places — and that injury forced him to miss the entire season. So, his first year as a Wildcat was spent watching from the sidelines.
And those have been the past four years of one player’s basketball life.
Asked a few days ago to recall the last time he played in a regular-season game feeling 100 percent healthy, Fredrick’s eyes widened.
“Oof,” he said. About 10 seconds of thought was necessary before he arrived at the 2020-21 season opener as the correct answer to the question. Felt good then. A few weeks later, Fredrick hopped out of bed, took a step, and fell over.
“And I was like, ‘Oh my God, what is going on?’”
That was the plantar fasciitis, which he battled for the rest of the season.
“And then after that, it’s been tough,” he said.
Coming to Kentucky
After two seasons and three years in the Iowa program, Fredrick decided to move back closer to home for a fresh start. A Cincinnati kid, he played his high school ball at Covington Catholic — on the Kentucky side of the Ohio River — though he was never recruited by UK or Louisville.
With his return, however, Fredrick brought the reputation as a proven college player at the high-major level. Despite the injury issues at Iowa, he was a starter both seasons, a complementary piece on a couple of talented teams and one of the best three-point shooters in college basketball.
Fredrick knew what he was capable of on the court. He knew he belonged at Kentucky, was sure he could hang with the more highly touted recruits that ended up on Calipari’s teams. But he still felt there was something to prove — not necessarily to himself, but to his new teammates — and the stress fracture and surgery that followed robbed him of the opportunity.
Acknowledging that he paid relatively little attention to basketball outside of the Big Ten while at Iowa, Fredrick assumed the same would be true of Kentucky’s players and the SEC. His new teammates could look up his stats, maybe even seek out some video highlights, but they wouldn’t truly know his game until they shared the same practice floor.
“It was frustrating at the beginning,” he said. “You want to go out there and you want them to trust you. Be like, ‘OK, this guy belongs.’ And that’s when you can really move on from there. So that’s what I was trying to do. Whenever you go into a new spot, you want your teammates to like playing with you and feel comfortable with you and trust you.
“... And obviously, coming in, I wasn’t able to do that at all.”
When Fredrick learned he would need surgery — another surgery — it marked the lowest point mentally in a college career that had been marred by setbacks. Even if everything went according to plan, the return timetable would put him back on the court in the heart of preseason practice, still far from 100-percent healthy. Already behind.
Fredrick said last week that he knew he wasn’t going to play in the season opener against Duke at Madison Square Garden last November. But he was out there with his teammates, enjoying the night, soaking up the atmosphere. His adrenaline was running so high when the hamstring snapped in pregame warm-ups that he didn’t think it was that bad.
The team got back to Lexington late that night. Fredrick couldn’t sleep. His leg was throbbing.
Around 4 a.m., he woke up Kellan Grady, his roommate.
“Dude, is my leg swollen?” Fredrick asked him. Grady said he was taking him to the hospital.
Fredrick estimated that his left leg was two to three times the size of his right one at that point. The initial meeting with the doctors told him all he needed to know. He wouldn’t be playing basketball that season. Another long, arduous recovery lay ahead. Here we go again.
Fredrick said he spent some time crying with his parents in the 24 hours that followed. And then he turned the page. His father told him this might be a good opportunity. He was already going to be behind anyway. He’d missed the most important parts of preseason practice. He still wasn’t 100 percent following the summer surgery. It would have taken months to get back into rhythm — mentally and physically — on the court. To get his footwork down defensively. To make shots with a hand in his face and the game going at full speed around him.
“This really gave me a chance to look back and say, ‘You know what? I can take a deep breath. I can get my body right. I can sit back and learn what’s going on here. I don’t have to feel rushed.’ It was one of the first times in my four years where I didn’t feel like I was rushing back from anything.”
No Skyline for CJ
What came next wasn’t easy. There was the physical toll of the return from the severe hamstring injury. And there was the mental toll of sitting out once again — thinking he was getting a fresh start and instead seeing it painfully yanked away.
Fredrick had been through this kind of thing before, however, and he was bound to keep a positive outlook. The most difficult part might have been his diet.
“When I was in high school, I could eat whatever I wanted,” Fredrick said. “Pizza, meatball subs and go play and get 30 (points). You could get away with doing that. And then when you get to the college level — you have to start looking at yourself as more of a professional. And early on, I didn’t hit that yet. So I was still eating whatever I wanted. And then injuries and surgeries hit. And when you’re eating like that and you’re not working out — you’re gonna gain weight.”
At the high-weight mark of his college career, the 6-foot-3 Fredrick said he was at about 205 pounds. When he returned from this latest injury, he was determined to come back in the best shape possible.
Fredrick described the “Big Ten style” he played at Iowa as a more physical brand of basketball. As he watched more SEC games, he thought he could get away with playing at a lighter weight. He had been about 175 pounds in high school, and that’s when he felt his best — flying around on defense, running all over the place on offense.
He read about a 75-day challenge geared toward improved health, and he thought he’d give it a try. This particular diet also incorporated mental health into the plan. Along with eating right — Fredrick’s meals consisted mostly of grilled chicken, salads, other vegetables and lots of water — he would take walks, once he was able, read the Bible, and do two workouts per day.
His body was changing, quite drastically. There was one problem.
Fredrick’s 75-day challenge happened to coincide with his beloved Cincinnati Bengals’ improbable run to the Super Bowl. He attended watch parties with his friends. He’d see photos of tailgates. There’d be Skyline chili, LaRosa’s pizza — the Cincinnati staples.
“And I’m like, ‘Damn, that really sounds good right now.’”
Instead of partaking, he’d be off to the side. No food at all. “Nothing,” he said. “Just water.”
“Man, you’re still doing this?’” his friends would ask.
“Yep,” Fredrick replied. “Sure am.”
Back home at the Wildcat Lodge, he’d walk out the front door and the smell of pizzas cooking at the Papa John’s across the parking lot would hit him square in the face.
“It was tough,” he said. “There were some tough times.”
At the end of it. Fredrick got down to 175 pounds, then added another 5 of solid muscle.
“It’s probably,” he starts to say now, correcting himself. “No, it is the best I’ve felt.”
In the meantime, he learned quite a bit about himself. He learned what Calipari likes — and doesn’t like — from his players. Instead of feeling a step behind going into his first season as a Kentucky basketball player, Fredrick feels like he’s already well ahead of the curve.
“And as a basketball player, I learned to really appreciate the game,” he said. “I’ve always loved basketball, but when it’s taken away for a whole year, you kind of appreciate things more often. So, like these two-a-days — I mean, they’re not fun. But I have more of an appreciation than I did before. Like, ‘Man, you know what? Yeah, this sucks. It’s Saturday, and we got two-a-days. But I could be out a whole season again.’ Nobody wants that.
“So I’ve just had more of an appreciative outlook on the abilities that God’s given me. And He’s given me the ability to continue to play at a high level. Not many people in the world can say that they play basketball at the University of Kentucky.”
Return to Rupp
About a week from now, Fredrick will have a new answer to the question of the last time he went into a regular-season basketball game feeling 100 percent. That’ll be Nov. 7 against Howard University. And then Nov. 11 against Duquesne. And so on.
He’s now waking up the morning after a two-a-day session with a remarkable feeling. He’s healthy, and couldn’t be more excited for what comes next.
Ask a Kentucky basketball player about their role in this season’s team, and you’re likely to get a long, winding response. That’s to be expected with so much depth, versatility and positional flexibility up and down the 2022-23 roster.
Ask Fredrick, and the response is different.
“I think my role is real simple,” he said.
Fredrick recalled a recent conversation with his dad.
“Man, this year is going to be fun for me,” he told him. “I get to run around, fly around. And if I’m open, shoot the ball. Shoot threes. That sounds fun to me. So, yeah, my role is pretty simple.”
He knows anyone who plays for Calipari has to play defense to stay on the court. He prides himself on that side of his game anyway, and the UK coach singled Fredrick out on the team’s summer trip to the Bahamas for his defense. So, all good there.
Offensively, he plans to run up and down the court and make shots. Floaters, threes, run around screens, wear out his defender — that’s his game.
“And just making the right plays,” he said. “Coach is big on not making the ball stick. And that’s just kind of the way I play. Smart. … Try to be smarter than who I’m playing.”
Fredrick said he’s been blessed to play on some great teams, compete alongside some great players. One Iowa teammate, Luka Garza, was national player of the year. Two others — Keegan Murray and Joe Wieskamp — were NBA Draft picks.
After a summer and fall spent practicing alongside his Kentucky teammates, Fredrick says this is the most excited he’s ever been going into a season.
“I don’t know what the outlook is yet,” he said. “I know the goal is to win a national championship. And we’re striving every day to do that. But this year’s team is definitely the most excited I’ve been going into a year. Just because we have a really competitive team. And I’ve always been the most competitive — even when I was young, that’s just how I’ve been. So when you’re around guys like that every day in practice, it’s really fun.
“I really think we can do something special.”
And he’s excited to finally — finally — compete on the court at Rupp Arena.
The last time he played in a real game there? March 18, 2018. Fredrick scored 32 points and led Covington Catholic to a state championship, earning Sweet 16 MVP honors.
As the only scholarship player on this UK team that played for a Kentucky high school, Fredrick is bound to be called a “Kentucky kid” at future points in his Wildcat career. He knows that’s not correct. He grew up “sleeping and breathing” Cincinnati sports — rooting for the Bengals and Reds. He’ll be the first to tell you that he’s “most definitely” an Ohio kid, but his time spent on this side of the river gave him a peek into the reality of basketball in the commonwealth.
“Basketball is just bigger in Kentucky,” he said. “You think of Kentucky, you think of basketball. That’s what I didn’t understand. And then I came over to play in high school, and I was like, ‘Man, these people — they are all about basketball here.’ So being able to play there for four years, I had an understanding of how the state takes things. And especially Kentucky basketball. They never recruited me, so I never thought that opportunity would present itself. And now that it has, I’m super excited. And it’s going to be a lot of fun.
“I played at Rupp in high school. But I haven’t experienced Rupp in a Kentucky jersey.”
That experience is right around the corner.
Calipari said Tuesday that he had to stop practice a few days earlier. He thought Fredrick was pressing.
“All right, guys,” the UK coach said to his team. “When he shoots it, how many of you think it’s going in?” According to Calipari, every Wildcat in the gym raised his hand.
“So are you hearing this?” he asked Fredrick. “Like, we’re all good with you.”
After what he’s been through to get here, surely a little pressing can be forgiven.
Fredrick says he has no idea what the emotions will be when he makes his UK debut Nov. 7. He knew he would be on limited minutes during the team’s summer exhibition trip to the Bahamas. That was an opportunity to get back on the court and see where his game was at.
This is going to be different. And it’s been a long time coming.
“It’s going to be so much fun,” says Fredrick, a 23-year-old who, in this brief moment, speaks with the wonder of a freshman. “I can’t even describe the feeling that I’m going to have. I love the game of basketball, and I wasn’t able to play it for a year. I can’t even sit here and tell you what it’s going to be like. I’m super excited for it.”
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