Patience And Time Have Changed Jason Jitoboh Into A Warrior

Jason Jitoboh - Photo by Chloe Hyde

“Patience is waiting. Not passively waiting. That is laziness. But to keep going when the going is hard and slow – that is patience. The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.” – Leo Tolstoy

By FRANZ BEARD

GatorBaitMedia.com

By now, patience and Jason Jitoboh have become very close friends. What patience and the passing of time have taught him is that he is a warrior.

Just looking at Jason Jitoboh makes you think warrior. He is probably closer to seven feet than the 6-11 they list him on the Florida Gators website. He is more than 300 pounds, too, but no longer is it soft weight. Three months after the first of the four surgeries he’s had to repair a detached muscle in his left eye and retina damage suffered after a blow to the head by Tennessee’s Uros Plavsik in Knoxville last January 26, he dedicated himself to work harder than ever before to get in the best condition of his life.

Already there are tangible results. He runs the floor better. He makes better decisions when the ball comes his way. Always he has had the soft hands that make him a great receiver when the ball is passed his way and for corralling rebounds but in these early weeks of practice for the 2022-23 season, he seems to be getting to more rebounds than before. The soft shot around the rim is back but now he’s extended his range.

This past Saturday he hit two – that’s not a typo – three-pointers. In a row.

There is joy on his face and in his body language when he practices. His joy is contagious. When Jason Jitoboh makes a good play or does something totally unexpected like hitting a pair of three-pointers, teammates erupt.

Go back a few months. Following that first surgery the world had turned upside down. He couldn’t play basketball. Florida got a new basketball coach and staff. Teammates left and new teammates arrived.

And for 20 hours a day he went through a grind few of us could handle.

“I had to lay down, facing down for like 20 hours a day,” he recalls. For 50 minutes of each hour it was face down, seeing the world through a hole that allowed him to breathe and stare below. He listened to music. He played video games but at a weird angle. He had to keep his eye as still as possible to allow the muscle to strengthen and for the retina to heal.

There have been three more surgeries. There will be another, but the fact he can see well enough to play basketball again and feel normal is a blessing.

“I’ve been going through this eight, nine months now,” Jitoboh said. “It’s a lot of patience, a lot of perseverance, a lot of hard work to get where I’m at right now. Still a long way to go, but I like where I’m at right now.”

There are few things associate head coach Carlin Hartman hasn’t seen in a coaching career that stretches back more than 25 years, but this was different. It was painful and agonizing. He stressed out just watching but seeing all that Jitoboh went through in his rehabilitation process created a soft spot in his heart for the big kid from Abuja, Nigeria. In the months since he joined Florida’s coaching staff, the two have formed a bond that is unbreakable. Hartman is the surrogate father for parents back in Nigeria.

The injury was so serious and the rehab process so complicated that Hartman wasn’t 100 percent sure Jitoboh could come all the way back. That is, until he spent time with him.

“I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to have his life change just like it did in an instant,” Hartman said. “Some of the things in which he had to deal with in his recovery I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. You know, he’s having to sleep with his face down in a hole in a certain part of his bed because he couldn’t sleep on his side. Little things like that where you just don’t think about in terms of dealing with the eye pressure he was facing.

“Then, he had to withdraw from classes in the spring so he’s having to take all these classes in the summertime all the way up until we just started fall semester. So, credit to him for persevering and getting though it because, quite frankly, there’s not a lot of kids would do that unless they want to be a part of what we’re building.”

Jitoboh wants to be part of something special at the University of Florida. He wants his team to do well, and he wants to be someone teammates can count on to contribute in a big way. At the time he was injured last season, Colin Castleton was out six games after tearing the labrum in his left shoulder. In the two games before the injury, Jitoboh delivered eight points and 10 rebounds against Vanderbilt and 12 points to go with five rebounds against Ole Miss.

For the past two years, Jitoboh and Castleton have banged against each other on a daily basis in practice. Castleton has always felt Jitoboh had it in him to be a very good player but ever since he’s gone through the rehab process, he’s seeing a new and improved Jitoboh.

Castleton also savors the idea that there could be times when he and Jitoboh will be Florida’s twin towers, each bringing a different skill set to the game. Like Jitoboh, Castleton is nearly seven feet. He’s 250 pounds, able to put the ball on the deck and drive and he’s extended his shooting range to the three-point line. An All-SEC performer the last two years, Todd Golden believes there is All-America potential in Castleton.

Team that up with a 300-pounder who sets beastly picks, boxes out with devastating effect and can keep the paint clean and free and there is much to like.

“He’s super focused and I haven’t seen this, like approach in him since I’ve been here,” Castleton said. “So this is really good for me to see. He’s super motivated and he wants to even play with me on the court, so having two, you know, basically seven-footers that are skilled on the court at the same time I feel like is gonna be unguardable. So, I think Coach Golden’s going to be able to sprinkle in like me and him playing on the court at the same time and then him giving me a break and then him going in with me … like it’s really going to be good for him.”

Having a talented big guy to back up Castleton is important for Golden’s offensive scheme, which is basically a big guy surrounded by four capable shooters who can defend multiple positions. But this is not a one size fits all approach to the game. The offense and the defense both will adapt to opponents.

You could call it the drive-through window approach. Golden has the interchangeable parts that make it possible to go small, medium, large and even super-size. Jitoboh fits into most of the schemes.

“His body is in really good shape,” Golden said. “Jason is really, really talented. He has great hands, great understanding of how to play, great positioning defensively. He does things you can’t coach. Obviously, his big hurdle has been his health, so for us we’ve really tried to drill down on what gives him the best chance of making it through a 31-game regular season and then get into the post season.

“Because if he stays healthy for us, he provides another element that a lot of people probably haven’t thought about for us. To be able to have two really talented back to the basket or centers is a real luxury. He’s a really good player when he’s healthy.”

Staying healthy begins with protecting Jitoboh’s surgically repaired eye. He still can’t see 100 percent out of his left eye and won’t be able to for a while, but even after his vision is back to normal, he will have to wear goggles for protection.

Finding goggles that fit his face, deal with his sight issues and protect his face have made the adjustment period a bit more complicated than what he originally thought it might be.

“I’ve gone through some with a shade on it,” Jitoboh said. “I’ve gone through some with a little tint, gone through clear ones, but right now the only part I don’t like about shades is having to constantly wipe them and clean them out, because it gets foggy, but beside that, I think I adjusted to it pretty well.”

Of course, even with the goggles on, there was apprehension when practice began and there was contact.

“I definitely had to adjust because, whereas I was scared to get hurt again,” Jitoboh said. “I had to start wearing goggles. It was a whole bunch of stuff I had to adjust to, but I think I’m doing pretty good.”

He is doing well. Well enough that Hartman thinks we have yet to see the best of Jason Jitoboh. Hartman, who was a power forward at Tulane for Perry Clark during his playing days, sees great hands, good footwork and tremendous understanding on the defensive end for dealing with ball screens – “Defensively he’s one of the better guys in terms of ball screen coverage that I’ve seen at this high level" – along with a willingness to do the physical things that matter in the paint.

“When he sets a ball screen, you’re not going through him, first of all,” Hartman said. “It’s hard to get around him because he’s so wide and he’s a target at the rim. He’s a wrecking ball in there. There’s a lot of use for a guy like that. The thing I’m impressed with the most with him is how great a teammate he is. He celebrates guys success way more than he even celebrates his own. I always have an affinity for guys like that.”

Before the injury, Jitoboh wanted to get his driver’s license in the spring, but of course, that was set back months. As part of his mentorship, Hartman has become the driver’s ed teacher. It is an adventure that has gone viral. There is a video.

Teammates have seen it. They express concerns.

Asked if he would ride in a car driven by Jitoboh, Niels Lane responded, “No. No sir. I would not. I wouldn’t want to find out. I’ve never been in a car with Jason driving. I just know that he doesn’t have much experience driving so that’s not something I want to experience. I’ll just let (Coach) Hartman take care of that.”

Kowacie Reeves said, “No! No! He don’t even have his vision all the way. It’s him and Coach Hartman in the car [in the video] and I’m glad I wasn’t on the road.”

Hartman simply says, “Nah, you don’t want him to get his license.”

Jitoboh thinks it’s simply a matter of practice and then he will do just fine. He’s analyzed his driving and arrived at the following conclusion: “So my right turns are a little weird. I guess I turn the steering wheel and I try to turn it back. So that’s my issue while I’m driving. I just gotta let it come back, I guess.

“Stopping at a stop sign, like, at the right time, but I brake too hard. Sometimes I don’t know the sign’s there.”

At some point in the future, right turns, stop signs, brakes and curbs will all be dealt with. From what we already know about Jason Jitoboh, he will do whatever work is necessary to improve. In the meantime, he will be doing everything he can to improve on the basketball court. Just like driving, basketball is also an adventure waiting to be conquered.

He loves the game, his coaches and his teammates and all of them love him, too. They know him as a friend and after all he has been through just to get back to where he is today, they know he is a warrior.