Penn State Basketball: Tim Frazier’s Rehabilitation On Track for Strong Return

All-Big Ten guard Tim Frazier hadn’t run since November 18 of 2012. A span of just over four months that saw the Naismith and Wooden preseason award candidate sit on the sideline as his team went 10-21 without him.

Frazier broke that drought Monday morning during a 15-minute long run unassisted on a treadmill, the first since his surgery to repair his ruptured left Achillies tendon. 

“It’s a huge step,” Frazier said Monday afternoon. “To be doing these two week increments and then to be able to run on your own without any attachments. It’s a huge step and a milestone that I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. It makes me look forward to the next couple of week.”

Frazier has benefited from some unique technology along his road to recovery including the Alter-G anti-gravity treadmill. The Alter-G is a machine that controls air pressure in a chamber to gently lift the user and can allow for unweighting from 100% to 20% body weight in 1% increments.

“It’s amazing what technology has become,” Frazier said. “To be able to strap yourself in and run at 50-percent your weight and move it up to 60-percent and 80-percent is amazing. I couldn’t really tell at first because it was my first time running and I was anxious and jittery, but it felt weird when you got off of it. I’ve been calling it the space machine for the past 5-6 weeks because you stand off of it it’s like you’ve been walking on the Moon.”

Frazier’s recovery will continue well in to the summer according to Jon Salazer, the Nittany Lions’ Associate Director of Athletic Training Services who has worked extensively with Frazier. While Frazier will be ready to go for Penn State’s season opener next year, he may not be his old self right off the bat.

“The explosion will be the last. He’ll be able to do everything, but he just won’t have his hops yet back, per se, or his quick acceleration,” Salazer said. “That will come, and I have to continually remind him that, although he may be doing everything, he’s not going to be the Tim Frazier of old. It can take a while until he’s really back to his old self. But, he will be there. It’s just going to take some time.”

However if you ask Frazier, he says he was ready to go yesterday.

“I can tell you myself I feel like I’m the same Tim Frazier I was before the injury,” Frazier said with a smile. “Coach will ask me how I feel and I’ll tell him that he can put me in tonight against Ohio State if he really needs me.”

Penn State will need Frazier in the upcoming season, the fifth for Frazier in Happy Valley. Penn State is currently filing the paperwork with the NCAA to request an additional season for Frazier. According to Penn State’s compliance office Frazier is expected to be granted that extra year.

The university is required to file the paperwork following the conclusion of the season, the reason why the year has not yet officially been granted despite Frazier’s absence from the court for over four months.

Frazier will join two of the conference’s leading scorers in DJ Newbill and fellow senior Jermaine Marshall in 2013 for what could be one of the nation’s most dynamic backcourts.