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| Griffin McKenzie |
by Shannon Russell
Six-foot-nine sophomore forward Griffin McKenzie is transferring to the University of Denver from Xavier University after two seasons with the program.
The Moeller High School [Cincinnati] graduate played in 28 Xavier games throughout his
career.
This season he averaged 2.3 minutes in 11 contests and finished
with two points and five rebounds.
Said McKenzie: “After the season was over, I sat down with my family
and we decided I might be a better fit at a different school. I have no
ill feelings toward Xavier and I really appreciated the opportunity
Coach (Chris) Mack gave me to play here.”
McKinzie's story took a strange twist the summer before he went to college. He attended a high school party where he was beaten so badly that he lost
consciousness and needed surgery to repair a jaw broken in three places.
He doesn't dwell on the 2.5 days he spent in the hospital recovering from the jaw breaks, a broken nose, and four missing teeth.
McKenzie
would prefer not to think about the eight weeks his jaw was wired shut
or the fact that six months later, he still has nerve damage in a small
area from his chin to his right cheek where he can feel nothing.
.
Court documents paint a grim picture of what transpired that June
night. They allege that a juvenile invited friends to her parents' home - while the parents were out of town -
following a concert the night of June 18.
It
was there that Jonathan Spatz, 22, of Indian Hill, threatened two male
juveniles and prevented them from leaving the property about 2 a.m.,
court documents allege. At the time Spatz was a member of the University of Cincinnati Track & Field Team.
McKenzie said he intervened to "defend the two Moeller students who were being harassed."
Spatz and a juvenile then repeatedly punched McKenzie in the head, court documents allege.
But why?
McKenzie
believed it to be a case of mistaken identity. Some high school and
college-aged kids, he said, erroneously thought one of the Moeller
students had been involved in a previous run-in at a different concert.
After
they "got in the (Moeller) kid's face," McKenzie said he
stepped in - and that, he said, escalated an already hostile
environment.
"I was actually still barefoot. I didn't even know
what was going on. I was in the pool," McKenzie said. "Five minutes
later, I was just knocked out."
The 6-foot-9 McKenzie said it started as a nine-on-three battle. Eventually, he said he was "being attacked by five guys."
"I
didn't have any time to really defend myself just because of the angles
that they hit me from," McKenzie said. "And I never even really got to
defend myself like in any sort of aggressive manner to where I was able
to strike back. It just happened really quickly."
He said he fell
back against a car when he was knocked unconscious. They "just kept
drilling me in the face" after that because he somehow was propped up
against the vehicle, he said.
Then, when he hit the ground, he said they kicked his face.
It was only later, long after his friends drove him to a nearby hospital, that McKenzie grasped the reality of what happened.
"For
me and my friends, it was pretty unprecedented. No one's ever been just
beaten up that bad," McKenzie said. "I was just shocked. I mean,
everyone was just kind of shocked."
Months earlier
McKenzie had been at the top of his high school game, averaging 11.2
points, 7.1 rebounds and 2.5 blocks while helping the Crusaders to a
22-5 record and state runner-up finish.
Within days of the
incident he was physically depleted. McKenzie said he quickly dropped 25
pounds and struggled to keep down his basic diet of rice protein.
Xavier
coach Chris Mack wasn't sure McKenzie would be in any shape for his
first college basketball season, so the coach opted for a wait-and-see
approach in terms of red-shirting him.
Then McKenzie surprised everyone.
After
eight weeks of "not doing anything," he said - not even lifting light
weights - he went to Xavier with purpose. He ate everything he could
once his jaw wires were removed and immersed himself in a new college
diet and weight lifting.
His body responded so well that he packed on a total 41 pounds from his lowest point (184 pounds) until now (225).
"I
really thought when it first happened that, 'Wow, he may not be able to
play for this year.' I was shocked and surprised by how quickly he
gained the weight back and more," Mack said. "He got to a point before
the season started where he had never weighed that much. It's a
testament to how hard of a worker he is."
McKenzie doesn't make excuses, but he wonders what impact he might have had with a good offseason.
"I
never really got the chance to prove my game at all that summer. I was
more just concerned with getting back up to where I was before I was
injured," McKenzie said.
Jonathan Spatz, later pleaded guilty to felonious assault and was
sentenced by Hamilton County Common Pleas Court to
two years in prison, a sentence agreed to by prosecutors and Spatz as
part of a plea deal.
