When Brady Manek returned to Norman after OU’s 76-61 loss to No. 2 Baylor on Jan. 6, something felt off.
The next morning, Brady had precautionary tests run at a hospital by the team on his chest and lower back after a collision with Baylor guard Mark Vital with 15:41 remaining in the first half. Brady hit his head on the court and was bleeding from his mouth after being called for a blocking foul.
He was diagnosed with a pneumomediastinum — air leaking from the lungs into the chest cavity — from the hit, his mom Tina told The Daily. Additionally, Brady had a bruised lung. Both injuries caused significant pain in his neck, chest and lower back, and because he was so sore from the hit, Tina said, head OU athletics doctor Brock Schnebel didn’t want Brady to return to his room off OU’s campus alone. Schnebel suggested he returned to his home in Harrah, approximately 45 minutes from Norman.
Brady talked about being sore and undergoing tests after the Baylor game in a press conference on Thursday, but never specified the extent of the injury.
Later the day of the tests, Brady’s mother, Tina, met him at McBride Orthopedic Hospital in Oklahoma City — where Schnebel works — and drove him home. Tina expected to care of Brady, her 22-year-old son, during his injury and planned for him to recover at home before the Sooners’ game two days later against Kansas on Jan. 9. But then the unexpected happened.
Brady had been sleeping all day, without eating due to his headache. When he woke up to watch his brother, Kellen, play in his season opener for Southeastern Oklahoma State the night of Jan. 7, Schnebel called Brady and informed him that he’d tested positive for COVID-19.
What followed for the 6-foot-9 forward was perhaps the most challenging 11 days of his life before he returned to action Jan. 18 against Kansas State. From testing positive for COVID-19, to dealing with a serious injury and missing two games in his senior year, Brady quarantined with his mother, who was in contact tracing for the virus due to being around him — his dad was in quarantine at the family’s lake house — as they watched Brady’s teammates at OU play from his couch in one of the strangest sports seasons in history.
As of Jan. 22, OU has played 12 games with two cancellations and two postponements. College basketball scheduling has been chaotic due to the pandemic, with every Big 12 team having to postpone at least a game thus far.
“It’s just a weird thing, weird season,” Brady said in a press conference Thursday. “We got West Virginia, OSU shutting down, got me being out, you get players taken out, teams taken out. I mean we didn’t play the first few games of the season.
“It’s just constant and it’s definitely something you get ready for especially having so much time off before the season, and you just gotta get prepared for it and make the most out of the games that you do get to play.”
The events meant Brady missed a game for the first time in his college career, and ended his streak of 100 consecutive starts as he watched OU’s nail biting road loss to then-No. 6 Kansas.
“It’s been a crazy couple of weeks for the Maneks,” Tina told The Daily in an interview Thursday. “We watched both games he missed and he would look at me and say ‘This is really strange to be sitting here and having to watch this without being involved.’”
During their quarantine, Tina took Brady’s temperature every four hours to monitor his bruised lung and make sure there were no signs of pneumonia while Brady rested to get over the virus. The pair bonded over Netflix and spent one-on-one time together that normally doesn’t happen during the season.
Fortunately, Tina tested negative for the virus the next week and Brady had mild symptoms, although he couldn’t smell or taste.
“I’m a registered nurse on top of everything,” Tina said. “So my mother mode and my nurse mode kick in when my kids don’t feel good or are injured. It’s always nice to have him here and to be able to baby him. … It’s not your normal semester. … I was thankful to be there with him.”
Coincidentally, Kellen started experiencing symptoms after the opening game of his redshirt senior season, on top of which he re-fractured his foot. Kellen tested positive for COVID-19 on Jan. 12 and had been quarantined at the family’s lake house with his dad.
After quarantining with Tina, Brady returned to campus Monday for a series of tests before rejoining the team. He received an X-ray on his lungs to check the air in his chest and was deemed fit to play, then was administered cardiac tests to ensure it was safe to play after having the virus.
Brady scored six points off the bench Tuesday in the Sooners’ 76-50 win over Kansas State. He played just 11 minutes, and head coach Lon Kruger said Brady logged just one practice before the game and wasn’t back “in game shape” quite yet.
“It’s great to see him out there,” Kruger said after Tuesday’s game. “I didn’t know if he’d be able to get out there but it’s good to get him out there, get his feet wet (and) get down a shot.”
Before returning to play Brady did the only conditioning he could: running sprints alone outside his Harrah home.
Kruger knew Brady would need time before regaining his full strength, and opted for a four-guard lineup Tuesday that’s shown success in Brady’s absence. Kruger said for the Sooners’ next game, against No. 9 Kansas on Saturday, he hopes the three additional practices will “project into a much bigger role” for Brady.
Brady’s quick recovery is a testament to the type of player he is.
“Brady has always been a very, very hard worker,” said Tina, who played college basketball at Oklahoma Christian and was an Oklahoma All-State selection in high school. “A lot of Brady’s work goes on behind the scenes. Brady has always been a hard worker and I don’t expect that to change.
“This pandemic has made it harder for him because he can’t just come and go into the gym like they have in the past. But, he’s going to work and do what he needs to do to get back to where he needs to be. And I have no doubt in that.”
In OU’s first loss to Kansas this season — the first game Brady missed — the Sooners played just two forwards most of the game Sophomore forward Jalen Hill also missed the game due to contact tracing. Redshirt senior Kur Kuath and sophomore Victor Iwuakor got into foul trouble and the lack of depth curtailed the Sooners’ chances at an upset victory in Lawrence for the first time in 28 years.
With Brady back, however, OU has a chance to beat Kansas at home for the third time in four seasons. The forward might be the X-factor after his team lost by just four points without him in the last outing.
Brady is OU’s second-leading scorer this season with over 12 points per game. He’s also averaging 15 points against Kansas at home in his career, who he's had success against, including 21 points with three 3-pointers as a sophomore in an 81-68 win.
#TBT to @BradyManek's freshman season and his dagger 👌 over the Jayhawks. He'll look for his third home victory over KU on Saturday on ESPN.Limited 🎟 https://t.co/qhOHrtSymo pic.twitter.com/Ea0B7WGdTv
— Oklahoma Basketball (@OU_MBBall) January 21, 2021
“It was great having him back,” Kuath said after Brady’s return for the Kansas State game. “It’s been different without the whole team together because we’ve been scrambling trying to figure things out without them. But it’s good to have (Brady and Hill) back. They’re really big pieces to our team.”
Brady’s overall motor and running he did alone in Harrah have him searching for a basketball career outside of college. With just 12 regular-season games remaining in perhaps his last season as an athlete, Brady would rather play professional basketball than utilize his MBA he started pursuing after graduating in 2020.
“For Brady, he’s never had a tough time with his engine,” Tina said. “Everybody knows he’s not the fastest, he’s not the most athletic, but Brady’s always been able to go out and play the game.”
