One year and a fixed ACL later, Amari Whiting just wants to help BYU win

PROVO — Amari Whiting knew the pace was always going to be difficult.

The step up from high school to Division I college basketball is a struggle for any player, yet alone one coming off a world-rocking torn ACL and a year of recovery and rehabilitation in BYU's athletic training room.

But the added rigor of rehab and trying to be immediately ready for her freshman season with the Cougars, where Whiting's mother, Amber, once played and is now a second-year head coach of the women's basketball team, proved especially tough.

"Coming back from my ACL, I always felt a step slow and trying to get my feet back underneath me," Whiting said candidly. "My last year in high school was my junior year (in Idaho) and we didn't have a shot clock or anything like that."

The transition, she admits, was tough.

"It's hard, because everyone is good," the former Oregon commit and No. 33-rated prospect nationally by ESPN added. "Your best shot in high school may not be the best shot here. I have been blessed and grateful to be able to kick out to Kailey Woolston in the corner; it's been a great thing."

That connection between roommates has helped Whiting — and Woolston, the former Lone Peak High star and Gatorade Utah Player of the Year — jump into the deep end of Division I basketball and excel as immediate starters in Provo.

Whiting has started all nine games of her freshman season, averaging 11.2 points on 41.6% shooting, with 4.4 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game for the 8-2 Cougars. Woolston is averaging 15.4 points per game, including 58.8% 3-point shooting mark that ranks among the top 10 in Division I.

But that Whiting is able to keep up at this level, and with teammates that were (like her) former Gatorade players of the year in high school is a modern marvel. Saturday's 65-50 win over Boise State marked just the third time in 10 years that BYU women's basketball has opened a season winning at least eight of their first 10 wins, and Whiting is a key reason why.

That she is doing it on a recently repaired ACL isn't lost on her, or her teammates.

"When I was a freshman, I didn't have a torn ACL and the pace was incredibly fast," teammate Emma Calvert said of Whiting. "For her to come in and just pick it up quickly, I'm impressed how well she's taken to it. She's done really well."

Whiting recently came off a minutes-restriction set by BYU women's basketball head athletic trainer Jeff Hurst and the Cougars' rehabilitation staff, in part after she went for 14 points on 4-of-8 shooting in a season-high 31 minutes in an 86-74 loss to Wyoming.

Since then, her coach hasn' had to worry about how much the younger Whiting plays. Patience and accountability — the kind where she didn't even dribble a basketball for months after surgery, even while riding a stationary bike or running on an underwater treadmill — are paying off.

Of course, there's still work to do, her mother admits.

"If she wants unlimited minutes, she needs to get in better shape," said coach Whiting, with the stern aura that only a parent could muster. "I want her pushing the tempo, but I also don't ever want to run my girls into the ground. We saw that a lot last year. If I can keep my guards between 30-35 minutes, I feel like they can give us their best.

After a brief pause, the coach quickly added: "But as long as they're in shape and doing well on defense, I'm OK to leave them out there."

Whiting's time at the point intensified recently after veteran point guard Nani Falatea left the team for undisclosed reasons, according to her head coach.

That left the younger Whiting as the only true scholarship point guard on the team, though Woolston and senior wing Kaylee Smiler have run the offense in short bursts, and junior college transfer Kylie Krebs made her BYU debut in the final moments against the Broncos.

"Losing Nani is a big hit for us; I'm not going to sugarcoat it. It's a big deal for us," Amber Whiting said. "But it was a hard week last week, and to be able to get two wins showed a lot of resilience and professionalism on their part. We were all sad, we could've fallen apart, but they laced them up and got after it. I think basketball has a healing nature to it, and that's what I saw out of last week. … It's going to be hard, but hopefully the girls rally around each other and come together."

It's been another challenge, but one the Cougars handled with back-to-back wins over Mountain West foes.

"I'm just trying to help my team win," the younger Whiting added. "When Nani was here, I didn't have to do as much. Now that she's gone and I've been starting more, I feel like I have to do a little bit more. But that's just to help my team win. … It's not a lot of pressure, but me seeing what I need and what I can help with."

The move made an already young BYU team even younger, the second departure among BYU's seven returning upperclassmen (after Arielle Mackey-Williams was ruled out for the season with an injury).

Whiting (and Woolston) stepping right in has helped, and fellow freshmen Ali'a Matavao and Marina Mata are also seeing increasing minutes as the Cougars begin to wind down nonconference play Saturday against Idaho State (2 p.m. MST, ESPN+).

The kids are all right, too.

"Obviously, we're a young team with a lot of new people," Calvert said. "We have a lot of room to grow. But I feel pretty good about where we are and how we've started."

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