DURHAM — Mikayla Boykin has yet to settle on a college major.
As a freshman in just her second semester at Duke, she still has plenty of time to decide on what she wants to study.
She said she’s thinking about sociology. But if she chooses to go in the direction of orthopedic medicine or physical therapy, her real-life experiences would give her a head start on her fellow students.
Boykin’s education in those two subjects will continue for the foreseeable future after undergoing her third major knee surgery in the last four years.
The first two interrupted her record-setting basketball career at Clinton High School. This one, suffered during a game on Dec. 10, has cut short her rookie season with the Blue Devils.
It’s a setback that has rekindled some all-too-familiar feelings, only some of which are physical.
“Life is full of speed bumps and I feel like this is one of the most challenging speed bumps, going through an injury three times,” Boykin said. “I feel like it’s helping me grow to become a better person all around.
“There’s going to be no issues with me having confidence in myself. Coming back two times already, there’s not going to be an issue with getting back in and going just as hard as ever.”
Boykin, a 5-foot-9 guard, started eight of her first 10 games as a Blue Devil and was just beginning to find her niche with the team when she suffered her latest injury during a 101-30 blowout of Winthrop at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
She’s not sure exactly how or when it happened. There was no pop, no sudden jolts of pain. She said that “something just didn’t feel right” in her left knee as she was running up and down the court. It was the same knee that had previously been repaired during her sophomore and junior years of high school.
“It was a little painful,” she said. “It wasn’t like normal.”
After undergoing an MRI, it was hoped that the damage would be minimal. But those hopes were dashed once her surgeon, Dr. Alison Toth, got into the knee.
According to Duke’s women’s basketball physical therapist Jordan Busse, “they ended up having to repair everything they thought they might have to.”
That meant a reconstruction of her ACL, a procedure in which a piece of the hamstring in her right leg was removed and surgically attached to her damaged left knee. The estimated recovery time for such surgery is between eight months to a year.
Boykin is confident she will be healthy enough to return to the court for the start of preseason practice next fall.
Busse isn’t making any promises on that yet, but said that if there’s one thing Boykin has going for her, it’s that she knows exactly what she has in store for her and how hard she can push herself during her upcoming rehab.
“A lot of times, the first time through people have an ACL surgery, they’ll start feeling pretty good at that six-month mark and they start getting back into basketball-type activities,” Busse said. “They think, ‘Yeah, I can do this.’ But you look at their strength and you tell them that it’s not where it needs to be. They don’t understand why that matters.
“Unfortunately if it happens to you a second or a third time, it becomes a little more clear to the athlete why each piece of the puzzle is important and why you have to show that you’re strong as well.”
At this point in the in the recovery process, Boykin is concentrating on regaining the range of motion in her knee. Although it’s going to be awhile before she’s able to contribute to the Blue Devils on the court, the 2017 Gatorade North Carolina Prep Player of the Year is determined to stay as attached as possible to her team and teammates.
Along with junior Kyra Lambert, who is redshirting this season after undergoing knee surgery late last season, and sophomore Lynee Belton, who was forced to give up basketball because of multiple injuries, Boykin has formed a group known as the “Bench Mob.”
The trio created T-shirts with an inspirational saying on them to show their support for the team.
It’s a gesture that has impressed coach Joanne P. McCallie almost as much as Boykin’s ability to put the ball in the basket, something she did more than any high school player in state history while leading Clinton to the 2-A state championship last March.
“She is like steel,” McCallie said, pointing to Boykin’s parents Tim and Nicole as the source of Mikayla’s strength. “She understands that this is out of her control. She understands that it’s a measure of character to see how she responds. Her character is so strong.”
McCallie admits that she hasn’t been quite as resilient when it comes to Boykin’s latest setback.
She got especially emotional when she found out that by playing in 10 games, her freshman star missed the cutoff for a medical redshirt by just one game. Duke plans to appeal to get Boykin an extra year of eligibility. But when it comes to the NCAA, there are never any guarantees.
“Something came up in conversation the other day and I was like, ‘I can’t believe we don’t have her.’ The loss is tremendous,” McCallie said. “I’ve been so upset about this with Mikayla because she’s just very special, how hard she’s worked, how long we’ve been recruiting her and how much we’ve waited to have her on the court and to coach her.”
It’s a wait that began four years ago when Boykin announced her intention to play at Duke after her freshman season with the Dark Horses.
Players usually don’t commit to colleges that early, but Boykin was an exception after averaging 25.4 points, 9.2 rebounds, 7.0 steals and 4.6 assist per game in 2013-14. McCallie was also anxious to land a top in-state prospect, something she’s had trouble doing during her tenure with the Blue Devils.
Boykin is, in fact, the only North Carolina player on Duke’s current roster.
Her commitment to McCallie and the Blue Devils never wavered, even as other high-profile schools continued to recruit her. At the same time, McCallie’s commitment to Boykin remained just as strong even after she suffered her first ACL tear, then endured another setback by tearing it again while preparing for the 2016 USA Basketball trials.
“The coaching staff is amazing,” Boykin said. “They just told me they were going to be with me every step of the way and they stuck to their word. I’m always going to be thankful for that.
“A lot of coaches backed off me because I tore my ACL, but Duke always stayed with me. They always stayed in contact and said, ‘We’re here for you.’ Then I had it the second time and they did the same thing. I was like ‘Wow, this is the school I really want to be at.' ”
Finally healthy again, Boykin averaged 37.4 points, 13.7 rebounds, 6.5 assists and 5.6 during her final high school season, setting a state record with 1,159 points while twice scoring 60 or more points in a game.
The prolific young scorer found points harder to come by once she moved up a level. She was averaging 4.6 points and shooting just 28.3 percent (33.3 from 3-point range) before her injury.
But she did hit two big 3-pointers in a close win against Oregon State. And while her taste of the college game was barely a nibble, she at least has an idea of what to expect once she returns from having played in games against Ohio State and defending national champion South Carolina.
“There are huge adjustments coming from high school for any student-athlete and Mikayla was going through those,” McCallie said. “She was learning how to play the kind of defense it takes at this level. She was learning how to time her passes relative to the increased quickness on the floor. She was looking for her shot and learning to play together with her teammates. She is just a special player. There’s no doubt she would have had a major impact on us.
“What’s happened to her is very sad. We’re going to have to make it from a sad story to an incredible story. Unfortunately, we won’t see that until next year.”