930: Those are the days between April 11, 2022, and Nov. 4, 2024, which is how long BGSU men’s basketball redshirt freshman forward Jamai Felt went without the basketball game after suffering back-to-back season-ending knee injuries.
Felt was a high school standout born in Boston, Massachusetts, attending Our Savior Lutheran High School- leading them to the best season in school history with a 22-9 record, averaging 22 points, 15 rebounds, and four blocks per game.
“My 11th grade year, I was ranked in the state,” Felt said. “I was known across the states, and it just gave me motivation to keep going, to keep working harder.”
“They were really more hands-on and showed me it was like a family-oriented type of school,” Felt said when discussing why he chose BG. “So that drove me to BG, and I’ve loved it ever since.
Shortly before his first colligate season began, Felt suffered his first season-ending knee injury.
After spending a year of what should have been his first year playing college basketball on the shelf, BGSU announced the new signing of head coach Todd Simon to the program, coming out of Southern Utah.
Felt was one of the few players, along with Rashaun Agee and Sam Towns, to stay in Bowling Green after the coaching change from Huger to Simon. Simon was immediately impressed with Felt’s athleticism.
“Jamai was coming off an injury, so I was certainly intrigued by the film we saw. Then, his first workouts, you can certainly see his athletic gifts and his willingness to learn and get better,” Simon said. “That right away was very intriguing.”
Unfortunately, the intrigue would have to wait longer, as Felt suffered another season-ending injury before what was going to be his comeback season.
“That was really hard; your heart broke for him,” Simon said. “He worked so hard to come back better than he was, and you just knew how much he wanted it.”
As the physical battle raged on Felt’s body, a mental battle was raging inside as well.
“Everybody was preaching to me to stay up, keep a good attitude, but I had a lot of mental battles over the past two years,” Felt said. “It was really hard to get through what I was getting through. Honestly, seeing other people progress in life my age, playing, healthy and knowing what I can do on the court. It was really hard.”
Felt had teammates by his side, watching him through his recovery and supporting him.
“It was definitely rough seeing him go through that, just seeing him go through that. I try to always be positive with him. Let him know God has a plan for him; there’s gonna be a light at the end of the tunnel,” said senior guard Trey Thomas. “Be consistent, be positive, and stand with him ’cause times like that can be rough; you can be really down on yourself. Just try and be there for him is what I tried to do.”
The team rallied around Felt and included him, though, according to Felt, it always felt, to him at least, like he was still a step out of the door from being a part of the team.
“It’s like a brotherhood, so everybody always, when I was on the bench or the plane, everybody would always include me,” Felt said. “Even though honestly, I would separate myself kinda, ’cause it would feel like I’m not on the team.”
Despite him not always feeling like he was a part of the team, Felt was a tremendous teammate throughout the entire injury, constantly finding ways to help the team.
“Him just trying to focus on getting back, during games he tried to uplift us and encourage us, it helped us a lot, and I think he also learned a lot about what he has to when he came back,” Thomas said.
Felt’s attitude was equally valued by his coaches.
“Those things are not easy, especially being on the sidelines watching the game you love and not playing it,” Simon said. “You can go a lot of different directions, but his attitude and effort were fantastic with finding ways to help the team.”
Now, how else did Felt spend those two years on the bench? The only thing he could do was spend as much time in the gym as humanly possible.
“I used to go to the gym 2 a.m., 3 a.m. because I didn’t have practice the next day,” Felt said. “So I would be able to go late, like 3 a.m. and stay there till 4:30.”
The 6-foot-10-inch redshirt freshman also spoke about how his faith helped him through the rough times during the two years.
“I just kept God close to me. I kept praying, and I kept my teammates close, and I just kept working hard to stay in the gym, shoot farm shots when I can’t move around,” Felt said.
All those nights in the gym, on the bench, all the pain, sweat and tears over the past two years finally came to a head on Nov. 4, 2024, as Jamai Felt, who signed his letter of intent 930 days ago, finally checked in against Southern Mississippi in the 2024-25 season opener.
“Honestly, it was a surreal feeling, even though I didn’t get to play as much, you know, cause it was my first game and stuff,” Felt said. “But, it was just a surreal feeling to be in the, you know, arena in front of everybody playing and not being the one on the bench. So, I just knew it would go off from there.”
Felt only checked in for about two minutes, but that was enough time to calm his head coach’s nerves.
“I was probably as nervous as him. I see Jamai as family. I wanted him to do so well, and I probably was a little overprotective because you want to see him do great,” Simon said. “You have a lot of things running through your head as his first moments of Division I basketball.”
“That was great. Then, the next step was let’s grow this role and see where this goes. We’re still in the early stages of what we really see for him, which I have grand plans for how his development is going to go.”
The development has been underway all season since, in his first season of collegiate basketball, Felt is averaging 4.6 points per game, a team-leading 5.3 rebounds per game, and a shooting percentage of 60.5% from the field.
Since the injury to Towns, Felt found his way into the starting lineup for the Orange and Brown
Felt currently ranks second in the Mid-American Conference (MAC) with 29 blocks, third with 48 offensive rebounds and seventh with 6.2 rebounds per game.
“If he continues to work and progress and expand his game, he’s gonna have an unbelievable ceiling, and his role is gonna be whatever he wants it to be,” assistant coach Bryce Martin said. “He’s just got so much potential.”
He has recorded two double-doubles this season. In MAC play, Felt is averaging 25 minutes, 8.9 points, 7.9 rebounds, 3.4 offensive rebounds, 2.7 blocks and 1.3 steals per game while shooting 75% from the field.
As Felt’s potential and promise continue to show, he still has plenty of wisdom for any player currently facing a situation like his.
“Man, just keep going, like, you know, this it’ll be, it’s gonna be hard when you’re going through it. Like, I can’t, I can’t even express the feelings I had going through it,“ Felt said. “It was hard, but you gotta keep going, keep God close to you. Keep everybody close to you. The rain is gonna stop eventually.“
As the rain stops and the sun finally begins to shine on Felt’s future, he has one more thing left to say for what comes ahead.
“It’s gonna get real crazy soon.”
