How trying season at Wichita State became most fulfilling year of Jacob Germany’s life

At some point during every morning this season, Jacob Germany opens up the Notes app on his iPhone and scrolls to a message he reads daily.

It’s a bible verse, Matthew 6:34, that has particularly resonated with him during this season at Wichita State.

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.”

The 6-foot-10 center came to the Shockers following an accomplished four-year career at UTSA, where Germany finished with the ninth-most points (1,293) and fourth-most rebounds (779) in program history.

He was the first recruit to follow Paul Mills to Wichita State and figured to be part of the rotation, but that’s not how this season has played out: Germany has played sparingly in just 10 appearances entering the regular season-finale at Tulane on Friday.

Germany has found comfort in beginning his day reading the bible verse.

“It really helps me not worry so much about everything, except for what’s in the present,” he said.

“This season has definitely been a little frustrating, just trying to figure out how I can help. I’m not in the game, so I used to feel like I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t contribute. But I’ve learned that there are a lot of other ways you can help a team.”

What began as the most trying year of Germany’s life has become his most fulfilling.

Instead of sulking at the end of the bench, the former star player embraced a far less glamorous role of committing himself to do everything he could to help improve Quincy Ballard and Kenny Pohto, the players ahead of him in the pecking order, from pushing them in practice to mentoring them during games.

It has been a humbling experience, but an invaluable one.

“I feel like it forced me to mature as a person,” Germany said. “I really needed this year to transition from being a young adult to a grown-up. And Wichita has been an absolutely awesome place to grow. You look around the city to the fans to the program, everything is really successful. I couldn’t imagine a better place to spend this chapter in my life.”

Germany has earned the respect of his teammates by the way he has handled himself this season.

His selflessness was recently seen when Germany, who was honored last year at UTSA, suggested Dalen Ridgnal, who had yet to have a ceremony, receive the sole spotlight for WSU’s senior-day festivities this past weekend.

“He could have been a cancer in the locker room and been someone who’s always bringing negative energy, but he has been the complete opposite,” WSU leading scorer Colby Rogers said. “He has been nothing but a great teammate and supportive and positive when things have not gone his way. He’s handled everything like a professional.”

Germany’s absence from the rotation is no fault of his own, Mills said. It’s as simple as Ballard has blossomed into a star-in-the-making and Pohto also commands playing time with his versatile skill set.

After WSU returned from the Myrtle Beach Invitational in late November, Germany requested a meeting with Mills to ask him how he could help, even offering his services for the scout team in practice. The coach said the fifth-year senior has done everything asked of him since.

“It’s really rare in today’s age because basketball players want attention,” Mills said. “But if you approach this stuff the right way, with a level of humility, you’ve got to find a way to add value to a team. We all have to get over ourselves and realize it takes a team in order to get things done. He shows up every day and he embraces it and I don’t think people understand the value of that.

“It’s a tribute to Jacob and a tribute to his parents for him to embrace, ‘How do I add value in order to propel our team forward?’ He’s done his job and has been absolutely phenomenal and we’re better because of him.”

WSU assistant coach Quincy Acy has taken a liking to Germany, partly because he can relate to his situation. After playing seven years in the NBA, Acy spent the final season of his professional career riding the bench for a team in Greece.

He found inspiration during that time in listening to the audio book “Can’t Hurt Me” by David Goggins, which Acy loaned to Germany earlier this season.

“It wasn’t that long ago when I was in his shoes,” Acy said. “I wasn’t playing and thinking, ‘Why does God have me here? What can I even get out of this?’

“I had to change my mentality. That’s when I started helping out the bigs on the team and started hanging around the coaches more, sitting in front of the bus with them, listening to the jargon and soaking in how they looked at the game.”

Germany arrived in Wichita with aspirations of being a professional basketball player, but he’s leaving with a new career in mind: coaching basketball.

It’s not unusual for Acy to receive text messages from Germany at all times of the day, asking for clarification on why a play is run a certain way or why the staff decided to run a defensive coverage against a certain offense.

An hour before every game, Germany plants himself next to Acy on the bench to pick his brain on the scouting report. When the games begin, he studies the opponent’s tendencies and relays what he sees to Ballard and Pohto during timeouts.

Germany said he earned his coaching license earlier this year and plans to move back to San Antonio with his longtime girlfriend and pursue a coaching career there.

“My whole focus has changed since coming here,” Germany said. “This is realistically my last year playing basketball, so I’m just trying to be a sponge right now and absorb as much as I can. I’m picking (Acy’s) brain each and every day and trying to get the most out of this situation.”

Growing up in the tiny Oklahoma town of Kingston (population: 1,448), Germany was always taller and bigger than his peers. He dominated the Class 3A level in high school and the top recruit in the state his senior year.

In other terms, he hadn’t faced a whole lot of adversity before setting off for college.

The maturation process over his five-year journey has been a joy to watch unfold, his mother, Stacy, said. The kid who used to view his bank account as $10 increments of future McDonald’s runs is now an adult who has recently begun investing his money in the stock market.

“Jacob has been the baby in our family and the youngest grand-kid, so he’s been coddled his whole life,” Stacy Germany said. “When he first got to college, there probably was some lack of maturity. But he has just blossomed and grown since then and I’m so proud of how mature he is now. He has his life together and he’s ready to become an adult. I’m just very proud of that.”

When deciding where to spend his final year of college basketball, Germany picked WSU because he believed it would change the trajectory of his life.

It has, just not in the way he envisioned.

“What’s important to me is that he is set up for real life now,” Acy said. “This character-building stuff, this is for real life. I think he’s learned this year that basketball is just a small part of who you are.”