By Alex Schwartz

HurricaneSports.com

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Keith Stone had a bevy of options to pick from when deciding where to spend his final year as a college basketball player.

After making the choice to transfer from the University of Florida, Stone considered programs such as Arizona, Arkansas, Maryland, Nevada and USC. Ultimately, though, the allure of playing close to home won out and he made the call to head to the University of Miami as a graduate transfer.

“It’s a pretty funny story, Coach L has been in my corner since day one, ever since I was a kid,” Stone said of Miami head coach Jim Larrañaga. “He always wanted me to go to the University of Miami. He [was at] almost all of my travel ball games when I was younger and the opportunity to come here just seemed right with the guys.

“The year they had [last season], I want to help them improve and teach the young guys like Anthony Walker,” Stone continued about why he selected Miami. “But overall, I just came here for family because everyone can come see me play now.”

A native of nearby Deerfield Beach, Fla., Stone graduated from Zion Lutheran High School as a consensus four-star, top-100 prospect. After redshirting at Florida as a freshman in 2015-16, he helped the Gators to 68 victories over the past three years, including five in the NCAA Tournament.

The 6-foot-8-inch redshirt senior forward averaged 6.2 points per game during his time at Florida, including 8.8 per outing in 2017-18, and started 39 contests.

His career as a Gator, however, came to a sudden halt Jan. 19 in a road game at Georgia. Stone was off to a nice start in the rivalry contest, tallying eight points in nine minutes, but when he went for a chase-down block, he landed awkwardly and tore his ACL, ending his season.

“The day it happened, I thought my career was over,” Stone explained. “I thought the sport wasn’t for me. ‘I got hurt on my ACL, there’s nothing coming back from this,’ [was what went through my mind], but the more days I work at it, the confidence is growing again. I’m in a new area and new place with new coaches and I just feel a lot happier.”

Fast-forward nine months and Stone is closing in on finishing the rehab process. While he still has work to do, he sees himself getting stronger, cutting and jumping better, as well as doing more lateral movement.

“It’s been a grind,” Stone said. “It [had] been a tough couple weeks [at first], but overall, it has been great to me because I’m losing weight. The coaches have been great, just pushing me to be really good.”

Stone has spent a lot of time in the training room working with physical therapist Julia Rapicavoli and athletic trainer Cory Kaplan. Strength & conditioning coach Phil Baier, hired just a few weeks ago, has also gone straight to work on trying to get Stone back to full strength.

While the names and faces of the staff helping him may be fairly new to the first-year Hurricane, Stone is grateful for the support he has received during his rehabilitation.

“Cory has been a great help, he’s helped me through a lot of things,” Stone said. “Julia . . . has been great helping me with everything and I appreciate everything she’s done for me out here, working me out and spending a lot of one-on-one time with me. [She is] just getting me back the proper way instead of the quickest way.”

Stone is not yet ready to return to game action and he is not setting a timeline for himself of when he wants to back on the court in that capacity. Rather, he thinks he will have a feeling of when that time is right.

“I’m not going to push it and I’m not going to just sit there and baby it,” Stone explained, “but I’ll know in a practice when I’m ready to come back.”

When that time does indeed come, the Hurricanes will welcome Stone’s presence on the hardwood with open arms, while his family, of course, will be just a short drive away to come watch him play.

