SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — The braces prevented Mawot Mag’s teeth from pouring out of his mouth.
On Nov. 17, three days before he verbally committed to Rutgers for the Class of 2020, the 6-foot-7 small forward was elbowed in the face as he took a charge while playing with his Napa (Calif.) Prolific Prep team at an event in Phoenix.
“Words can’t even describe, I was in shock," Mag, an 18-year-old native of South Sudan, told NJ Advance Media this past weekend at the prestigious Hoophall Classic at Springfield College. "I looked up while I was on the ground and I saw the puddle of blood. One of my teeth got knocked out and my other teeth got pushed up all the way in my gum and my bottom teeth were all crooked.”
Mag ended up in the emergency room until 3 a.m., and doctors had to pull the tooth out that was lodged in his gum.
“If he didn’t have braces, he would’ve been toothless,” Prolific Prep coach Joey Fuca said. “The braces were a good thing.”
Mag had about two more months until his braces were scheduled to come off, but the doctors just left them on to help him recover from the mouth and facial fractures.
“They helped me a lot,” Mag said.
It’s no wonder that Rutgers coach Steve Pikiell praises the toughness of a player who missed two months of action before returning to the court Jan. 17 at an event in Ohio.
“His toughness and competitiveness will serve him well as he helps us compete in the Big Ten conference,” Pikiell said when Mag signed his National Letter of Intent last month. “He has the potential to be an elite defender for us and I’m really excited about adding him to our program.”
Fleeing civil war in South Sudan
Mag and his family escaped the South Sudanese Civil War by leaving for Egypt in 2002, when he was 1. From there, they moved to Australia, where he was raised.
“The civil war was severe,” he said. “It’s been going on for a decade. I think it’s still going on now.”
He said “there was a chance” he and his family might not have made it out safely.
“I was very blessed and fortunate for me and family to make it out,” he said.
South Sudan has produced several NBA players, including Manute Bol, former Blair Academy wing Luol Deng and Thon Maker of the Pistons. Makur Maker, Thon’s cousin, is a 6-10 forward now at Hillcrest Prep (Calif.) who is hoping to enter this year’s NBA Draft. He is also from South Sudan and grew up in Australia.
Mag says South Sudan is stocked with potential NBA talent.
“There [are] a lot of people my size who are very athletic, can jump, can shoot,” he said. “There [are] a lot of people on the rise.”
Australia also has a large population of South Sudanese who fled the civil war, and it was there that Mag learned how to play basketball.
“I know Luol Deng, he came down to Melbourne, Australia,” Mag said. “He’s related to my coach, so he comes down to watch all the top players and all the competitions.”
When he was 15, Mag moved to Florida and enrolled in Victory Rock Prep in Sarasota. Victory Rock Prep coach Loren Jackson said Mag “was part of a network of kids that we were tied to” in Australia.
“When he came here, he was still very, very raw,” Jackson said by phone. “He wasn’t a Division 1 basketball player when he came over. He was a hard-working kid. I thought he would’ve had the chance if he stayed here to be as good as some of the kids that we’ve had that have played at a high level.”
Jackson said Mag left after his sophomore year due to a violation of team rules. Mag said he “felt it was time for a change” and moved on again to Prolific Prep, one of the top programs in the nation.
Playing for a powerhouse
Prolific Prep is currently ranked No. 9 nationally by ESPN.com and plays a national schedule that has the team criss-crossing the country to events in Arizona, Ohio and Massachusetts.
The team features Jalen Green, an uncommitted 6-4 guard now ranked No. 1 in the nation by ESPN.com, Nimari Burnett, a 6-3 guard ranked No. 21 who is committed to Texas Tech, and Coleman Hawkins, a 6-10 forward committed to Illinois.
“Words can’t even describe it, very talented players and they know how to pass,” Mag said. “Jalen’s one of the top players in the country and so is Nimari, and it’s really nice to play around them and learn from them and be their teammate.”
Mag, meantime, was a bit of a secret nationally because he didn’t play AAU ball last summer after injuring his Achilles.
It was during visits by Pikiell and assistant Karl Hobbs to Prolific Prep last fall while recruiting Hawkins and Class of 2021 big man Frank Anselem that they came to be aware of Mag.
“They saw him in preseason and fell in love,” Fuca said of Rutgers.
At the time, only Cal-State Fullerton, San Diego State and Cal-Baptist were involved.
On Nov. 20, Mag committed to Rutgers after feeling the love.
“Since day one, [Pikiell] he told me he brings in people who are underrated and he turns them into stars and he just believes in them,” Mag said.
‘Swiss army knife’ on the court
On Sunday evening, Mag displayed his all-around game in front of about 3,000 fans as Prolific Prep beat La Lumiere (IN) at the Hoophall Classic. The showcase event on Monday attracted LeBron James to watch his son, Bronny James, and Sierra Canyon (CA), who will be playing in the Metro Classic in Toms River Feb. 7-8.
On a team filled with stars, Mag scored Prolific Prep’s first four points and had a one-handed tip-in in the final two minutes to extend the lead to five points.
“The atmosphere was crazy, a lot of fans engaged and all that,” Mag said. “There were a lot of fans. Very tough team. We went in and we just played our heart out and we just stayed together and pulled it out.”
Green, the No. 1 prospect in the senior class who is being courted by Auburn, Fresno State, Memphis, Oregon and USC, said he loves what Mag brings to the team.
“Mawot is a great player, he brings energy, hustle, he gets a lot of big buckets for us,” Green said. “He can shoot. We didn’t have him for a while, he had a mouth injury, so it’s just good to have him back.”
Fuca, a former graduate assistant on Eric Musselman’s staff at Nevada, called Mag a “Swiss army knife.”
“He can guard two through four,” Fuca said. “He’s gotta work on his handle a little bit more to be able to handle it off the perimeter. For us, he does a lot of pick-and-pop scenarios. But I think he has a huge upside.”
He added: “Mawot is our toughest, most reliable [defender]. He’s got a great body. Offensively, he’s extended his game to the 3-point line now. I think for Rutgers, he’ll be able to play two through four. He’s a very, very, very improved shooter and then defensively, he’s still getting back in the wind of things.”
As for what Pikiell’s message is, Mag said, “He just tells me to just be me, do what I do, shoot threes, play defense, be versatile and that’s pretty much it.”
Mag has been monitoring the breakthrough season that has seen Rutgers enter the AP Top 25 poll for the first time since 1979 and be included in the NCAA Tournament conversation. He can’t wait to be a part of the magic next season.
“They’ve been doing really well,” he said. “They just beat Seton Hall, they just beat Indiana and Minnesota, and that’s coach Pikiell, you know?”
Down the road, Mag dreams of joining his South Sudanese countrymen in the NBA.
“That’s the ultimate dream,” he said.
Adam Zagoria is a freelance reporter who covers Seton Hall and NJ college basketball for NJ Advance Media.