GCU basketball star Tyon Grant-Foster turned tragedy into triumph

On By Littum

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Tyon Grant-Foster pushes every rep down the basketball court at Grand Canyon University, every play, every practice, like it’s his last. He was like that last year when he was medically cleared to resume his college career in Phoenix.

Every time down the field, pushed it to the limit, take the ball to the edge, regardless of who was in his face, sometimes scoring baskets that seemed impossible to make. He lived in the lane and on the line. And at times, he wanted wins for a school starving for an NCAA Tournament victory.

It happened in a first round of Saint Mary’s College in the West Regional last season.

And now, as GCU approaches what could be an even bigger season after its historic first 30-win year as an NCAA Division I program, Grant-Foster is pushing herself even harder, taking on teammates in five-on-five matches like it was March Madness.

GCU opens its season Monday night, hosting Cal State Fullerton at 7 p.m

Grant-Foster, 24, a 6-foot-7 graduate student working toward his master’s degree in management, was granted a seventh year of eligibility by the NCAA. He averaged 20.1 points and 6.1 rebounds and was the WAC Player of the Year last season.

He is the reason NBA teams come around GCU. He is the biggest draw that Lopes has ever had.

He tested the NBA waters after last season, but returned to the school that started his career when it appeared to be over three years ago after he nearly died. Grant-Foster is on a mission this season not only to convince 30 NBA teams that he can play at the highest level, but that he can take GCU deeper into March Madness.

ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas thinks so highly of Grant-Foster that he put him on his preseason All-American second team. Scouts from several NBA teams have visited GCU to watch Grant-Foster work out.

Grant-Foster will sit out the first two games of the season before hitting the field. The NCAA delayed his reinstatement of eligibility because he had left school after last season before rejoining GCU. He will make his debut Nov. 14 against Arizona State at the Footprint Center.

Grant-Foster says the health scare that cut short his college career is behind him and shouldn’t affect how scouts view him.

“If I’m playing the way I can play, they feel like I’m healthy enough to play, that it shouldn’t affect it at all,” Grant-Foster said. “I feel great … I haven’t thought about it in a very long time. I feel like I’m back to normal.”

‘They told us Tyon had passed’

It was Nov. 10, 2021, inside Wintrust Arena in Chicago, and Tyon Grant-Foster gave DePaul fans a glimpse of something special. He had nine points, three rebounds and a block and hit a 3 just before halftime to give the Blue Devils a 42-41 lead over Coppin State in the season opener.

Then, inside the locker room, his world changed. He collapsed. He had to be resuscitated three times. In the ambulance, en route to Rush University Medical Center, his heart had to be shocked into rhythm.

“I remember everything,” Grant-Foster said.

The call to his mom and dad was something no parent ever wants to receive.

“”When we first got the call, they told us Tyon had passed,” said Willie Foster, Tyon’s father. “We jumped on the freeway. Then we get another call 15 minutes after that and it’s like, ‘Everything’s OK, he’s on his way to Rush Hospital.’

“I think we made it to Chicago (from Kansas) in about five hours because I was going 110. I had my blinkers on. I even got an escort by a state trooper because he pulled us over and I told him what was He said, ‘I’ll escort you here, but when I get to the line, I’ll have to go back.’ “

When he got to the hospital, Willie saw Tyon’s eyes open. He saw his smile. He cried.

“I said, ‘I don’t care about basketball,'” said Willie, a former Kansas basketball legend who played overseas and developed all of his sons in the game. “I said, ‘You’ll be able to live a normal life and be able to have kids if you never play basketball.’

“At Rush hospital, we were there three or four weeks and they couldn’t find anything wrong with Tyon. Nothing. We didn’t get the prognosis until we got to the Mayo Clinic.”

He had been implanted with an ardioverter defibrillator that could monitor an irregular heart rhythm. Three months later, comfortable at home, Grant-Foster went to the recreation center near his home in Kansas to play some pickup basketball games with Denver Nuggets guard Christian Braun, his former Kansas teammate.

Grant-Foster collapsed again. He ended up at the Mayo Clinic, where he underwent surgery for scarring around the heart.

He said he wasn’t scared, just confused.

“I didn’t know what was going on,” he said.

‘It changed him’

Grant-Foster remained positive and believed his basketball career was not over. He underwent stress tests, full-body heart monitors while running on a treadmill and lifting weights. He did everything the doctors told him. In March 2023, in a Zoom call with the Mayo doctor, he was told he was good to go. He could play again.

“He told Tyon, ‘If you trust me, I’ll get you back playing, but it’s going to take at least a year,'” Willie Foster said. “He got cleared. I’ve never seen him work as hard as he did. And I’ve never seen him more devoted to his brothers. It changed him. He plays like every day is his last.”

But who would take a chance when he put himself in the transfer window in March 2023?

There were talks, but when then-GCU assistant coach Jamall Walker reached out and he eventually met with head coach Bryce Drew, Grant-Foster knew he had to move to Phoenix.

Walker is from Kansas City, Kansas, where Grant-Foster played for Mokan Elite, a top grassroots program. He followed Grant-Foster as a youngster on basketball courts. When he saw Grant-Foster make a college basketball comeback, he immediately called Drew.

“He said, ‘I think we need to look at this kid, this kid is good,'” Willie said.

There was an immediate connection when Drew and Tyon first met. Drew, who rose to fame for The Shot in a March Madness game in Valparaiso in 1998, also had an arrhythmia in eighth grade and underwent three surgeries in eight months. He ended up playing six years in the NBA.

No other coach could relate to Grant-Foster at that level. Drew also knew what to look for in practice or a game to let him know to put him down.

“I kind of went through that process and know what it’s like,” Drew said. “My brother (Scott) has gotten some players committed to Baylor, so we knew a little bit about the process to go about it to see if it’s a possibility.”

‘They Showed Me Love’

After Grant-Foster signed with GCU in April 2023, he moved in with his cousin, former Suns player Ish Wainright. Grant-Foster still keeps in touch with Wainright, who is playing overseas this year. Wainright and Braun have always been in Grant-Foster’s corner, offering encouragement.

So many from his youth are still there for him, including his high school coach, Prentes Potts, who pushed him to be his best in the classroom and on the field.

“He has this fight, this dog inside of him that literally if you poke him, it will come out,” Potts said. “To see his success, to see where he’s at, I’m not surprised. I’m just glad he put it together before it’s too late.”

Now it’s time to turn it on in his final college basketball season to show that last season wasn’t a fluke, that the future looks bright.

Drew said many NBA scouts have already come through to watch him work out.

“Our guys have probably played on almost every team so far,” Drew said. “It’s been pretty cool for them, a great opportunity for them to be seen.”

He’s taken all the advice he got from NBA folks at the Chicago combine to make it the best offseason workouts of his life.

“I’m feeling my playmaking skills, making the right reads, making the simple play,” Grant-Foster said. “I knew that was an area that I needed to fix in my game. I feel like that was a really important piece when it comes to getting on the field and coming into this season.”

He has high expectations for himself and the team. He feels he owes it to the Grand Canyon. That’s why he came back for one more season.

“They showed me love,” Grant-Foster said. “So I feel that’s more than enough reason to show that love back.

“Sweet 16, Final Four, I feel like we can do it this year.”

Richard Obert has covered high school sports since the 1980s for The Arizona Republic. He also covers Grand Canyon University athletics and the Arizona Rattlers. To suggest human interest story ideas and other news, contact Obert at [email protected] or 602-316-8827. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter:@azc_obert