In February, Ben Koné walked around the SoMa district of San Francisco with his Great Pyrenees named Bo and a sunny optimism disparate from the feeling inside his torn-up left knee.
It was the evening before the former San Jose Mercury News high school player of the year underwent surgery to repair a torn ACL and a meniscus ripped in three places. Koné, the first commitment of Oregon State's 2016 basketball class, left his apartment knowing his body would go through its greatest challenges to date before he could venture out with his two-year-old, 135-pound dog.