Huron's A.J. Mathew is the AnnArbor.com Washtenaw County boys basketball player of the year.

Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com

Huron High School point guard A.J. Mathew reached for his phone and called Kyle Baker.

Mathew knew his River Rats teammate would answer. He knew Baker didn’t have plans.

It was Saturday, March 26, the day of the Class A boys basketball state finals, a day they had both thought about for the 364 days that preceded it. But instead of playing at the Breslin Center in East Lansing -- as they had the year before -- the teammates were sitting at home.

Mathew had gotten keys to the Huron gymnasium from coach Waleed Samaha, so he called Baker and told him meet him on the court.

When Baker arrived, he asked Mathew if he knew what was going on. Kalamazoo Central -- a team Huron beat earlier in the year -- was beating Detroit Southeastern for a state championship.

Of course Mathew knew.

“I was like, ‘Yeah,’ and (Baker) was just like, ‘Let’s get better,’” recalls Mathew. The two didn’t speak of it again.

One hundred shots turned into 200. Then 300. Then 400. Then 500.

“When we felt like leaving, we just kept coming back for more because we knew the game was still going on,” Mathew said. After putting up close to 1,000 shots, Mathew and Baker went to the weight room. The weights, like the shots before them, just kept adding up.

“It helped me being at the gym at the time,” Mathew said. “Making myself better instead of sitting at home watching people do what we dreamed of.” Huron, which lost in last year's Class A final, was ranked No. 2 and among the favorites to win a state championship when they were upset by Detroit Catholic Central in a Class A regional semifinal. Two weeks later, Mathew didn’t want to sulk.

That’s not how he had won the starting point guard position as a freshman. That’s not how he had become the third player in Huron history to score more than 1,000 career points.

So Mathew went to work.

“I always say true character is defined by how you respond to adversity,” said Mathew.

It’s an injustice to begin a discussion of Mathew’s senior season on the subject of its shortcomings. Mathew averaged 13 points, 3.1 assists, 4.2 rebounds and one steal for the 21-2 River Rats. For his career, he finished with a 3:1 assist-to-turnover ratio and 1,129 points while leading Huron to three consecutive district championships and a state runner-up finish in 2010.

For the second straight year, Mathew is AnnArbor.com’s Washtenaw County boys basketball player of the year.

But he’d trade it all to change the result of his team’s early tournament exit this year, right?

Not quite.

“I wouldn’t change anything about it,” Mathew said. “Everything happens for a reason. I think it will help us as players and as people.”

As a four-year starting point guard at Huron, A.J. Mathew finished with a 3:1 assist-to-turnover ratio and 1,129 points while leading Huron to three consecutive district championships and a state runner-up finish in 2010.

AnnArbor.com file photo

Some of Mathew’s perspective comes from dealing with adversity this past summer. With little else but basketball on his mind, Mathew was full bore into a training regimen to prepare him for his senior year and college after that.

Between playing, lifting, pool workouts and a running, Mathew had little time for much else. At the urging of his father, Ajay -- for no particular reason -- Mathew had his eyes examined. After noticing white rings inside of his eyes, the optometrist recommended Mathew get some blood tests, which revealed a cholesterol level well over 300.

Suddenly, a 17-year-old, well-conditioned elite athlete receiving Division I scholarship offers was being told by a doctor that he wasn’t healthy.

High cholesterol runs in Mathew’s family. The doctor told him he was a prime candidate to be dead from a heart attack before the age of 40 unless major lifestyle changes were made.

Shortly thereafter, Mathew was off fast food and on medication. Pop was out, V8 vegetable juice was in. His mother, Melissa, even started buying him low-calorie Gatorade, which A.J. calls “gross.”

The startling diagnosis was a blessing, Mathew said. With his new and improved diet and off-season training regimen, Mathew dropped from 198 pounds to 175 and -- despite the weight loss -- Samaha noticed Mathew was stronger than ever, and quicker.

“He improved his ability to get to the rack, he improved his ability to finish in traffic, and then I think (the weight loss) helped him defensively in terms of being able to get in the press,” Samaha said.

Mathew will take his game down US-23 to the University of Toledo next year, where he’ll be on a full basketball scholarship. It’s far enough away, he said, where he can become his own man, but close enough to where his family can still watch him play. Much to the liking of Melissa -- who A.J. describes as a basketball fanatic.

Who will no doubt miss Mathew next year is Samaha, who has the formidable task of replacing a four-year starting point guard who also carried a 4.0 grade point average.

Those don’t just come around every day.

“Whenever your best player is your best leader, you’ve got a chance to be really good and he’s been a great leader since the day he walked in here,” Samaha said. “I’m in denial. I would love to stand here and say we don’t rebuild, we reload. I would love to stand here and say that.

"But the reality is, when you lose eight seniors, especially four that were three-year starters, there’s no replacing that.”

Pete Cunningham covers sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at petercunningham@annarbor.com or by phone at 734-623-2561. Follow him on Twitter @petcunningham.