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St. Louis University freshman Dylan Warlick sat down with coach Josh Schertz in the lobby of the team’s hotel in Normal, Illinois, the night before SLU’s game with Illinois State. It was there that Schertz asked Warlick if he would be willing to drop his plan to redshirt this season and instead suit up for the Billikens. Schertz gave him some time to think about it.

“Give me your answer whenever,� Warlick recalled him saying. “If you want, it can be in the morning.�

Warlick didn’t need to sleep on it and four hours later made it official. In the interim, he talked to his parents and his high school coach, but he really didn’t need that long.

“Just as soon as he asked me, I kind of knew what my answer was going to be,� Warlick said, “because I want to play, I want to help the team. … My answer was to play.�

The saga of Warlick is one more curious aspect of a curious SLU season. Warlick had surgery after his high school season to fix a torn left hip labrum that he played through and that at times left him in such pain that he couldn’t walk after games. When the SLU season started in November, Warlick wasn’t fully recovered from the surgery so opted to sit out the season and save that year of eligibility for later.

But then freshman guard Josiah Dotzler tore knee ligaments. Junior guard Larry Hughes II left the program. Sophomore guard Kellen Thames kept coming down with severe cramps that at times rendered him unable to play. Suddenly the guard/outside shooter cabinet at SLU was getting empty.

“When Coach Schertz first brought up me dropping my redshirt, I was really surprised,� Warlick said. “But also not. We lost a lot of guys, but it was like, just being anxious about it and being excited about having a chance to actually play. I just didn’t think that was gonna end up happening, especially when I first joined the team. When the season started, I really thought that (the redshirt) was definitely gonna run throughout the season. Things came up, I’m both excited and anxious about it.�

The only uncertainty Warlick had about saying yes to his return is that he still has concerns about his fitness after having surgery so recently. His hip had troubled him since his junior year at high school in Oklahoma, but he played through the pain because he felt that not playing would ruin any chance he had of getting a scholarship. He finally had the surgery after his senior season and was recovering but then he also did something to aggravate his hip right around SLU’s season opener. Had Schertz asked two weeks earlier, Warlick said he would have said no because he didn’t feel ready to go. But Warlick felt he made a good deal of progress in those two week and wasn’t far off when the question finally came.

“Part of me was like, I want to get back full 100 percent, no doubt, because I’m at like, seven, eight months after surgery. So I could definitely take more time with my hip,� Warlick said. “I think I’ve done pretty good so far. Schertz talks with me about being able to play my defensive level and guarding ball screens, things like that. I think that just comes with more time, kind of getting more 100 percent back healthy, getting my legs under me more. And I think as the season progresses, hopefully, if I keep playing the way I am, that my minutes will also progress.�

An even tougher part was the mental side of things. When the decision was made in November to redshirt, his brain understandably kicked into “relax mode.� He was taking part in practice, but playing the other team. While teammates had to get themselves psyched up for games, he didn’t. He was going to be a spectator.

That changed quickly.

“That’s honestly the biggest problem for me,� he said, “almost kind of like a mental block, because obviously when you redshirt, you don’t have the pressure of ever going into a real game, and for that to change, just like one night and then the next day, you’re going out to actually play. I would say the biggest thing, just my focus level back to having to play, having to go in there.�

Against Illinois State on Dec. 15, six weeks after the season opener, Warlick played just under six minutes and made a free throw for his first point. Three days later at Chaifetz Arena against Wofford, he hit a 3-pointer and two free throws in five minutes of playing time.

He’d been in Chaifetz before for a game but this was the first time he was in the game.

“It was very different,� he said. “I never really kind of played in front of the school crowd. Obviously been around at the games, but it was a weird feeling too, right there, just because I’ve been there and never really thought I would ever play this year, and then go out there in front of all of them and actually get minutes, score a little bit, getting there play defense felt really good.�

Warlick is more than just someone to add depth to the thin SLU roster.

“Dylan’s got a good basketball IQ,� Schertz said. “He brings some things that we don’t have at the table. He’s got a physicality, a toughness that is not innate in this team. He’s pretty skilled. He can handle the basketball. There’s really not an analytic you can assign to him. He just understands how to win. He’s impactful.�

Now he’s got to make that impact. He played just three minutes against Grand Canyon, not getting off the bench in the second half as Schertz rode his starting five hard. That’s part of one of the complications to all this for Warlick. He had already missed nine games, almost a third of the season, and 12 games in he’s played just 15 minutes. To make this all worthwhile, he’s got to be able to play more minutes.

“I think I’m getting there, for sure,� he said. “Obviously, my wind has been getting better for sure, after not playing for a very long time. So I think that’s getting up there. I feel like I’m getting back to being 100 percent.�