“It’s crazy timing, all of this,” he said roughly two hours before his team was set to tip off against Virginia powerhouse John Marshall. “I’ve been waiting for this day.”

The Quakers were playing in D.C. Live, a three-day recruiting event for high school programs from the area. For most players, D.C. Live provides a chance to reunite with teammates and showcase oneself for college coaches. For Rougier-Roane — a dynamic, fast-rising forward — it was a chance to take one more step toward normalcy. He wasn’t about to let a pesky illness stand in the way of that.

The last time he had taken the floor with his team was in early March, when he suffered a gruesome injury in the final minutes of the D.C. State Athletic Association championship game. With Sidwell minutes away from a second straight title, Rougier-Roane went up for a rebound and fell awkwardly. He felt tingling in his right leg and an ominous feeling in his gut. He looked down to see his kneecap askew.

He had dislocated his patella.

The school’s trainer ran over and tossed a Gatorade towel over his leg, shielding the grisly sight from the crowd inside George Washington’s Smith Center and, more importantly, Rougier-Roane himself. The pre-victory buzz that had been building inside the gym was halted as teammates, family and friends watched in near silence while the young player writhed in pain.

In the crowd, Margarete Rougier felt a sudden urge to leap over the barriers that stood between her and her injured son. A former college basketball player at Temple, Margarete could see from a distance the kneecap was dislocated. By the time she reached Rougier-Roane through a more socially acceptable route, the Sidwell trainers had popped it back into place.

“You’re going to be okay,” she told a panicked Jalen, trying hard to catch his eyes. “A dislocation is okay.”

After several minutes, Rouier-Roane was taken off the floor and the game resumed. Sidwell finished off a 62-47 win over Jackson-Reed, completing a dominant season with a state title. By the time the celebration began, Rougier-Roane was back on the bench with a large ice pack strapped to his knee. He watched as his teammates cut down pieces of the net. When they were finished, his coaches lowered the hoop so he could reach. His mom looked on and cried.

“I think moments like that let Jalen know that he has people who really care about him as a human being, not just as an athlete,” Margarete said. “It was all really special, and sometimes you don’t get to see those things until something bad happens.”

The next day, a doctor told him that the recovery would take six to eight weeks. That meant he would miss a good portion of his sophomore AAU season, a vital time in a player’s recruitment. The 6-foot-5 Rougier-Roane, who plays for the nationally celebrated Team Takeover program, privately worried about his future.

All he could do was wait. He hated physical therapy but threw himself into it nonetheless. When he wasn’t there, he would binge television shows in the open hours that had previously been earmarked for basketball.

“You have conflicting emotions as a parent of an athlete,” Margarete said of that time. “He was concerned about missing exposure. And I wasn’t happy about him being concerned, but I was glad he could get a break and slow down a little bit. You never want to have an injury make that happen, but that time gave him an opportunity to reflect.”

He returned to the court in May, playing with Team Takeover at events in Dallas and Memphis. His mom watched with no small amount of anxiety. She knew firsthand what it was like to come back from an injury, how difficult it was to convince your mind and body everything was fixed. They argued about whether or Rougier-Roane should wear a bulky knee brace. She felt better when he wore it; he didn’t like what it was doing to his jump shots.

He felt good being back out there, even if he wasn’t fully himself. He was hopeful colleges would see past this setback and remember the explosive player he was and would be. On June 15, members of the Class of 2025 were able to be contacted by schools for the first time. It’s a rite of passage for recruits, who stay up until midnight waiting for their phones to ring.

Rougier-Roane, dealing with more anticipation than most, was rewarded with several late-night calls. That day alone, he received scholarship offers from Xavier, Penn State and Towson. He has also received interest from Maryland, Indiana and Villanova. among others.

“That day was a sigh of relief,” Rougier-Roane said. “I had felt really behind.”

On Friday night, he estimated his knee was at about 95 percent. The illness also posed some problems, and he looked slightly stiff and a bit winded as Sidwell battled with John Marshall in the first half.

His knee was covered with black and white athletic tape, a doctor-approved compromise on the brace debate. If he lacked explosiveness, he made up for it with physicality. He crashed the boards, set picks and posted up on the low block. As the game, essentially a glorified scrimmage, went into overtime, Rougier-Roane played even harder. He scored all of his team’s points in the extra period, but the Quakers fell by one.

Reflecting on his return to the court, he agreed his mom had been right: There was some good that had come out of his long and difficult spring.

“The injury was probably helpful in the long run,” he said. “It forced me to step away from the game for a little bit. That makes you appreciate what you’ve done and realize that it all could be taken away from you at any moment.”