Managing his Type 1 diabetes has become virtually second nature to Marquette senior Jason Kobe.
It certainly hasn’t prevented the 6-foot-2 guard/forward from becoming a star for the Blazers.
“I’ve kind of gotten used to it now,” Kobe said. “It still affects me. Sometimes when I’m playing, I’ll have low blood sugar, and I’ll have to sit out, drink some Gatorade, eat a little snack.
“Especially during practice after school, I’ll have low blood sugar, so I’ll sit out for 15 minutes and come back in. It definitely affects me, but I’ve gotten pretty good at it and gotten used to it. It’s just something in my everyday life now.”
Kobe, who has committed to play at Manchester, has taken his game to new heights this season. He’s averaging 18.9 points, 3.2 assists and 1.9 steals — all team highs — and 5.0 rebounds for Marquette (16-7), which extended its winning streak to 11 games with a victory at West Side in its regular-season finale on Tuesday.
Kobe, who scored his 1,000th career point in January, is in his third season as a full-time starter but first cracked the lineup as a freshman.
“The physicality is there,” Marquette coach Ray Tarnow said. “He’s older and more mature. He’s doing things with the ball, finishing and stuff, he didn’t do last year. His shot’s quicker. He’s finishing better in the post.
“His feet have always been fantastic in the post, and now he’s finishing through contact. He finishes on kids who are 6-6, 6-7. People are like, ‘Wow, how’d he do that?’ He’s had a couple of nice dunks in games. It’s just all come to fruition for him.”
Tarnow called Kobe a “matchup nightmare.”
“Post or perimeter, he can do both,” Tarnow said. “That’s a problem. You put a big guy on him, he’s going to expose him on the perimeter. You put a little guy on him, he’s going to expose him in the post. It’s a big thing for us.”
Kobe said he was diagnosed with diabetes during the summer before fifth grade.
“I always had to go to the bathroom,” he said. “My mom kind of knew about it because her father — my grandpa — and her brother had Type 1 diabetes. She knew some of the symptoms. I got it checked out pretty early.
“I went to the hospital, but it wasn’t to the point I was unconscious or anything. We caught it pretty early. My blood sugar was really high.”
Kobe wears an insulin pump and a Dexcom system, a device that continuously monitors glucose levels. He still sticks himself at certain times to check his blood sugar.
“I test it before I eat, before practices and games,” he said. “Or if I’m feeling off, I’ll test it to see if my blood sugar is low or high.
“With the insulin, I have a little meter that I can put my blood sugar into, and it will regulate it from there. If I want to eat something, I put in how many carbs I’m eating, and it will calculate, so I don’t have to calculate on my own how much insulin to take. It’s pretty easy.”
Tarnow recalled Kobe having to take a brief break twice during practices this season. Tarnow said there haven’t been any incidents in games, as he knocked on wood.
“It’s a noticeable difference from sophomore year to junior year to senior year,” Tarnow said. “When he was younger, he’d have a tough time in practice a number of times, and he’d have to sit out. But athletically and just from his body, you can tell he’s a mature young man now. All that’s come together. He’s very much on top of it.”
Tarnow said participating in other sports has helped Kobe’s development, particularly after Kobe joined the cross country team as a junior for the first time. He made his tennis debut earlier this school year.
“It was fun,” Kobe said of tennis. “It was tough, but it was fun. I was just trying to do stuff to keep me in shape for the season.”
Kobe partnered at No. 1 doubles with senior guard Gary Lewis, another tennis novice.
“It was a fun experience,” Lewis said. “It really brought us closer as teammates.
“He has the heart of a lion. He really keeps the core of our team going. He’s a big part of us wanting to go far in the tournament.”
Marquette opens the Class 1A Triton Sectional against Westville (16-7) on Wednesday. With nine seniors on the roster — only one sophomore plays varsity minutes — the Blazers have been growing and building toward this opportunity for several seasons.
“We can go deep in the tournament,” Kobe said. “But we’re taking it one game at a time. We just play together. We play as one. Nobody plays selfishly.”
Kobe, whose father runs an AAU program and is a former coach in Portage, has been a central part of that ethos and the team’s progression into a veteran, experienced group.
Tarnow described Kobe as having an “even keel,” with observers unable to tell whether Marquette is “up 20 or down 20” and whether Kobe had “turned the ball over or made a big shot.”
“Jason’s had a really good year,” Tarnow said. “He’s always worked hard, and he’s really come into his body maturity-wise and athletically. He has a great basketball mind. His dad’s a coach, and he’s always been around the game. He’s an unselfish player. He’s very coachable and very knowledgeable.
“He’s one of our leaders, obviously offensively but also defensively. He does a lot of things that people don’t notice. He can guard the post. He can guard the perimeter. He just knows where to be. Even when he was younger, he was in the right position. He just physically couldn’t do it. Now he can physically do it.”
Tarnow also noted Kobe has grown an inch every season.
“He’s one of those kids who’s matured a little later,” Tarnow said. “The dexterity, the physicality — he’s just a different player this year. He’s light-years above last year.”