Cliff Grassmick / Staff Photographer)
It wasn't the jump-start Jakub Dombek envisioned when he traveled half the world to try his hand at major college basketball in the United States.
Dombek had begun learning English back home in the Czech Republic a few years earlier, but practicing in a classroom proved a world of difference from needing a basic mastery of the language to deal with day-to-day life.
On top of that, while Dombek was comfortable with taking a redshirt season in his first year with coach Tad Boyle's Colorado men's basketball program, a young player tasked with using the year on the sideline to add bulk to his lanky frame was almost immediately waylaid by a strength-sapping bout of mono.