Never before have the Marquette Golden Eagles so eagerlyanticipated the official open of practice.
Never before have the Marquette Golden Eagles so eagerlyanticipated the official open of practice. Although their initial session at 5 p.m. today will bring themthat much closer to the start of what’s expected to be a fourthstraight NCAA tournament run, it also leaves a new, grueling twistto pre-season workouts in the rear-view mirror.
“Boot Camp 2008,” one of many changes within the MU programinstituted by new coach Buzz Williams, was a twice-dailyconditioning regimen that concluded Tuesday. It left evenexperienced seniors like Jerel McNeal, Dominic James and Wesley Matthews shaking their heads and the team’s handful of newcomerswondering what the heck they’d gotten themselves into.
“That was the longest (10) days of my life,” junior forward Lazar Hayward said Thursday during MU’s annual media day. “We’re in reallygreat shape right now. The things that we were doing wereunbearable. But it was good for us.”
Williams’ boot camp workouts didn’t require basketballs or X’sand O’s, instead focusing strictly on players running a timed seriesof sprints in groups. If one player didn’t make the standard,neither did the rest of the members of his group, necessitating theyall run again until each made the time.
“It’s by far the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life,without question,” said graduate manager Jamie McNeilly, who wentthrough boot camp himself while playing for Williams at New Orleansin 2006-’07. “But you learn about your teammates. There’s still someguys I’m not too close to because they kind of revealed who they arethrough boot camp.”
Williams said the boot-camp concept was created by Bill Self whenhe was coaching at Oral Roberts. From there Self took it with him toTulsa, Illinois and then Kansas, where he won the national title inApril.
“I don’t believe in running our guys from a conditioning basisfrom the first day of school to the first day of practice,” Williamssaid. “So what it is from a physical standpoint is it’s a veryconcentrated yet condensed version of conditioning.
“There’s not a ball, so they have to rely on one another –whether it’s a slow guy, fast guy, a young guy, returning guy — andthey have to learn to communicate with one another. They wereentering into a situation every single session where they didn’tknow what they were entering into, so they had to rely on oneanother.”
Added strength and conditioning coach Todd Smith, “I was proud ofthem, and I don’t say that very often.”
Once the Golden Eagles wrapped their boot camp up on Tuesday,Williams awarded each player with the requisite camouflage shirt.The workouts not only helped form the conditioning foundation for ateam that will seek to speed up the pace of play to offset a hugesize disparity, but also gave Williams a good handle on the team’smental makeup.
Cubillan recovering: His availability for the start of theregular season in question earlier this summer after double-shoulder surgery, junior guard David Cubillan now appears to be inline to take part in the Golden Eagles’ opener Nov. 14.
Cubillan, who knocked down 42.5% of his three-pointers as afreshman, saw that number drop to 33.6% last season as he battledpain in both shoulders. With the three-point arc moving back a fullfoot this season, Cubillan’s presence figures to be big.
Even still, Williams will take it slow with him to ensure he’llbe fully healthy by the open of Big East play.
“Three minutes before I walked in, one of his doctors had justgiven him clearance for contact; limited contact,” Williams said.”He can practice. He’s not cleared to play; when that will happen, Ithink the final answer is going to be related to the pain.
“But he’s ahead of schedule probably 26 to 28 days. We need him.”
Shooting around: The Golden Eagles will spend the opening weekendof practice in the Chicago area. They took part in a tip-off dinnerThursday night, and this morning they’ll spend time with a group ofSpecial Olympians before practicing at the University of Chicago. .. .
MU will travel to Nebraska to scrimmage the Cornhuskers on Nov.2. That takes the place of one of the Eagles’ exhibition games. . ..
All but one of MU’s regular-season games will be televised, with12 scheduled for national TV.
Copyright 2008, Journal Sentinel Inc. All rights reserved.
