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October 13, 2014

Last Monday was our first official practice. We came back and worked Tuesday and Wednesday, and all three of those first practices were very intense. I felt like we made some progress defensively while still being able to get a decent amount of offense in.

We lightened up Thursday, because you can’t put your team through five straight days of intense workouts right from the start. That day consisted of a lot of shooting and a lot of dummy work, which is 5-on-0 offensive work – transition offense, baseline out of bounds, sideline out of bounds and half-court offense. We came back Friday afternoon with another intense workout before giving the team Saturday and Sunday off.

That’s what I really like about this new rule, which was put in place last year. It enables you to keep your team fresher. With the old rule, when you started on the closest Friday to Oct. 15, you’re trying to cram everything in. Back then, you had 20 hours per week and only had to give your team one day off each week. With the new rule, you can give your guys a couple days off, which lets them come back to practice fresh.

This week, we’d like to come back and workout Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and then give them another two days off on Friday and Saturday. We’ll bring them back to practice Sunday night. This may be the last time they get two consecutive days off, but I think it’s important for them to get that rest starting out.

From an injuries standpoint, Andre Brown was able to go all five days of practice last week. His ankle is fully recovered. Ben Dillard was the only one of our guys who missed practices last week, and that was our decision. We chose to hold him out Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday with a hip flexor, which had hampered him off and on for the last month. Along with Michael Switlik, we decided to give him a few days in hopes of getting him back healthy. He was able to go Thursday morning and got up plenty of shots and put in a lot of conditioning work, and then was able to go full speed on Friday. So overall, through our first week of practice we are pretty healthy.

As I’ve said numerous times, I like the mindset of this team. Their attention to detail and their work ethic are both outstanding. Like you’d expect with a team full of upperclassmen, these early practices have been good. As a coaching staff you never want to have to coach effort. You hope to have your seniors police that and set that tone by example. I believe our guys have done that.

I think J.T. Thomas is our most vocal leader. Ben Dillard is probably the second-most vocal, but also is great about leading by example. DeVonte Smith and Gus Leeper are both mostly quiet guys that lead by example. But I’m very pleased with all four of those seniors. Like I’ve said before, I know J.T. isn’t technically a senior, but he’s in his second year with us and very much in a leadership position.

Another player that I keep coming back to is James White. Coming out of the spring and summer, he has matured so much to this point. As a fourth-year junior, his consistency is better and he’s had a really good offseason. I know John Barron has reinforced that to me numerous times. I expect James to have a very good year.

As we go into this second week of practice, we’ll continue to move quickly on the offensive end. Having 13 juniors and seniors allows you to be much more advanced with what you do each practice. That’s one of the advantages of having a veteran team.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for a great turnout at SpectacUALR. It was a very energetic and exciting evening that again was a great event. I thought Dana Kleine, Larry Golden and Leah Thorvilson and the SpectacUALR committee worked very hard and did an excellent job.

Finally, we’ll have our annual Meet the Trojans event Thursday, Nov. 6 at the Jack Stephens Center. We’d love to see a great turnout this year! We will introduce the teams, have a 3-point contest and will have a short intrasquad scrimmage. The doors open at 5 p.m. and we’ll get the event started at 5:30.