| | Gabe Muoneke doesn't expect his groin to be sore, or his legs to tire in February.
Not after another September under Todd Wright.
Wright is the basketball-only strength coach at Texas. He's one of the few, if not the only one in the nation, and has put together a conditioning program that is not only sport specific, but also Rick Barnes-unique in that it focuses on the muscles the Longhorns will use during the season.
While most teams began individual workouts, track running and standard weight lifting this week, Texas is going through the toughest part of its season.
"If you make it in September, you'll make it the rest of the season," Muoneke said. "`The year before they got here (under Tom Penders), you could see a fatigue dropoff and mental lapses settling in. But we didn't last season. Everything early in the year tests your mental toughness. Instead of us getting tired, they'll be tired of playing us."
| |  | | Gabe Muoneke has increased his bench press to 380 pounds and his vertical jump is up to 37 inches. |
Barnes traditionally plays an ugly style of brash basketball. His players are usually physically fit, and will clamp down at the defensive end. Offense hasn't been as finesse. However, he said it's because he couldn't get those type of players at Providence and Clemson. He now can at Texas, making this the best of both worlds for him and Wright.
He found Wright at Clemson after his strength coach didn't want to leave Providence. When he took the job at Clemson, Barnes said he needed his own strength coach. Wright was assigned to basketball, something he wanted after growing weary of dealing with a lack of discipline in football.The two met and fell in love with each other's ideas of how to strengthen the mind and the body.
"The players come first," said the 29-year old Wright, who is entering his seventh year with Barnes. "I love his philosophy. He really believes he can win a national championship. When I was with the football program it was out of control. This was more like I knew.
"I was with Boston College before with Jim O'Brien and Tom Coughlin, and there was more structure. Coach Barnes is willing to work his ass off to get a national championship. He's a little crazy, but you feel good after you win because of all the hard work."
When he went to Texas, Barnes said he wouldn't take the job unless athletics director DeLoss Dodds would let him hire Wright. He is paid out of the basketball budget. Not too many schools in Division I can afford to hire a fulltime strength coach. It's more of an NBA thing to have a basketball-specific strength and conditioning coach.
Wright is technically another assistant, even though he can't be on the floor during practice. In fact, Wright never has a basketball with him.
"To me, player development is the most important thing," Barnes said. "Todd is our preventive guy. The first couple of weeks our players are sore now. But when practice starts, we won't have the injuries other teams do."
Wright has the players lift Monday, Wednesday and Friday. On Tuesday and
Thursday they do strictly movement workouts. The lifting is based more on
flexibility than bulk. The movements are agility drills, mimicking practice
stations. Wright said he has the players over-exaggerate a defensive slide
drill, so much that Muoneke said he's almost two inches off the floor.
"It's amazing because when you're doing defensive slide work you're so low that in the game, it's easier," Muoneke said. "We get in and really stretch the small muscles. We work a lot on flexibility in our hips. It's physically demanding, but it teaches us good habits and trains us mentally."
Muoneke is up to 6-foot-6, 250 pounds, and can bench press 380 pounds. His vertical jump is up to 37 inches. The senior power forward, and 7-foot junior center Chris Mihm, give the Longhorns one of the top frontcourts in the Big 12.
Mihm had trouble getting low at first, but Wright put bands on his feet, gave him a medicine ball under his chin and had him mimic movements in the post. He got it soon
after that. If Ivan Wagner and Chris Owens can produce on the wings, the Longhorns have a chance to get back to the NCAA Tournament.
"If you play hard on defense, it doesn't matter what kind of shooting night you're having," Wright said. "We take pride in locking people down. You can run uptempo, but you may not guard anybody."
Muoneke doesn't buy that the Longhorns can't score. They held teams to 64.9 points, scored 68.4 and still won the Big 12 regular season before losing to Oklahoma State in the conference tournament semifinals. They finished 19-13 (losing to Purdue in the first round of the NCAA Tournament) after starting the year 1-5.
"Last year was a learning year for us," Muoneke said. "Our offense will be a lot more fluid. Hey, we still made more free throws (540) than our opponents attempted (Texas opponents actually attempted 587 free throws). We're getting shots up. Physically teams have to foul us to stop us."
Barnes said his approach isn't crazy, but rather common sense.
"We have an obligation to follow up with them after we recruit them and make them the best they can be," Barnes said. "Todd's really into it and at the end I don't want anyone to say you could have done more. More people are doing this than people think. But we do have the commitment here from Texas."
On the hot seat?
Rutgers coach Kevin Bannon is trying to survive despite a probe into a strip free-throw shooting contest two years ago with two former players and two managers and a celebrity bartending stint during the summer. So, far, it's too early to tell if it's having any effect on the Scarlet Knights' recruiting. The results won't be out until the November signing period.
Having the contest was stupid, crude and a reprimand should have been given.
But it wouldn't make sense to fire him, considering athletic director Robert Mulcahy reviewed it two years ago.
Rutgers has taken a public relations hit and the embarrassment could cause harm over the next year. Clearly, Seton Hall will have the better recruiting class, but Rutgers wasn't going to get any of the three players the Hall hauled in last month.
Bannon told the Word this week that throughout the ordeal he has the support of the university. Publicly that appears to be the case, as well as privately, in the sightings of Mulcahy and high-ranking academic officials up to the vice president and president at ease in Bannon's office, as told to the Word from a source within Rutgers.
"Everybody has been tremendous," Bannon said of the university. "Even though everyone thinks it has damaged recruiting, it hasn't. I've got a 20-year recruiting record in this business. The stuff that people have tried to put on the street is so ridiculous that no one is listening. We have a healthy program and everybody is excited about the upcoming season. There's nothing but optimism here."
Bannon said he may have lost some credibility over this incident, but he said his track record over the past 20 years within a 50-mile radius of
Rutgers -- from high school to Division III to a low-D-I at Rider -- will get him
through the ordeal.
Usually, time heals quickly, and the reality is Rutgers alumni will likely forgive him if the Knights can forge ahead and make a run at the NCAA Tournament or the NIT again (their first postseason bid in seven years). They lost incoming 7-footer Josh Moore (ineligible), but do have some of the better young talent in the Big East in forwards Rashod Kent and Dahntay Jones and guard Jeff Greer.
"We've got an answer at every position," Bannon said. "This year it's a matter of sticking together. We'll probably mature later in the season and if we can pull that off, the talent will rise to the top."
Weekly Chatter
UTEP athletic director Bob Stull met with Texas-San Antonio head coach Tim Carter earlier in the week and was expected to meet with Kentucky assistant Shawn Finney by midweek. He was in Los Angeles on Wednesday to meet with UCLA assistant Jim Saia and could be setting up a visit with Oklahoma assistant Jason Rabedeaux.
It looks like Stull is making a clean break from Don Haskins with this hire. He's not likely going after anyone with a connection to the retired, legendary coach. Expect a hire by next week.
Teams like UTEP are running scared in the WAC if SMU and TCU
get invited to Conference USA. It's clear that the Dallas-Fort Worth schools
will likely bolt. The question is will they be asked? Conference USA
commissioner Mike Slive was given the charge by his presidents to pursue
expansion over the next two weeks. TCU and SMU are the primary targets.
Navy doesn't want to be in a football conference with Army, lessening the impact of its annual
game. TCU and SMU make the most sense for Conference USA by adding two
programs with football tradition (even if it's decades old) to give it 12 -- South Florida will likely be added as a football member in 2001.
East Carolina and Army are football-only members. However, should the basketball
league go to 14? Basketball-only members DePaul, UNC Charlotte, Saint Louis
and Marquette may want the Dallas-Fort Worth market -- something TCU and SMU
don't really deliver -- but they aren't thrilled with a big league. The WAC learned how difficult that was when it was at 16.
The tournament will be exclusive, leaving teams home. The schedule will create an imbalance with likely 12 games within a division, four crossover games (which clearly won't be fair when a team draws Cincinnati). It'll also dilute a financial pot
that's not too rich.
However, TCU and SMU need to energize their populous and will likely go if asked. Where would that leave the WAC? Dead in the eyes as a major conference.
They would immediately bring in Boise State with Utah State, New Mexico State, North Texas and Idaho next in line to stay at nine (Nevada
joins in 2000-01). Rice, Tulsa, UTEP, San Jose State, Fresno State and Hawaii
can't afford another hit like this after expected financial losses when eight
former WAC schools bolted last year to form the Mountain West.
The MWC could still add Fresno State to go to nine schools and help create balance within football scheduling. With only eight members this fall, some teams have three league home games while others have four. It would be a scheduling hassle in basketball, but these decisions are made for football. If TCU and SMU were to reject a move to Conference USA it would be the most ardent show of support for the WAC since the eight left. But don't expect it.
Minnesota accomplished its two main goals on its trip to London, Paris and Brussels: build a bond with new coach Dan Monson and create confidence in a point guard.
The Gophers returned 1-5 on the trip and Monson even got tossed in the finale.
"It gave us a chance to evaluate our personnel and get to know each other," said Monson, who left Gonzaga to take over the academic-scandal ridden program left by Clem Haskins.
Monson got tossed because of his disdain over how center Joel Przybilla was being watched. He started most games with a few fouls in the first few minutes.
"One game I think they gave him six or seven," Monson said.
He said Przybilla is up to 260 (some 30 pounds heavier) and has developed more
of a post game since Gonzaga bounced the Gophers out of the NCAAs last March.
But the most pressing issue was finding a point. Terrance Simmons seems to be settling into the role. He led the team on the trip and Monson said he emerged as the team's leader.
"That's what we needed to happen," Monson said.
Kevin Nathaniel, a backup at the point and shooting guard, hit the mid-range shots, especially off screens. Kevin Burleson, who redshirted last season, got some valuable time, too. Mitch Ohnstad, an erratic shooter, found his stroke on the trip. Reserve center Kyle Sanden didn't make the trip. The Gophers bring in three potential contributors inside who weren't allowed to go, either: 6-11, 260-pound Ryan Wildenborg; 6-6 Shane Schilling, and 6-8 Mike Bauer.
Now that the craziness of the summer has subsided -- leaving Gonzaga, taking over Minnesota, getting married, a honeymoon in Hawaii, two trips to Europe coaching Minnesota and assisting on the World University Games team and some recruiting -- Monson and his wife Darci finally can move from Spokane and find a house on the Twin Cities.
Michigan State joined Alabama and Seton Hall as one of the top three recruiting classes, thus far, when the Spartans got early commitments from Lansing's Waverly High point guard Marcus Taylor and Marion High (Ind.) forward Zach Randolph. Taylor was expected for over a year because of his fondness for the program and desire to work out with the Spartans as much as possible. Randolph became a given when he befriended Taylor during the summer.
Taylor should step right in and replace Mateen Cleaves in 2000-01, while the 6-8, 265-pound Randolph could do the same for Andre Hutson. Taylor and Randolph are consensus top 10 players, giving the Spartans easily the top class in the conference and likely a top five class by the end of recruiting in June.
Alabama recently received commitments from forwards Gerald Wallace and Mario Austin, both in-state as well as nationally ranked top 10 players. Seton Hall pulled off a rare three-player commitment with top 25 players center Eddie Griffin (a potential No. 1), point guard Andre Barrett and shooting guard Marcus Toney-El.
UNLV assistant Max Good, the former head coach at Maine Central
Institute, still may land his former player Caron Butler, even though the
forward gave an oral commitment to Connecticut. He made an unofficial visit
to UNLV last week. Meanwhile, the Rebels are still trying to get San
Bernardino College forward Lou Kelly into school, possibly by December
instead of having him go to Los Angeles City College.
The Rebels passed on Fresno City point guard Mike Garrett after he couldn't get eligible. He's expected to return to Brigham Young (where he was banned for a year because
of an Honor Code violation) in mid-December, assuming he passes the classes
he needs to be eligible.
Oklahoma State massive redshirt junior center Roy Candley is
still not ready to contribute. Candley came to the Cowboys at 7-2, 426 pounds
from Panola JC (Texas) last January. Assistant coach Sean Sutton said he got
his weight down to 360 in June but he's back to 380. Sutton said he needs to
be at 325 to play.
"We took him as a project but he does have the ability with his good hands and soft touch," Sutton said. "But he's overweight and he can't get up and down the court. He's the biggest guy I've ever seen."
Candley has two years to go, but he's not a necessity for the Cowboys. They've
got 6-10 senior Alex Webber, 6-10 sophomore Fredrik Jonzen and 7-0, 300-pound
North Idaho JC transfer Jason Keep in the middle. The Cowboys will challenge
Kansas for the Big 12 title with senior starters Glendon Alexander, Desmond
Mason, Joe Adkins and Doug Gottlieb back.
North Carolina shouldn't fret over Brendan Haywood's torn
ligaments in his left thumb if he returns as quickly as expected. Haywood was
the surprise of the summer with his 10.9 points and 6.3 rebounds on the U.S.
World University Games gold-medal team. The 7-foot center's play cooled the
fears of the Tar Heels coaching staff after they lost incoming freshman
forward Jason Parker (ineligible) and junior forward Vasco Evtimov (to a
professional contract in Europe).
Haywood is a likely preseason all-American and officials at North Carolina don't expect the minor surgery to keep the junior from practicing on Oct. 16. The Tar Heels should go with Haywood in the middle with 6-10 sophomore Kris Lang at power forward. Haywood averaged 12 points, 6.9 rebounds, blocked 60 shots and shot 64.8 percent -- the third best in school history -- as a sophomore.
Xavier finally filled its schedule with an ESPN2 game against
Princeton in Cincinnati. The game will be the first of a home-and-home
series. Xavier won't have 6-3 David Young for the game. The incoming shooting
guard didn't make it academically. They may not have 6-foot point Lionel
Chalmers, either. He's not eligible but the Musketeers are appealing to the
NCAA. If they lose, they'll have only one true point -- Maurice McAfee on the
team.
Meanwhile, Alabama got dumped by Rhode Island for a nonconference game in
Tuscaloosa, forcing the Tide to search for a last-minute replacement. Boston
College could be an option, which may get out of its date at Vanderbilt after
it was switched -- against their will -- to an opener.
Fresno State picked up its second local transfer in as many weeks when USC reserve forward Shannon Swillis left for the Bulldogs. Swillis played sparingly in three seasons with the Trojans. He'll have one season left (2000-01), two if he can get a medical hardship for a broken foot as a freshman. The former Fresno Bullard High forward followed Arkansas forward and former Washington High forward Chris Jefferies after he transferred last week.
Want to know which team may be the worst in Division I this year? New Hampshire. Former coach Jeff Jackson led an exodus when he departed
to be an assistant at Vanderbilt. First-year coach Phil Rowe (formerly of
in-state Division II Keene State) came in after eight players bolted: 6-4 junior
captain Carmen Marciariello (11 ppg); 5-9 freshman point Will Chavis (9.6
ppg, 3.9 apg); 6-10 sophomore center Ethan Cole (12 ppg, 7.5 rpg), 6-6
sophomore Andy Cavo (11.3 ppg) and reserves 5-11 freshman Drew Dawson, 5-10
junior Jelani Phillips, 6-11 junior Keil Zepernick and 6-7 freshman Mike
Boyd. Cole transferred to Syracuse while Cavo and Zepernick went to Siena.
The rest? No one's quite sure.
With four of the top scorers gone, the top returner is 6-8 Jeff Senulis (5.8 ppg). New Hamphsire has some balance in size with 6-2 Colin Donahue, 6-4
Chris Brown, 6-7 Assane Faye, 6-6 Austin Ganly, 6-4 Brett LaFlem and 6-10 Rob Marquardt in addition to three newcomers 5-11 Marcell Williams, 6-2 Mark Yeaton and 6-1 Ruben Bush. The Wildcats, who play in the America East, will
get drilled when they face Stanford in a tournament in Palo Alto (where
Jackson was a former assistant), at Florida and, likely at Boston College.
The recruitment of the largest player in high school has picked
up as September begins. Neil Fingleton, the 7-6 center from Holy Name High in
Worcester, Mass., is being hotly pursued by Boston College, Notre Dame,
Connecticut, Ohio State and North Carolina. Wake Forest was in there, too,
but received a commitment from 7-foot German Jamiel Schoetz, who was playing
at High Point High (N.C.).
How much has basketball been a hit in the deep South?
Traditional football school Auburn -- clearly known for its hoops the past year with a No. 1 seed in the '99 NCAA Tournament -- will hold its first Midnight Madness (on Oct. 15) since the 1989-90 season.
Utah coach Rick Majerus is right in refuting the way the NCAA computes graduation rates. The Word has addressed the issue many times and it
still makes no sense that a school is penalized for a player leaving but then
the second institution isn't rewarded when he graduates. Ohio State senior
point guard Scoonie Penn or Michigan State's Mike Chapell are both easy
examples. Penn will count against Boston College where he matriculated -- the
same for Chapell at Duke -- but their present schools will get no credit if
they graduate. Graduation rates should be defined by players who finish their
eligibility with the school.
Majerus was contesting a story in USA Today that listed Utah's graduation rate from the 1989-90 to 1992-93 season as being 29 percent. He said graduation rates don't include players who go on Mormon Church missions, who usually take six to seven years to finish. The NCAA gives only a five-year period for a degree.
"Our graduation rate is really almost 90 percent," Majerus said. "The
only players who haven't are Keith Van Horn, Michael Doleac (both in the
NBA), Paul Afeaki and Brandon Jessie. We're being blamed for players who left
the program or were dismissed. It's unfair how the NCAA compiles them by
looking only at the freshmen. Look, Andy Jensen came here and wasn't going to
play, went to Weber State and he counts against us and not for them after he
graduated there."
Andy Katz of the Fresno Bee is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. The Weekly Word on college basketball will be updated on Thursdays throughout the offseason.
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