It’s an exciting time for us as we get started with the beginning of the school year. The first part of August is always a great time for the players and coaches to spend time with their families and get refreshed for the start of the long, exciting journey of the season. It’s crazy to think that a year ago today, I was over in Beijing helping out Team USA and our hunt for the Olympic Gold Medal. Man, how time flies!
All of guys are now back on campus and ready to get to work towards our goal of being a championship team this year. For us coaches, it is always good to see how each of the players have improved over the summer with their skills and strength and conditioning work. Because of NCAA rules, from the time the spring semester ends until the fall semester begins, none of the coaches are allowed to perform any on the court instruction with our players. So, basically since the end of April, we haven’t seen any of our guys play or do anything basketball related. We were able to give each of the guys the things we wanted them to concentrate on during the summer, and then it was up to them to put in the work. The start of school gives us a chance to see how much that work has paid off, as well as integrating our freshmen class into the mix and getting them up to speed as quickly as possible.
Were really looking forward to seeing what our team will become this year. We feel that we have the talent and experience to be one of the better teams in the country. Now, we have to figure out exactly how to get the most out of the group we have. You always want to place your players in a position to maximize their strengths and limit their weaknesses. That’s the fun part of coaching! It was exciting to see Kyle and Jon recognized by being named to the Pre-season Wooden Award List. It was definitely well deserved. Both of those guys should have outstanding seasons and be amongst the best players in the country. Were also looking forward to seeing how the other guys will step up and emerge as players. Certainly we lost a lot with last year’s seniors, G and Elliot, but we are confident that the guys we have can get it done. Once again, we will have a challenging schedule and we will need to be ready to bring it every night.
Well, there’s a lot of work to be done, so it’s time to get going!
Talk to you soon,
Coach Collins
Tags: "chris collins"
