OSU ready for practice to begin
The business of basketball gets serious for the Beavers on Friday
By Cliff Kirkpatrick
Corvallis Gazette-Times
Business begins to pick up this weekend for the Oregon State men’s basketball team.
After an offseason of weightlifting and working out on their own, the players come together with the coaches and begin limited practice Friday.
There’s a new NCAA rule that allows all teams an opportunity to practice two hours a week, starting Sept. 15, until Oct. 15 when they begin going full time. That translates into 10 hours of organized practice during the next month.
In the past, there were different start times for semester and quarter system schools, which put quarter system programs such as OSU at a disadvantage. The Beavers had six hours of practice to the 14 by their semester counterparts because the start was based on when school began.
“That’s really good,” coach Jay John said. “Now it’s a uniform starting day for all schools around the country.”
John is eager to see his team on the court again. He expects to see improvement from the many young athletes who are back from last year’s squad that went 13-18, and tied for eighth in the Pacific-10 Conference.
The players have been on a loose schedule of lifting in the morning, school in the middle of the day and playing pickup games on their own at night throughout the summer.
“It’s not boot camp, but it is our time to get our academics ahead and build some team unity, and concentrate in the weight room,” John said.
What he’s really interested to see is the players’ use of their added bulk. The Beavers were at a physical disadvantage inside last season.
When the season ended, the returning players said they learned that offseason conditioning makes a difference and said they would work hard to become better players.
“I like how strong the guys are getting,” John said. “When you see their bodies, you’ll see their bodies changing. That’s good. I think this team has had the best commitment to the weight room than any of the teams we had. I’ve never felt we had a fully unified commitment to the weight room. That’s an area no one can lift the weight but the guy pushing the weight. We have more guys committed to pushing the weight, and not finding shortcuts in the weight room.”
Junior guard Angelo Tsagarakis has been one of those guys who hit the weights hard because he doesn’t want to go through another frustrating season.
Tsagarakis says there was a team bond built with the help of the new strength and conditioning staff during the summer.
“We broke down toward the end of games,” Tsagarakis said. “We were in close games that could come down to a possession or two, but we physically broke down. The better condition we are in, the better chance to get those wins.”
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