Questions About Our Player’s Summer Workouts | The Boneyard

Questions About Our Player’s Summer Workouts

jibsey

jibsey

Joined
Aug 27, 2011
Messages
18,880
Reaction Score
34,236
I don’t know if this has been discussed but does anyone know if all of the players have gone home or are many of them still working out and scrimmaging with each other in the practice facility? If so is this under coaches observation or instruction? I’m sure there will be some who go to special skills camps but I was just wondering if the Werth Center is empty at this time. Otherwise they all comeback when approximately?
 
Between the end of the spring semester and this past weekend the players were home. I know Alex was out in Chicago working out with his agency and their other clients and then went on vacation last week. Back to work this week. I expect Hurley will have the media in shortly and we'll get some more information where they are with everything.

Most of the 2025-26 UConn men's basketball team arrived on campus this weekend to begin classes and workouts on Monday. Dan Hurley likes to say the Huskies have an 11-month season that begins in June and, in a perfect world, doesn't end until April.

For eight hours a week (four on the court, four in the weight room) over the summer, the Huskies will try to start molding into form a unit that many believe is capable of a third national championship in four years.

Not everyone is in Storrs yet. Australian freshman Jacob Furphy will be playing in the U19 World Cup in Switzerland this summer, so he won't likely be on campus until July. Fellow freshman Eric Reibe, a German citizen, will also be playing in that event, but he's lived in the U.S. as a student at the Bullis School the past couple of years and is currently in Storrs. Furphy can only stay in the U.S. for a month, per his current visa, but UConn doesn't anticipate him having any issues enrolling at the school later this summer.


Alternate access:

UConn men's basketball: Three questions for Huskies as summer classes, workouts begin​

 
jibsey said:
I don’t know if this has been discussed but does anyone know if all of the players have gone home or are many of them still working out and scrimmaging with each other in the practice facility? If so is this under coaches observation or instruction? I’m sure there will be some who go to special skills camps but I was just wondering if the Werth Center is empty at this time. Otherwise they all comeback when approximately?
Expand ...
Check out today’s post on Instagram at uconnmbb
 
.-.
Furphy playing in the U19 World Cup in Switzerland this summer. Alot of us have watched what film there is on Furphy, and the film quality is iffy, and the competition seems iffy, so it's kind of hard to tell how good a player Jacob might be. Good size and toughness, good handle, good shooter, passes the ball well, and has a nice all-around team game, but still, kind of hard to get a solid read on him. I gotta think though, that he is going to be very good, and that one of the strong intangible parts of his game will be that he makes the players around him better with his experience playing internationally, sharing the ball more, a la what Neils Giffey, Sheffer, and Henefeld brought to the mix. Really looking forward to the team this season, we are stacked. #7
 
Son of Robert said:
Furphy playing in the U19 World Cup in Switzerland this summer. Alot of us have watched what film there is on Furphy, and the film quality is iffy, and the competition seems iffy, so it's kind of hard to tell how good a player Jacob might be. Good size and toughness, good handle, good shooter, passes the ball well, and has a nice all-around team game, but still, kind of hard to get a solid read on him. I gotta think though, that he is going to be very good, and that one of the strong intangible parts of his game will be that he makes the players around him better with his experience playing internationally, sharing the ball more, a la what Neils Giffey, Sheffer, and Henefeld brought to the mix. Really looking forward to the team this season, we are stacked. #7
Expand ...

All of his NBL1 games are free online. Plenty of film if you want to take the time to watch
 
jibsey said:
I don’t know if this has been discussed but does anyone know if all of the players have gone home or are many of them still working out and scrimmaging with each other in the practice facility? If so is this under coaches observation or instruction? I’m sure there will be some who go to special skills camps but I was just wondering if the Werth Center is empty at this time. Otherwise they all comeback when approximately?
Expand ...

They are on campus with some exceptions.

I’m told they will be doing daily calisthenics, like jumping jacks, some running, some basketball, maybe some weight lifting and also deep knee bends.

Jerry Seinfeld Comedy GIF
 
.-.
lateralous said:
Ha, I’m a Philadelphia Textile alum. Herb McGee was my gym teacher when he wasn’t off recruiting.
Expand ...
That’s awesome. My middle school basketball coach who was also my 6th grade math teacher used to show us this video and constantly referenced it. At practice, not in math class…
 
jibsey said:
I don’t know if this has been discussed but does anyone know if all of the players have gone home or are many of them still working out and scrimmaging with each other in the practice facility? If so is this under coaches observation or instruction? I’m sure there will be some who go to special skills camps but I was just wondering if the Werth Center is empty at this time. Otherwise they all comeback when approximately?
Expand ...
I suspect they're all there. The new guys are just showing up - seems like an odd time for the veterans to be leaving.
 
Its always amusing how the Coach will turn those 'new' smiling faces upside down when practice starts. Seeing them excited until then is always special.
 
.-.
Kitaman said:
Death practices.
Expand ...

I just don't understamd what you're saying. Is smiling while playing something that doesn't happen during practice? Because it definitely does.

Just a weird comment to me. The guys like playing basketball.
 
Son of Robert said:
Furphy playing in the U19 World Cup in Switzerland this summer. Alot of us have watched what film there is on Furphy, and the film quality is iffy, and the competition seems iffy, so it's kind of hard to tell how good a player Jacob might be. Good size and toughness, good handle, good shooter, passes the ball well, and has a nice all-around team game, but still, kind of hard to get a solid read on him. I gotta think though, that he is going to be very good, and that one of the strong intangible parts of his game will be that he makes the players around him better with his experience playing internationally, sharing the ball more, a la what Neils Giffey, Sheffer, and Henefeld brought to the mix. Really looking forward to the team this season, we are stacked. #7
Expand ...
Agree. Those guys are usually very fundamentally strong. We have had some "tough" guys over the last few years (Tyrese Martin, Sanogo, Andre Jackson, Cam Spencer, Stephon Castle to name a few). That size and ability can help a great deal on the boards. It's going to be fun watching how this whole team fits together. I think he will be a very key piece.
 
husky429 said:
I just don't understamd what you're saying. Is smiling while playing something that doesn't happen during practice? Because it definitely does.

Just a weird comment to me. The guys like playing basketball.
Expand ...
Guys don't normally smile during initial Championship level practice sessions after arriving on campus. Sure freshman/transfers smile initially and that's great to see, but just wait . . . .

Calhoun and Hurley both make initial practices too difficult to enjoy. All giggles stop the first week of practice (I'm only speaking of newcomers), is what I'm saying.
 
Kitaman said:
Death practices.
Expand ...
It's always a bad sign when your coach sets up six "vomit trash cans" before the start of your first practice. Corners and mid Court sidelines for your vomiting convenience.
 
.-.
Kitaman said:
Guys don't normally smile during initial Championship level practice sessions after arriving on campus. Sure freshman/transfers smile initially and that's great to see, but just wait . . . .

Calhoun and Hurley both make initial practices too difficult to enjoy. All giggles stop the first week of practice (I'm only speaking of newcomers), is what I'm saying.
Expand ...

This just isn't true at all.
 
husky429 said:
Pretty much. This is a silly take rooted in some weird 80s vision of what a basketball practice should be like. Hurley yelling and guys playing hard isn't some psycho coach running guys into the ground. Hurley doesn't do that. If you've watched many of his practices (I have), you'd know he's a PERFECTIONIST more than anything.

Practices are competitive. When guys win or don't make progress in practice, they smile. When they're frustrated or lose, they don't. This isn't that hard to get.
Expand ...
Day one practice is about surviving not positioning or competing. Vets know how to handle it. They may be smiling and jovial but it's mainly laughing at the rookies vomiting.
 
husky429 said:
Pretty much. This is a silly take rooted in some weird 80s vision of what a basketball practice should be like. Hurley yelling and guys playing hard isn't some psycho coach running guys into the ground. Hurley doesn't do that. If you've watched many of his practices (I have), you'd know he's a PERFECTIONIST more than anything.

Practices are competitive. When guys win or don't make progress in practice, they smile. When they're frustrated or lose, they don't. This isn't that hard to get.
Expand ...
I can't speak to Hurley's practices, but there were absolutely reports of freshman vomiting from Calhoun's first practices (one was Marcus Williams). Pretty sure AK also talked about a super tough practice late last season where Hurley made the team run stairs over and over in one of his interviews with Kotler.

Here's the vomit story:
A few hours earlier they had been celebrated as a team capable of hanging another championship banner at Gampel Pavilion and cheered by nearly 10,000 fans.

By midafternoon, as freshman guard Marcus Williams was vomiting in the corner of the gym, all of that was forgotten.

The UConn men’s basketball team got started for real with a stern three-hour practice Saturday.

“The usual first day,” Emeka Okafor said. “Coach never fails to disappoint.”

This usual first day was a message to a team that oozes talent and has been hyped without having won a game. The honeymoon ended with morning wind sprints.

Jim Calhoun’s infamous rebound drill was what undid Williams, who was caught in the spin cycle for about five minutes. After it was over he had to leave the floor. His new teammates understood.

“I remember after my first practice, afterwards I was in bed second-guessing myself,” Okafor said. “It was ‘Dang, is this for me? Am I meant to play this sport?’ I was hurting everywhere. I saw Marcus throwing up and it was ‘Welcome to the team.”‘

Williams finished practice. Even those not as affected were thankful when practice ended.


“I’m pretty happy I got this one out of the way and I’m still standing,” freshman Charlie Villanueva said. “Now I know what to expect.”

Actually, it usually gets a bit easier. For years the first practice has been a message from Calhoun to his players.

“Hopefully, the kids learned about the character of playing here,” Calhoun said. “The toughness they are going to need to be a team that other teams are going to look at and try to come after. Part of developing that toughness is not saying ‘No,’ to a rebound drill which means you say ‘No’ to not getting beat.”
Expand ...

Here's one article about JC:
It was a fairly typical first practice for the UConn men's basketball team. The freshmen were shocked by the intensity and the amount of running. Most of the players had a few colorful words spoken about them by the head coach.
Expand ...

And another:
IF Jim Calhoun would tell his players one anecdote before the season’s first practice, he might curtail how often he yells, stomps, and whirls around to the fans behind the Connecticut bench – arms raised and that look of and righteous outrage at the latest call that has gone against the Huskies.

If the players knew why Jim Calhoun is the most driven and one of the best coaches in college basketball, maybe they wouldn’t have to endure a practice like last Wednesday’s.

“I’m sure a few guys might have felt a tad bit of a blow-torch up their [you-know-what],” Calhoun said.
Expand ...

Jeremy Lamb talked about it in a recent interview:
"The first practice, right? They cover all the windows, cover everything, I'm sitting there like, 'What they about to do to us?,'" he said (at 20:58). "And that first practice was crazy. Oh my ... it was crazy, I'm sitting there like, 'Yo, what?' He had us running suicides, every time we do something wrong we gotta run a sprint. He cussin' us out, he goin' ham. He was like, your mom, your dad... they not here."
Expand ...

So, uh... not sure what you're talking about.
 
.-.
You must log in or register to reply here.

Forum statistics

Threads
168,640
Messages
4,587,417
Members
10,497
Latest member
Orlando Fos


Top Bottom