One of the big notes he made is that he is allowing players to go home after workouts before the season starts. When they return to campus, they will take the proper procedures to handle coming back and prepare for the season.
Walz praised the creativity of sports performance coach Kaitlynn Jones. She contacted the players to see what equipment they had at home and devised workout plans for each member of the program that worked with what they had at home.
The program has been relaxed and understanding with players' and coaches' concerns. That includes comfort levels of being in the gym or weight room as well as even any choices to sit out the upcoming season.
We did get an update on the incoming players with how they are adjusting to the college basketball level. So far so good, is the vibe Coach gave off.
The idea of the four guard lineup was tossed out there again. We should be seeing plenty of fast-paced, uptempo games this coming season.
Walz specifically mentioned the intense battles going on between senior guard Dana Evans and freshman Hailey Van Lith when they go one-on-one. They are intense and competitive but also beneficial to each student-athlete. They discuss with each other what they are doing to try and stop each other and ways they are looking to score against each other. This can only be quite beneficial when they go up against rival guard tandems in the ACC later this fall. The philosophy would most likely be...:"Hey, I've had Dana (or Hailey) pushing me to my limits for four months now, this guard from (pick your schol should be a piece of cake to score on."
A huge shout-out to Nick Evans for putting the video conference together, especially coming off recent hip surgery.
You can catch the full 20-minute video here:
Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!
Jared
I think it's a good idea to let the players head home for a few days as Walz mentioned in his video. Let's never forget that these are young adults with home lives and other things beside college and sports on their agendas.
ReplyDeleteI do wonder about Norika, Merissah and some of the others, like Hailey and Kianna, who would have long distances to travel to be able to do this, though.
For me, it's the same ol' punch in, do the work, punch out and go home. The kids here in Indiana are back attending school and I just have to wonder what kind of spike we'll see in CoronaVirus because of that.
Curtis "Be Kind" Franklin