“Boot Camp” is a popular term for tough pre-season workouts. Frank Haith actually had his Missouri players work out with the National Guard, and VCU’s Shaka Smart has had his squad train with a former Navy Seal. Bill Self’s workouts at Kansas don’t have any actual military component, but they are known to be intense.
Memphis transfer Tarik Black, who will play one season for the Jayhawks, just completed the KU boot camp and declared it one of the hardest thing’s he’s ever done in his basketball career.
“Later on in the season, I actually fell out of shape a little bit,” Black told the Lawrence Journal-World, referencing his junior season at Memphis. “The things we went through at Boot Camp ... people would be shocked to see me doing that stuff now. They definitely would be. We got through it, came together as a team and now, here we are.”
Kansas will look to Black for some leadership on a team that will have to rely heavily on freshmen. The senior transfer told the newspaper that he was impressed with what the new kids showed him during the week of heavy-duty practices filled with running and workouts.Black said he was impressed with the effort of KU’s six freshmen — Joel Embiid, Brannen Greene, Conner Frankamp, Frank Mason, Wayne Selden and Andrew Wiggins.
“If I was a freshman going through this stuff I would have given up. I can honestly say that right now,” Black said. “We didn’t have any freshmen give up. We didn’t have any freshmen hurling in the trash can. Everybody made it through.”
Black saw just one Jayhawk puke at Boot Camp, on Friday.
“I’ve got to put my boy, Naadir, on blast, man,” Black said with a smile. “The last day, today, he let it go. Like coach said, the last day is hardest day of Boot Camp. He had to do so many more (suicide sprints). He said he ate some weird stuff last night. He had to let it go.”
Boot camps are all about building team concept and conditioning, but the mental fortitude gained by pushing through pain is the real payoff. According to Black and his head coach, KU’s all-important freshmen, as well as putative point guard Naadir Tharpe, took everything the coaching staff could dish out and more. That kind of mental toughness will come in handy as Kansas goes for a tenth straight Big 12 title this season.
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