The Bartelstein Blog: Entry 2, Practice is Here
10/18/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Oct. 18, 2010
Sophomore guard Josh Bartelstein will give an inside look all season at the 2010-11 version of the Wolverines.
Hope you all are doing well. We have just finished our first couple days of practice and let's just say they are no walk in the park. Coach B wants to set a tone for the season and so far I'd say he has done a pretty good job because all you have to do is walk in our lockerroom and see everyone sitting in the cold tub. When Tim (Hardaway) is sitting in 50-degree water, you know we are working hard. Tim really does not like cold water and getting him in there is like getting a little kid to get their first haircut: a lot of moaning and screaming.
We have been doing a lot of defensive drill like shell drills, getting through screens and transition defense so that we can set up our offense. We really want to run this year, and the only way you can run is by getting stops.
I thought Coach gave out an amazing stat yesterday. Last year, we averaged 61 points per game in Big Ten games. If we score just three points more a game, we win 10 games in the best conference in the country. They key to scoring more is not in the half court where everyone holds and grabs, but in the open court where Darius (Morris) and Stu (Douglass) are so effective with the ball.
So far one of the most impressive players in practice has been Zack (Novak). It is not because of the hustle everyone loves, or how good of a rebounder he is even though he is 6-3. By the way he is 6-3, not 6-5 and do not let anyone tell you otherwise. Zack worked extremely hard this summer to become a complete basketball player. Last year, Zack was someone who could knock down shots but really could not create off the dribble at all.
I remember telling Zack after the season he needed to spend all summer working on his ball handling. He can shoot it with the best of them and really is a freak athlete -- look at last year's dunk contest -- but he was not as skilled as he could be. Well, he is as skilled as anyone on our team now. He spent tireless hours in the gym dribbling through cones and shooting pull-up jumpers in the offseason. Zack can create not only for himself in practice, but also for others, which is what we need for him to do. Zack was so committed this summer that he spent a week at the Bartelstein house for "workout week."
Workout week consisted of three workouts a day: speed training, weight training and basketball training. Zack pulled out of the non-basketball drills with a tight back after the first day but still managed to do the basketball drills. Real tough, right? The first day did not go so well for him, but he took pictures of every drill we did. so when get got home he could recreate what we were doing. I would say it worked.
On another note with Zack, he claims he can play multiple sports in college. According to Novak, he can consistently kick 50-yard field goals with ease, which is better than a lot of NFL and college kickers. This all started in Amsterdam when Zack just blurted out he could play both basketball and football at Michigan.
No one on our team believed him, even Tim who will believe anything called him out, but Zack guaranteed it. I suggested we have a contest in between quarters at the Big House but Zack will not agree to that. The only issue with Zack kicking is that he cannot kick extra points or anything close. Apparently, one of his first extra points in high school he kicked right into the line. The long snapper fell over in pain and missed the rest of the game. So I guess we could use Zack just for the deep field goals because we do not need any more injuries to our linemen.
We have also made the email where you can ask me questions. We will try to pick the best four each week and answer them. To send in a questions simply write to askjbart20@gmail.com.
That is it for now. Check back soon and I will update you more on the first week of practice.
