As they launch the official preseason practice season Friday, the Bradley Braves are “light years ahead” of where they were last year at this point, coach Jim Les said this week.
“That’s a result of having so many guys with experience on the floor,” Les said. “Last year, we were getting so many guys (six) acclimated to Division I basketball and our system. Now we’ve got four freshmen who can all get behind a veteran or two and observe. It’s less about teaching and more about execution because of our experience.”
Another big advantage to the Braves hitting the ground running was the five-game Brazil trip in August. BU went 4-1 and finished third in the COPA EPTV tournament.
“We want to be in the mode of building off the momentum of that trip,” Les said. “We’ve had a tough, grueling conditioning period (the past six weeks). It’s done exactly what we’ve wanted. We’re in great, physical shape and we’ve improved our mental toughness. Now we need to carry that over these first couple of weeks of practice.”
Friday’s workout will last about two hours, Les said.
“I’m more about quality than quantity,” he said. “We don’t do a lot of talking during our practices. We just want great intensity and a fast-paced practice going from drill to drill. You get into three-hour practices, you start losing focus.”
Junior guard Sam Maniscalco pointed out that even though the team has spent much time together from Brazil onward through conditioning and individual workouts, Friday remains a watershed day.
“The first official day of practice is one where you throw all the marbles in and start building everything,” he said. “The perfect word to describe it is anxious. There’s a lot of adrenaline and enthusiasm and we’re all looking forward to it. The first day of practice means it’s finally here to test how hard you’ve worked.”
The Braves return three full-time starters from last season (Maniscalco and fellow guards Chris Roberts and Eddren McCain) along with six other lettermen (Sam Singh, Dodie Dunson, Taylor Brown, Will Egolf, Anthony Thompson and Andrew Warren) who’ve logged varying degrees of Division I minutes.
Les said the four freshmen — Jordan Prosser, Dyricus Simms-Edwards, Milos Knezevic and Jake Eastman — have done a good job picking up the system.
Maniscalco said the Braves are changing a tradition this fall.
“We’ve always posted our season goals on the bulletin board,” he said. “This year, we don’t have any goals. We have one word on our mind — win. That’s all we care about, no matter how you get it done.
“And our motto every day is toughness. Coach (Eric) Buescher says it every year at the beginning of the year, ‘Who’s going to win the Valley? Not the most athletic team, not the most talented team. The toughest team.’ That’s what we’re striving for.
“When you come to practice every day, you can’t (earn) an NCAA tournament berth, the Valley championship, keep from losing two games in a row or protect your homecourt. But you can bring toughness and make it second nature. It doesn’t happen overnight. But with the attitudes we have on this team and the right commitment, it can be accomplished.”
Braves briefs: Les said the biggest surprise of preseason conditioning is the progress of recovering Braves Andrew Warren (foot) and Will Egolf (knee). “Will is markedly improved this week from last week in terms of his mobility, confidence in his leg and feeling free to play without limitation. Andrew has been ahead of schedule in terms of fitting back in and not looking too rusty.”
Dave Reynolds can be reached at 686-3210 or at dreynolds@pjstar.com.
