SFA Holds First Official Practice on Sunday
10/5/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - The Stephen F. Austin men's basketball team opened up preparation for the 2014-15 season with its first official team practice Sunday afternoon inside William R. Johnson Coliseum. The two-time defending Southland Conference champion Lumberjacks feature a strong returning core led by senior Jacob Parker and juniors Thomas Walkup and Trey Pinkney, as well as a highly touted recruiting class.
Second-year head coach Brad Underwood guided SFA through an intense opening day of practice with a heavy emphasis on the principles and fundamentals that helped the `Jacks claim both the SLC regular season and tournament titles on their way to the program's first-ever win in the NCAA Tournament and berth in the third round last season.
In 2013-14, Underwood and SFA posted a school record 32-3 overall mark to become the first Southland school in the league's 51-year history to win 29 games in the regular season and first 30-game winner, passing the 1984-85 Louisiana Tech squad that went 29-3 and reached the Sweet 16 with Karl Malone. Along the way, the `Jacks joined then top-ranked Florida and second-ranked Wichita State as the only schools to go undefeated in conference play, posting a unblemished 18-0 record. SFA became just the 18th team all-time to do so at the Division I level in conference schedules of 18 games or mores.
In addition to returning starters Parker (Sr., F), Walkup (Jr., G/F) and Pinkney (Jr., G), the `Jacks return eight letterwinners from last season in all with Connor Brooks (Sr., G/F), Tanner Clayton (Sr., F), Dallas Cameron (So., G), Justin Dotson (So., SG) and Jason Martin (So., G).
Underwood also welcomes six newcomers to the fold in Ty Charles (Fr., G), Demetrious Floyd (Jr., G), Clide Geffrard (Jr., F), Jared Johnson (Jr., G), Jaxon Holden (Fr., G) and Caleb Johnston (Fr., G/F), along with Bobby King, a senior transfer from Florida A&M.
Day 1 of practice today!! Let's work to get better everyday. #everydayguys #dreamBigger
-- Brad Underwood (@CoachBradSFA) October 5, 2014
SFAJacks.com caught up with head coach Brad Underwood following the first team practice to assess his thoughts on the progress of his team:
On opening practice:
"It is one of the most exciting days of the year. I was up this morning at 6:30 and couldn't go back to sleep, because my mind and everything was churning. I am really excited to get out and work with this group. This is a very, very talented group that has endless amount of possibilities and that is something that really excites me. I think our whole coaching staff was excited and looking forward to challenges that come with putting this group together and forming that team and that bond that we need to be successful."
On message of first practice:
"I am a whole, part-whole guy as I teach. We threw a lot of things at them that they hadn't seen previously in individual workouts. We will start breaking some things down a little bit more as we progress, but today was a lot of familiarity with what they were exposed to in their individuals. Today, we just carried everything over for a little longer period of time. It will compound each day as we add more to the system."
On tone of practice:
"We had a spirited first practice. It's what we want everyday. I want everyday guys. I want guys that want to work and we have to teach them how to work and be responsible for their actions, while also being accountable to their teammates. Doing that can be hard at times, but that is part of our challenge as coaches. We have to get them to understand that. Not letting your teammates down and trying to develop a little toughness and a mindset to where we pull for each other is what I want. We will get there, that's part of it. When you go 40 minutes in a session, you don't ever just exhaust them, because you got them in small groups. To get together as a whole allows us to really start building."
On getting players to be held accountable by each other:
"If I can't get our upperclassmen, the seniors and our veterans to lead, then it makes it very challenging for me as a coach. I want them to have the accountability and I want our players to have the responsibility to our upperclassmen, in particular our seniors. Jake (Parker), Tanner (Clayton) and Connor (Brooks) are on their last go-round, so there's some responsibility to make their senior year special. I want all the young guys to understand that, so that it is the same for them when they are seniors. They've got to lean on and push each other. If one guy misses a free throw, they all run and there is some accountability in that."
On preparing this team for the 2014-15 season:
"It is an everyday process. I don't worry about anything much further then what happened today and what we have to do tomorrow to get better. I think this team is going to have its own identity. I don't know what that is yet, but it will be a team that will figure things out. Obviously having Thomas (Walkup), Jake (Parker) and Trey (Pinkney) back, are big parts of that. We are going to input new guys, and getting those guys to do the things that we're about is critical for us. To do that takes time and they're new, so everything that we're doing is something that they haven't seen before. Tom, Jake, Trey, Tanner (Clayton) and Connor (Brooks) have. We have to be patient in the process and get them to understand. That's our challenge and it's one of the things that excites me. Today was day one to start the forming of that clay."
The challenge tomorrow is to be better than we were today. #AxeEm #workinghard
-- Brad Underwood (@CoachBradSFA) October 5, 2014
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