Troy University Athletics
Men’s Hoops Takes Advantage of Break
8/11/2010 5:32:36 PM | Basketball (M)
Team Back in Troy Ready to Work
2010-11 Men's Basketball Summer Prospectus
The returning members of the Troy men's basketball team are back on campus for the beginning on the fall semester on Wednesday and the message was simple to the team before they went their separate ways in May.
“One of the goals we gave them all for the summer was to get themselves in shape,” 29th year head coach Don Maestri said. "We told them not to come back here to start conditioning after Labor Day and not be in shape. That's one ingredient we can control. We don't want that to be a question mark.
“We have a lot of question marks, and we don't want that to be something that's indefinite. We want them ready to hit that track and the weight room when they come back. We don't need any uncertainty in that area. They all know that was one of our big goals.”
The defending Sun Belt Conference regular season champions must replace five senior starters that departed following a 20-win season and berth in the National Invitation Tournament (NIT). Who will be in the starting five for the Trojans is one of the main questions entering the new school year and one of the primary candidates will be senior guard Vernon Taylor.
A native of Cross, South Carolina, Taylor spent his summer back in his home state working out at his former junior college team in Spartanburg. He also participated in a summer league in Greenville, SC that included players from Clemson, Anderson College, South Carolina State and Queens University. Additionally, he mixed it up with several professional players from Europe that were back in the US during the offseason.
Taylor is ready for an increased role both on the court and in the locker room and feels his work during the summer specifically on his shooting and ball handling puts him in prime position heading into the new school year.
“Any role they give me – I'll accept,” Taylor said. “But I've been working out a lot. I put a lot of work in this summer, so I'm expecting good things.”
While Taylor spent his summer away from campus fellow seniors Regis Huddleston, Travis Lee, Levan Patsatsia and Bernard Toombs spent their time honing their craft on campus. The group worked out at 6:45 am with Troy's football team every weekday, then spent a few nights a week playing pickup games in Sartain Hall.
Additionally, Huddleston and Lee took a yoga class that they felt would help them this season.
“[Yoga] helped me with my stretching and flexibility. Combined with the extra running I've done, it has helped me be in the best shape I've been in to start a year in my three years at Troy,” Lee said.
Maestri said the coaching staff only left one other charge with the team as they departed for summer vacation, that message – to get excited.
“The only other thing we really preached to them was look forward to the season,” Maestri said. “It's going to be a new experience for all of us. Most of the places we are going this year are places most of them have never been. The San Antonio's and the Utah State's, even the guys that are coming back haven't seen those places.
“So let's look forward to the trips we are going to take and look forward to the fact that the league is probably one of best groups it's seen in the last 10 years in terms of the number of quality teams.”
Tickets for the 2010-11 season will be on sale later this fall, for more information contact the Troy ticket office at 1-877-878-WINS. Also, be sure to follow @TroyAthletics and @tabryan on Twitter for the latest on Troy Trojans basketball.
