By: Cal Athletics
Men's basketball's summer offseason is underway, and the Bears are back in the weight room building a strong foundation for 2018-19. Each week, CalBears.com is checking in with Strength and Conditioning coach Jordan Jackson to find out what the Bears are working on, and who has been making the biggest gains in the weight room.
Previous Recaps:
Week No. 2 was a slow week due to the Independence Day holiday, but the newcomers and veterans alike continued to impress in a variety of workouts. The Bears started the week with Basic Athletic Measurement (BAM) testing, the same testing that prospects go through at the NBA Combine, Portsmouth Invitational, etc. After a couple of days off and some upper body work and foam rolling, the Bears got back into it with back-to-back high volume and max effort days, including agility on Friday and big lifts such as squats, deadlifts and bench pressing on Saturday.
More on the week from Jackson:
Week 2 Focus
What we're doing all summer is a rotation -- hypertrophy for two weeks, eccentric work for two weeks, isometrics for two weeks, and concentric work for two weeks. They're all different muscle actions. This week, we've been focusing on eccentrics, which helps lengthen muscles and develop control. To catch yourself landing, you want to have good eccentric strength. It helps the guys with their landing, catching themselves when they drop too fast or too hard. It prevents a lot of knee injuries.
The freshmen are coming along well.
Connor Vanover,
Jacobi Gordon and
Andre Kelly have been coming in and getting extra workouts to meet the needs they have. Connor is gaining weight and Dre and Jacobi are dropping fat. They're getting more adjusted in the weight room. A guy like
Matt Bradley, who is accustomed to being in the weight room, is fine because he has the experience in there.
BAM Testing
Our BAM testing went really well.
Darius McNeill had the top overall score on the team,
Justice Sueing was second and
Juhwan Harris-Dyson had the third-highest score. Darius and Justice were really comparable to some of the guys at the NBA Combine, with Darius testing higher than a couple of the first-round picks.
Grant Anticevich was a surprise to a lot of people. The people who conduct the BAM testing pointed out Grant. He had the fourth or fifth-best overall score on the team. He did really well on the vertical – especially for someone who is 6-8, 235 lbs. He came in second on the team for his reaction shuttle time behind Justice, within .01 seconds. His numbers look really good, and he was really impressive.
For it being the team's first time overall, they tested really well. It was a good benchmark to see where they are now until they get tested again in the first week of August.
Player Spotlight
Justice tested really well during BAM testing, and he's obviously one of the stronger guys we have on the team. His numbers in the weight room are continuing to rise. He's gone from 207 to 211, which is good. We don't want to give him too much more weight, but he's had a really good week.
