Big strength program looming for Billy Donovan's Florida Gators
Matt Herring will get specific over the next two weeks. As Florida's strength and conditioning coach, he'll construct individual plans for how each of his basketball-playing Gators will work out until the middle of next fall.
But as he stood in a hallway outside Madison Square Garden late Tuesday night, Herring said he already understood his assignment. More than any other time in his four years at UF, he needs to make next year's team look little like the one whose season just ended.
"There's no question," Herring said late Tuesday. "Physical development is going to be a big part of the next six months."
Time after time in 2007-08, and again in Tuesday's 78-66 loss to Massachusetts in the National Invitation Tournament semifinals, Florida proved too weak and too slow to hang with a talented team for 40 minutes. Without getting bigger, stronger and faster this summer, the Gators have little chance of returning to the NCAA Tournament next March.
So enter Herring, who thanks to NCAA rules will spend more time working with the players over the summer than any of his fellow UF coaches.
And in that time he hopes to add muscle to everybody in the program without subtracting any of their skills.
"He's already talked to me," guard Nick Calathes said. "I know he's going to work me harder than I've ever worked before. I have to get stronger."
Calathes showed some wear and tear against the Minutemen and their up-tempo game Tuesday. Spending much of his 28 minutes chasing guard Chris Lowe and Gary Forbes hurt his offense. Calathes finished 5-of-19 shooting and dished three assists, his lowest total since mid-December.
Calathes said Tuesday night he hopes to add at least 10 pounds of muscle to help his conditioning and improve his defense and rebounding.
The gains will come through traditional methods -- weightlifting, stretching and sprints.
But Herring said his focus stretches wider than a sack of 45-pound plates. Back in the fall, Herring and Coach Billy Donovan watched the team's three sophomores -- Dan Werner, Marreese Speights and Jonathan Mitchell -- ruin a summer of training by filling up on fast food all fall.
"Just adding size isn't going to be beneficial," Herring said. "It's how they're working. Are they making a commitment to it? Are they taking care of themselves when they're not with us with what they eat and resting? That is just as important."
That improvement must come from the veteran players. Although three of the five incoming Gators are post players, only one is listed at heavier than 220 pounds. And Herring can not start working with those players until they arrive in mid-June.
Work in the weight room should start later this month and continue through the summer and fall. The goal is simple -- make sure the 2008-09 Gators' physiques look nothing like those of the 2007-08 Gators.
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