Saturday, June 21, 2014

NBA Finals show blueprint for becoming champions

Note: Kellon Thomas is a junior on the Kent State men's basketball team and is working for the Athletics Communication department during the Summer to fulfill a requirement of his Practicum I in Sport Administration course. As part of this course, Kellon will be doing a weekly blog to give fans an inside look at how the Golden Flashes are preparing for the 2014-15 season
This week was similar to the first one for us with weightlifting four times and individual skill work three days. We are making big strides in the weight room with Coach Bob. I have seen big improvements in all of our post players, especially Khaliq Spicer and Marquiez Lawrence. One of our keys to winning is being tougher mentally and physically than other teams. That is how it has been at Kent State in the past with teams that have won championships, and we are trying to get back to that and keep the tradition going.
With it being the summer, we are working on a lot of individual skills that will help us become better players. But our goal is to ultimately win the MAC Championship and then the National Championship. All our coaches and staff have gotten us to have a mindset that is all about winning.
After our individual workouts on Monday, Coach Sendy talked to us about how our main focus should be the on the success of the team first, and then individual goals will come. We all followed the NBA playoffs closely, so he used the example of the San Antonio Spurs, who had won the NBA championship the previous night.
He said that even though Miami had the best player in LeBron James and a very talented team, it was not enough to win a championship. The Spurs followed the game plan put together by their coaches and did whatever it took to win. It was Kawhi Leonard—not Tim Duncan, Tony Parker or Manu Ginobili—who was named Finals MVP. Those guys weren’t focused on their own numbers and trusted their teammates to get the job done. That is how we need to play next season so that we can become champions.

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