November 3, 2011

Diary Series: Jerome Tang, Asst. Coach - Baylor

Wow, hard to believe that our season is already upon us! Seems like just yesterday we were packing our bags heading back home from the Big 12 tournament, extremely disappointed in a first-round loss to Oklahoma and not having Perry Jones to play in that final game.  And at that time, I thought Perry's collegiate career was over. Who could have faulted him if he did leave? Projected top five pick in the NBA Draft...

Low and behold, Perry decided to come back to school and, needless to say, all of Baylor nation was very excited.  Having Perry along side our very talented incoming recruiting class of Quincy Miller and Deuce Bello sent expectations through the roof. This wealth of talent increased further when a tremendous guard from the College of Southern Idaho named Pierre Jackson decided to come to Baylor. Pierre led CSI to a JUCO National Championship and there is something to be said about players who know how to win.

We also have three young men who sat out last season either because of transfer rules or took a redshirt. Cory Jefferson redshirted and spent the entire season eating steel. Thanks to our strength Coach Charlie Melton, Cory now only wears tank tops. He looks like a Greek god. One of our transfers is Gary Franklin from California who will not be eligible until December 15th. The other is a Canadian who came to us by way of Boston College (more on him in a minute).

To make our Canadian feel comfortable, we took a summer tour to Toronto the home of the new fella, Brady Heslip. We had such a wonderful time as a team preparing for that trip; 10 great days of practice that allowed us to get an idea of our talent level and how good we could possibly be and then the trip. Not to mention all the opportunities for team building.

The trip to Toronto was an unbelievable experience. We had great food, great fun, and great games. The highlight of the trip had to be the amazing race type game that we did as a team, running around the city of Toronto. It was a lot of fun. We have very competitive people on our team. I will not tell you which team won because then I would be bragging (hint hint). As for the games, we played four and finished 3-1. Most importantly, we came away with no injuries and great expectations as everyone returned back to school for the start of the fall semester.

We are excited and hungry because we haven't done anything to merit the preseason expectations. None of these rankings nor accolades can win us one game... it does not mean a thing. At the end of the day, we have got a win the next game. That is all we are concerned about at this point. The next game and how do we WIN that Game!!! 

Our approach to the season will is one game at a time -- and getting better every time we step on the court.  Whether practice or a game, we want to look the way that winning teams look and we want do that every day in practice. In Canada, we learned that we can be a deep team with multiple interchangeable parts.  At the same time, there are no shortcuts, no secret ingredients, no magic potions, and no substitutes for hard work and a determination to focus, defend and rebound for 40 minutes. Quincy Miller's favorite quote is, "Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard," so we hope to see what it looks like when talent does work.

Looking forward to sharing the journey with you again this year. If there is a particular topic you would like me to talk about, shoot an email to info@collegechalktalk.com and I will be glad to share on that topic in my next entry. Thanks a lot.

God bless you and Sic 'em Bears!

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