• Before joining head coach Mark Montgomery at Northern
Illinois, Borovich served as an assistant coach at Dayton, where
the Flyers reached the postseason in all four of his years on the
bench.
• Borovich cut his teeth as the Director of Operations at
UD before being promoted to assistant coach in 2007, helping his
team advance to the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament in 2009,
and win the NIT title in 2010.
• Captain of the Central Michigan Basketball team as a junior
and senior, led the Chippewas to the 2001 Mid America Conference
Championship.
Life on the road
Life on the road as a college basketball player and coach is a very unique experience. For basketball fans across the country that have never experienced it, think of it like a “Business Trip”. I’ll attempt to take you on an in-depth look on our most recent road trip to Bowling Green, OH as we prepared to take on the Falcons of BGSU.
Game: Saturday, February 4
2012
6pm Stroh Center Bowling Green State
University
Thursday, February 2
Our first day of preparation begins on Thursday, February 2. Our coaching staff gets together at 8am to review the previous night’s game vs. Ohio University. Coach Montgomery always starts off each meeting asking us as assistants to share our general thoughts of the game. We then go into greater detail about what we thought we did well and areas of where we need to improve. After discussing our thoughts on our game, we then move on to talking about Bowling Green and what areas we really want to emphasize as keys for victory. We collaborate on the practice plan and watch what we call the “Preview Edit” which is about 12-15mins of film that highlights BG’s set plays/actions and their player personnel. We will typically meet until our players begin stopping by the office to watch some film from the game vs. Ohio.
Our 2nd semester practice time begins at 12:30pm. Most of our guys have class until 12:15pm on Thursday’s so we usually don’t start with the team until 12:45pm to allow our guys enough time to get over to the Convocation Center, get dressed, get taped by one of the top trainers in all of college basketball (Shout out to Phil Vorhiss) and hit the floor for 5-10 minutes of pre-practice skill work. We then hit the film room with the team to watch our preview edit on Bowling Green to go over the keys and coverages with our team. After the film session and discussion of the game plan with our guys, we hit the practice floor. Following practice our guys head over to the weight room for a maintenance lift then head over to Fatty’s for our team’s training table. Following training table our guys then head over to study table for 2 hours to make sure they are staying on top of their studies. As you can tell, it’s a full day for our team as we continue to build our team and define our identity.
Friday, February 3
Our staff meets at 8am to review practice from the day before and plan that day’s practice. The day before the game our practices are typically very intense but shorter in duration to ensure that our guys have a full tank of energy heading into game day. The bus trip to Bowling Green is about 5 ½ hours so we want to start practice as close to 12:15pm as we can. On Fridays, our guys have class until 12:00PM so they have to make sure they have all of their bags packed prior to heading to class so they can get over to practice on time. Following practice, our guys will hit the showers and double-check their bags to make sure they have everything that they need for the trip to BGSU.
As we load up the bus we have boxed lunches from Jimmy John’s waiting for all of those making the road trip. The players head to the back of the bus to their “spot”, eat their sandwiches and usually have their head phones on and their eyes shut by the time the bus leaves the parking lot. The coaches sit up front and plug in their cell phones and laptops in preparation for the bus ride ahead. No time to nap for the coaches. We are busy watching practice and putting together our recruiting plans for the following week. Who’s going to see who and what days work best for Coach Monty to get out to see our top guys. Bowling Green is a “2 Movie” trip, which means we will have time to watch 2 rented DVDs before we arrive to our final destination.
As we arrive to Bowling Green, our Director of Basketball Operations, Jason Larson, has informed the front desk of our hotel to have the meeting room set up and the room keys waiting. Our players and staff unload the bus, head to our hotel rooms to drop off our stuff and head back down to the film room for a team meeting. In the team meeting we go over our game plan one more time with our guys and watch what we call the “Defending Video” of our team defending Bowling Green’s offensive actions from the practice earlier that day. After the meeting, the guys head up to their hotel rooms and get ready for bed. As assistants we go around for bed checks around 11:15pm to meet with the guys for a few minutes, remind them of what time breakfast is in the morning and collect all of their cell phone, laptops and Ipads to ensure that the guys aren’t up all night on Skype and Facebook. There is nothing more important then a good night of sleep for our guys.
Saturday, February 4
Game day! It’s a special feeling when you wake up and know that you have a big game that night. We have breakfast with our team at 9am then head over to the new Stroh Center on BGSU’s campus at 9:45AM. It’s our team's first and only opportunity to get into their facility to get a workout in, get use to the rims and shooting background and go over our offense and defense one last time before game time. We then head back to the hotel for a snack and some time for our players to get off their feet for a few hours. At 1:45pm we get our guys back together for one last team meeting, have pregame meal and then get a few final thoughts from the staff. Our guys then go back to their rooms to get packed up and get mentally prepared for the contest that night.
With it being a 6pm game, we load up the bus at 4:15pm to give us plenty of time to get to the Arena for a team stretch, warm up and team meeting reviewing the keys to victory. After the game, (hopefully a big NIU HUSKIE Road Win!) the guys will shower up and hit the bus where there is a To Go meal waiting for them in their seat. The bus ride home seems to go so much more quickly after a Big Win.
There it is fans. Now you know a little more about what goes into a college basketball Road Trip. As you can tell, it is very often referred to in the college basketball world as a “Business Trip”. 1st item on the to do list: Prepare to Win.
Safe Travels Everyone!
GO HUSKIES!
JB
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