Making Progress
September 26, 2003 09:57 AM | General
September 26, 2003
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Summertime for West Virginia University junior men’s basketball player Tyrone Sally was literally all work and very little play.
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| Junior Tyrone Sally has finally reached the 200-pound mark earlier this summer. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
The 6-foot-7 forward spent summer here in Morgantown working on his game and working on his body in preparation for the 2003-04 basketball season. The two things Sally says he spent the most time with were outside shooting and getting physically stronger. It appears he has made significant progress on both fronts.
Watching Sally during preseason workouts, it’s evident that he has become a more confident and effective shooter -- not only from three-point distance but also from intermediate range near the key.
But perhaps even more importantly, Sally has now finally reached the magical 200-pound barrier. The last time he looked at his scales it read 208.
“When I first got here it seemed like it was impossible for me to reach 200. So when I finally did everyone made a big deal about it this summer,” said Sally.
A bigger, stronger and more confident Tyrone Sally could go a long way in helping West Virginia get back over the .500 mark after spending the last two years under water. Sally was the team’s third leading scorer last season averaging 8.3 points per game as a sophomore.
He started 26 of 29 games and was one of five players to play more than 700 minutes. Sally admits West Virginia’s lack of depth took its toll on him toward the end of the season.
“I was pretty burned out by the end of last year,” he said.
The area where it was most evident was in his shooting touch. Earlier in the year a much fresher Sally pumped in a career-high 25 points against Wofford, had 20 against UNC Greensboro, and reached double figures eight times in all. But as the year wore on and the minutes piled up, Tyrone began to wear down.
“I got into a stretch where I went into a slump and lost my shot,” Sally said. “I’m just trying to get to a point where that won’t happen this year.”
In order to prevent that, he hit the iron this summer and has sculpted a body more suited for Big East combat. His teammates have noticed a big difference in his total game because of it.
“He’s really worked on his game, he’s worked on his outside shot and he’s gotten bigger and stronger,” said all-conference junior guard Drew Schifino. “When you play in this league and you drive to the hoop you’ve got to take it strong or else you’re going to get knocked over.”
Sally realizes that, “It will make a difference on both ends -- either by grabbing an offensive rebound I couldn’t get or finishing plays that I couldn’t finish last year,” he said.
Sally knows this year he doesn’t have to shoulder as much of the burden because of a solid recruiting class coming in. He’s been impressed with what he’s seen so far from freshmen Tyler Relph, BJ Byerson, Franklin Young and Jerrah Young. They join 6-foot-11 transfer D’or Fischer to give West Virginia a much deeper bench.
“They’ve come in with a lot of energy and a lot of enthusiasm and that has already boosted the team and given us the extra step that we’ve needed,” Sally said. “If they come and play like they are during the preseason then we should be pretty good.”
However, Sally knows playing pickup games at the Rec Center and playing Big East basketball games are two entirely different things.
“We’ll see how they step it up during the season,” he cautioned.
According to Tyrone, the five returning starters aren’t prepared to concede their starting spots to the newcomers. Yet either way, both the older players and the newcomers will be better because of the competition.
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| Sally was the team's third leading scorer last year averaging 8.3 points per game. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
“That’s what everyone needs: somebody to push them and anytime you’re not on your ‘A’ game then somebody is coming for you,” said Sally. “They’re going to make everyone else better on the team.”
And although he’s been impressed with Relph -- New York’s Mr. Basketball -- he isn’t ready to hand the starting point guard job to him either.
“That’s what is going to be so exciting because Tyler is a great player who is young and has a lot of offense. And Jarmon was the leader for us last year and plays tremendous defense. The team has great respect for Jarmon,” Sally admitted.
“He shut down the best guards in the Big East last year. He can play.”
Sally says the older players have already helped the freshmen make the transition to major college basketball. The biggest adjustment for the newcomers, according to Tyrone, is the great emphasis placed on weight training here at WVU.
“When they first got to Mike Barwis (WVU’s strength and conditioning coach) they couldn’t take it so I told them that in the long run it’s going to pay off, to just keep fighting through it and they have,” he said.
Not only will the freshmen provide critical depth and much needed athletic ability, but more importantly they will add additional personality to a team that already gets along very well.
“Everyone has bonded from day one ever since the recruits got here,” Tyrone mentioned. “Everyone is like a family now and we just try and do everything together.”
Because of that tight family atmosphere fostered by John Beilein and his capable assistant coaching staff, Sally thinks West Virginia is a sleeping giant about to be reawakened.
“I think everyone is still going to be overlooking us, thinking that we’re just West Virginia or whatever,” he said. “We’re just going to go out there and make our mark and not even think about last year and just focus on this season.”
Sally says West Virginia basketball fans will see a more complicated and sophisticated system this season. Beilein kept things vanilla until he was confident his players understood what he wanted them to do. Now with a year under their belts, more will be placed on their plates.
“Coach was telling us that last year everyone was new to his system so he only put in the basic looks. Now, probably coming into this year he is still going to teach the freshman the base stuff but the older guys are going to be taught more looks, more options and more things to look for then just the basic things.
“I wish the season would start tomorrow,” he added.
So do West Virginia basketball fans.
Briefly ...
Assistant coach Jeff Neubauer will lecture on “scoring off the dribble,” while assistant Jerry Dunn will teach drills to “develop the matchup zone.” Wheeling Jesuit’s Jay DeFruscio is this year’s guest lecturer and he will talk about “building your man-to-man defense.”
Coaches interested in attending the second annual basketball coaching clinic can contact Basketball Director of Operations Bill Lilly by calling 304-293-2193.
