Christian Bishop is getting some important reps this summer leading up to his sophomore season (Spomer / WBR)
With only a few practices left before the Jays head over to Australia, we have updates from inside the Championship Center to share leading up to the Creighton men’s basketball foreign trip.
Notes:
- The team walked through some of the basics of their press break for the first time this summer. The overall energy from the blue team, which, for the uninitiated, is typically made up of the starters and main rotation players, was at a high level on Monday afternoon. That group was flying around defensively and made very few mistakes with the basketball while operating at a fast pace.
- Freshman guard Jalen Windham showed off some good elevation and shooting touch on his follow through with a nifty turnaround jumper in the lane during 5-on-5. Even if he doesn’t find a way to crack the rotation this season he, along with Memphis transfer Antwann Jones, will at least be able to simulate most of the prolific bucket-getters in the Big East on the scout team.
- Sophomore forward Christian Bishop and senior center Kelvin Jones got a handful of quality reps as part of Creighton’s big lineup on Monday. Last summer, Martin Krampelj’s recovery from ACL surgery and a minor knee injury to Bishop prevented any offseason development of a two-big lineup, so the Jays are ahead of schedule compared to last season in that regard even without the services of Jacob Epperson.
- At the risk of turning this into a daily Shereef Mitchell practice report, the freshman from Omaha continues to look the part of an impact player. There is a still a long way to go before the season starts, but there are parts of his game that continue to show up at each practice. Offensively, his mid-range pull-up jumper and ability to change direction on a dime in the lane to finish off the glass have been consistent. Defensively, his pressure on the ball is relentless and his weak side awareness has led to several deflections and steals. Again, Khyri Thomas looked like the best player on the floor once upon a time during his early practices for Italy as a true freshman, too, so take this performance with a grain of salt in the short-term with an understanding that there is some potential there, especially after some continued maturation physically.
Q&A with a Bluejay: Sophomore center Jacob Epperson
Jacob Epperson is looking to get back on the court for the Bluejays (Spomer / WBR)
Q: Where are you at in your rehab and recovery at this point?
A: I’m feeling pretty good. Right now I feel like I can get up and down the court, but we don’t want to do that yet so we’re slowly easing into it. It has its problems as I keep progressing in my rehab and my workouts just with a bit of swelling, but other than that I feel pretty good. They say [the swelling] is normal. It just lets you know that you’ve done too much the day before or something like that and then you can either ease back or give it a day then try to come back to it. If there is a pain or the swelling persists, then you take a step back and try to build back up to that point again.
Q: Do you have a plan mapped out in terms of how you want to manage the knee going forward?
A: As much as I want to I can’t just go out there and start playing right away. I just want to play as long as I can, so right now it’s a risk/reward thing. If we wanted to we could try to get me back in time to play in Australia, but we don’t play until October or November so what’s the point? We’re just going to ease into and make sure that I’m 100% and able to play a full game without being sore and hurt by the end of it.
Q: How badly are you itching to get back at this point? It feels like most of your career at this point has been spent talking about injuries and rehab as opposed to games — that has to be frustrating.
A: Exactly. Injuries are my area of expertise. Sometimes I’ll be hanging out on the base line and I just want to jump out there and start playing with everyone. It definitely gets frustrating, especially when I first heard that I needed surgery on the knee. Then I tried to push through it and got the stress reaction in my back, and I was just like, “well, shit, here we go again.” It’s just part of basketball — there’s not much you can do.
Q: What are your early impressions of the new strength and conditioning regimen and what effect has it had on your rehab?
A: I feel the same as the rest of the guys, I think it’s great. It’s individualized now. I’m not going to go in there and do the same workout as Mitch because I don’t have the same body type and I can’t move the same weight.
My whole body in general just feels great even with the injury right now. I just feel a lot better and stronger. I had weaknesses beforehand with my strength and stuff like that, but I’ve been working on this injury itself, but also other weaknesses that I had before. Hopefully all of those will become a strengths behind the end of it.
Q: Have you made any changes to the nutrition side of things, because I know bulking up as been a major focus for you ever since your season ended early?
A: Coming here to the U.S. all you see is junk food and fast food joints everywhere. My first year here in the U.S. I was just trying to eat what I could to try to gain as much weight as possible. I didn’t really have a guide at first to tell me the right thing to eat. I just kept throwing food down. It didn’t matter what it was, it was all about calories. Now as I progress and learn about the nutrition and the fuel I need to get through practices and training I’ve added more fruits and vegetables to my diet, and try to eat the healthier option and the right things before a workout.
It’s about adding the “right” weight. Sometimes I have a cheat day every now and then, but I’m trying to avoid that altogether.
Q: Where is your confidence level at with all of these changes you’ve made?
A: I feel pretty good. I just can’t wait to get out on the court. It sucks just sitting here and watching everyone progress and get better at their game while I can’t do much. All I can do is walk around and shoot form shots. Hopefully I’ll be a pretty good free throw shooter when I get back because that’s where I spend my time.
Q: This trip to Australia should be pretty fun for you especially. What are you most looking forward to about it?
A: I haven’t ever been to Sydney or Cairns. The only time I went to Sydney was to fly out here, so it’ll be a new experience even for me. I’m probably most looking forward to the end of it when we fly to Melbourne, because I’ll get to see family and friends. Going to a crocodile farm in Cairns will probably be fun, we’re going zip-lining and I think we’re going whitewater rafting. This whole trip will be fun.
Q: Do you have a lot of extended family out there?
A: Most of them are based in Melbourne, but I have my cousins up in Brisbane and then I’ll have some friends and family come up to Sydney.
Q: How long did you live in Australia before you moved to the states?
A: About 18 years.
Q: Is your family and everything excited to see you back?
A: Yeah, I just told my mom to set it up because she’s in contact with everyone. I’ll be seeing around 100 people it feels like in I don’t even know how many days. It’ll be family and my dad used to coach down there, so people he coached will come up to see me and stuff like that. I’ll be busy.