Summer workout notebook: Konkol impressed with Tech's culture
Coaching changes bring an obvious learning curve for both a staff and their players. The current era of collegiate sports usually involves players attending a university because of a coach and therefore student-athletes often have a tougher time adjusting.
Luckily for new Louisiana Tech men's basketball coach Eric Konkol, the players left on the roster have needed little time to buy in.
"The culture of work here. These guys like to be out here," Konkol said Tuesday in response to what he's noticed at summer workouts. "They've been excited to get on the floor. They're excited to work with the coaching staff. That's very encouraging. They want to improve. They want to work on different aspects of their game. They have goals, and we want to help them achieve them."
Tech held its first summer workout Tuesday as six players sweated through 40-minute individual sessions.
On the surface, Konkol's comments shouldn't come as a surprise since former coach Mike White and his staff prided itself on bringing in hard-working players that he could bring to his house to interact with his family.
But the reality is most of Tech's current roster wanted someone not named Konkol as their new coach. Immediately after White left for Florida, several Tech players campaigned for former associate head coach Dusty May to earn a promotion.
When that didn't happen, it was unclear if all nine returning players would return. Xavian Stapleton ended up being the only causality with the other eight jumping on board regardless of how they initially felt about the situation.
It can be argued the common goal of winning can outweigh any lingering distaste, but it seems Tech's current roster is past the entire situation and ready to go to work.
"You gotta have trust with whoever is coming in," said senior Qiydar Davis. "We support coach White and the rest of the coaching staff. They helped us a lot. We're just ready to work with the new coaching staff and get it done."
WHAT IS HAMILTON'S ROLE FOR 2016?
There's a huge hole at point guard in the post Speedy Smith era.
In Tech's corner, though, is senior Alex Hamilton's ability to play the point, a position he spent time at during the past few years when Smith was on the bench.
Konkol didn't tip any hands as to whether Hamilton will play point guard or shooting guard or both, but the Bulldogs have big plans for the 6-foot-3 guard.
"We're going to have a lot of different things for him," Konkol said. "The way he scores the ball, he'll certainly be someone people are trying to key on. We're going to need to have the ball in his hands a lot, whether it's beginning with the dribble or off the catch. We're working on all those things right now."
THINGS STARTING TO CLICK FOR DAVIS
Davis and Hamilton are the lone seniors on Tech's roster, but the two players couldn't be more different. Hamilton has played a major role in his first three years, while Davis transferred in from the junior college ranks in 2014 and had a minimal impact for most of the season.
Things started to click for Davis toward the end of the season, though. He provided some insight as to why he needed time to figure things out and how he plans to capitalize on that late-season momentum.
"Coming from a JUCO, I kind of had my mind made up on what it was going to be like," Davis said. "It took me a while but I finally got it. I got a lot of help from my teammates. The seniors really kept in my ear and told me to keep going."