Back to School - 9/23/10

DENVER - Last week, Kyle Lewis was walking through the Ritchie Center, and I asked him what he was doing now that the Spain trip was over and official practices were nearly a month away.

"You know, I have a lot of free time right now," Lewis said. "Maybe too much. I'm not sure what to do with myself."

Due to NCAA rules, coaches are allowed to work with teams only two hours per week prior to October 15, and following the trip to Spain, DU's coaches postponed the start of those workouts until later this week.

So today I decided to talk to a few of the players about what they were doing with all this free time, expecting to hear about reuniting with old classmates they hadn't seen since the spring and maybe hitting a pizza place or movie.

As the only freshman, Chris Udofia seemed like a logical choice to talk to. Udofia took two classes over the summer and joined the team in Spain, but this is still the official start to his first academic year in college.

"The last couple of weeks have been a nice little transition, especially since being here in the summer helped me adjust more quickly," Udofia said. "It gave me more confidence and an identity. It helped me feel like I know what's going on, and I know the buildings and where I'm supposed to go. It's like a little head start compared to the rest of the freshmen."

So, how has Udofia spent all this free time, when he doesn't have to go to practice and has few obligations outside the classroom?

"We're lifting three days a week and playing pick-up five-on-five games in the afternoon," said Udofia, who along with transfer redshirt sophomore Trevor Noonan and redshirt freshman Blake Foeman are expected to see their first action with the Pioneers this season. "Then twice a week, some of the older guys come help me, Trevor and Blake get familiarized with the offense, since we're getting thrown in."

That's right. Lewis, along with teammates like Andrew Hooper, Brian Stafford and Chase Hallam, decided that while the coaches couldn't hold practices with the players, they could do it themselves.

"We've been holding our own practices so that we can run through the offense, because when we get started officially on October 15, we can jump right into it and not have to rework the things we put in this summer before Spain," said Lewis, who was named DU's captain last week. "We don't want to take any steps back as a team. We want to keep moving forward and making progress."

Udofia looked solid during games in Spain, but a newcomer in a complicated basketball system is liable to get overwhelmed at times.

"It helps out so much. I can see the progress over just the past couple of days," Udofia said. "I'm not going to lie, over the summer I was kind of going off instincts because I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do, and it didn't always work out."

Lewis and company have developed these practice sessions primarily to help Udofia, since Noonan and Foeman practiced with the team last season, even though they did not play.

"We want Chris Udofia to be in shape to the point where he knows the offense," Lewis said. "We don't want things to click for him in January or February. We want him to be ready in October, so that he's ready to help us out in November. That's what we want. It's crucial to this team and the direction we're going."

It hasn't been all about basketball for these guys.

Udofia, like most other college freshmen, is enjoying the opportunity to learn about life on campus and meet new people, including roommate Justin Jones, who is a fellow Dallas native and a first year player on the hockey team.

"It's been cool hanging out with the different crowds and getting different perspectives of the DU lifestyle," Udofia said.

Lewis said that he is enjoying his free time, especially since three years of summer school now mean he only needs three classes per quarter in order to graduate on time in June.

"I get to relax and not get so stressed out, and I get to focus on basketball for my last go around," Lewis said. "I'm just enjoying the time with my teammates. We've been able to spend a lot of time together. On Mondays and Wednesdays, we don't have class until noon, so we come in here and hang out, get some shots up and be the guys that we are."

OK. Maybe it has been mostly about basketball.