|
By Zach Schonbrun
Washington Post
When
Kris Joseph left his apartment for his daily predawn workouts last
summer, he never forgot to grab a gallon jug of water on his way out the
door. The jug
followed Joseph throughout the day as he traced a path from weight room to
classroom to dining room to the gym, lightening as he sipped from it. It
became a running joke among his teammates on the Syracuse basketball team.
It also grew to symbolize Joseph's offseason makeover: one part
self-discipline, another part self-cleansing.
"I knew I needed to make changes," he said.
For Joseph, a sophomore forward out of Montreal via Archbishop Carroll in
D.C., the most difficult summer of his life came after his most
disappointing winter, when he saw his playing time and influence as a
freshman on Syracuse's NCAA tournament team diminish as last season
progressed. It was in the locker room following the Orange's loss to
Oklahoma in the round of 16 that Joseph vowed to return better prepared for
next year. So far
he has. After a summer of grueling workouts, strict dieting and attitude
readjustments, Joseph lost 22 pounds and has emerged as Syracuse's most
valuable contributor off the bench -- a slimmed, 6-foot-7 swingman who has
turned heads with his versatility as much as his dunking ability.
One particular slam -- a demonstrative one-handed flush late in No. 4
Syracuse's 80-73 win over Seton Hall on Dec. 29 -- exemplified Joseph's rise
this season. It also demonstrated his arrival as a factor in Syracuse's 26-2
record this season.
"I knew this
year would be a big year for me," said Joseph, who has raised his scoring
average to 11.1 from 3.4 points per game last season. "At the end of last
year I made a commitment to myself that I was going to come here in the
summer and just work."
He left Carroll as the ninth-rated small forward in the nation, according to
Scout.com, joining a long list of Beltway area basketball stars to head
north to Syracuse after spurning an offer from Georgetown to follow his
idol, Carmelo Anthony, to upstate New York. But after averaging 18.9 minutes
per game the first 18 games of last season, Joseph's playing time
diminished. He averaged fewer than six minutes over the final 20 games.
Syracuse assistant coach Rob Murphy said Joseph was out of shape and
immature; his weight had ballooned to 230 and he had lost the quickness that
shaped his high school career.
"I think he was a pudgy freshman," said Syracuse basketball strength and
conditioning director Ryan Cabiles, who worked with Joseph. "He just needed
to be educated, and I think we achieved that. He's taken that in himself."
By the beginning of the fall, Joseph had lost 22 pounds and redefined his
game. His quickness off the dribble improved, and he said he has gained
nearly four inches on his vertical. He has also gained playing time,
averaging 10 points in more than 25 minutes per game.
"He's been tremendous for us, coming in and has just played extremely well,"
Coach Jim Boeheim said in a teleconference. |
By John A.
Fantino
Burlington
Free Press
Maurice Joseph
stood tall in front of dozens of wide-eyed kids Friday morning at Christ
the King Elementary School, holding up a book and stressing the importance
of reading and education.
The University of
Vermont's charismatic basketball senior was at ease during the assembly.
"He relates
well with our fans, whether they are 3 years old or 83 years old," UVM coach
Mike Lonergan said. "He has a lot of personality.
"He has a lot
of MoJo."
It's a fitting
nickname for UVM's senior guard, whose confident demeanor and upbeat
attitude make him a hit with teammates as well as those sitting in Patrick
Gymnasium's bleachers.
Those 3-pointers
Joseph's knocking down regularly have made him even more popular this
winter.
The 6-foot-4
sharpshooter is a legitimate — and consistent — scorer for a Catamount squad
that desperately needed another one this season after graduating more than
3,000 points last year.
Joseph is the
America East Conference's ninth leading scorer, averaging 14.0 points a game
while providing a big boost for UVM.
The team's
second-leading scorer behind Marqus Blakely, Joseph has reached double-digit
scoring in all but four games this season, and his impressive 37.3-percent
3-point accuracy (62-for-166) and 83.5-percent foul shooting (101-for-121)
probably would be higher had a wrist injury not prompted a couple of poor
shooting nights in December.
He is averaging
13.9 points in UVM's 14 conference games, 11 of which they have won.
"I wanted to be
aggressive this year," said Joseph, a Montreal native. "I knew we lost a lot
of scoring with Mike (Trimboli) and Colin (McIntosh) graduating, so I wanted
to make sure I took it upon myself to pick up the scoring that we lost."
After leaving
Michigan State in 2007 and sitting out a year because NCAA transfer rules,
Joseph didn't live up to the hype last season, averaging 8.1 points a game.
He lost his spot in the starting lineup midseason to freshman Garvey Young.
"His defense has
picked up; that's why he wasn't a starter last year," Lonergan said. "This
year he's made more of an effort on that end of the floor. The last couple
games he's had to guard some pretty good players and he's done a pretty good
job. He's trying to rebound a lot more, which is really important for our
team. And he's such an unbelievable shooter."
His leadership
qualities evident from the day he arrived in Burlington, Joseph was named a
co-captain before he played a game as a Catamount.
"Last year, I had
a couple big scoring games, but I didn't feel it was my place to come in and
dominate the ball and take a lot of shots," said Joseph, the team's captain
this season. "I just wanted to contribute and help the team win, try to be a
leader on the floor.
"This year, I
really wanted to be assertive."
"I didn't know
what kind of work I had to put in," Joseph said. "And going through a whole
year, you realize." |
September 10, 2010
