Murray State University Athletics
Cronin, Racers To Start Practice Saturday
10/16/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
After months of recruiting, scheduling and conditioning, Murray State's Mick Cronin will finally get to do the job he was hired to do last spring.
Cronin, hired as the Murray State men's basketball coach on April 5, 2003, and the Racers will begin practicing in preparation for the 2003-2004 season on Saturday, the first day Division I college basketball teams are allowed to practice under NCAA rules.
"I'm anxious to get started, probably more so this year than any year in my career because it's my first as a head coach," said Cronin, who came to MSU after serving as an assistant coach at Louisville for two seasons. "And I think our team is ready. They've been working hard in our pre-season conditioning program and I'm sure they're ready to start playing basketball."
MSU will practice once on Saturday and twice on Sunday. Cronin said his primary focus early on will be getting his players to understand how he wants them to practice.
"I think it's important for them to know how we want to do things and what speed we want them to practice," said Cronin. "We practice at a high tempo and the players need to adjust to that so we can move forward and begin putting in our system."
Since late August, Racer players have been lifting weights three mornings a week and running on the Roy Stewart Stadium track in the afternoons, while also going through individual instruction with Racer coaches.
"I've really been pleased with how our guys have worked this fall," said Cronin. "We've demanded a lot from them from a conditioning standpoint and they've really responded. You could see them getting better each day.
"Our individual workouts have improved each week as they've gotten in better condition. We worked on fundamentals and introduced some parts of our system to them which should speed things up once we start practice on Saturday."
Racer fans will get their first look at the Racers on Tuesday, Oct. 28 when the men's and women's teams hold a public scrimmage.
MSU begins the season with a pair of exhibition games, the first coming on Monday, Nov. 3 against the Global All-Stars. The last exhibition game will be held on Saturday, Nov. 15 before the team opens up the regular season against Wagner on Nov. 22.
