RUSTON ââ'¬" Fourteen players, including five newcomers, of the Louisiana Tech men's basketball team finished up summer workouts this past week.

The workouts were capped off in a big way with a max day in the weight room testing bench press and chin ups, a final team practice inside Scotty Robertson Memorial Gymnasium and the annual wiffle ball game.

Per NCAA rules, the Bulldogs were allowed to work out eight hours per week with two hours being on the court and the other six hours spent lifting weights and doing conditioning.

"I think you can see improvements in each of them," head coach Eric Konkol said. "The summer time is so much about each guy improving themselves. Each guy had a great method of coming each day and finding different ways to improve.

"So much of the eight hours we get is strength and conditioning. That is always our emphasis in the summer time, trying to find ways to get stronger. Just to be able to be more powerful and explosive and the numbers indicate that."

Five newcomers ââ'¬" Harrison Curry, Kyle McKinley, Amorie Archibald, Exavian Christon and Anthony Duruji ââ'¬" as well as redshirt freshman JaColby Pemberton (missed last season due to injury) went through their first summer workouts as Bulldogs.

A big part of the summer was about integrating the team together, getting to know each other and building synergy.

"We have some really good people, some great personalities, some high energy guys," Konkol said. "That makes it fun. I think this is going to be a close-knit group. I think they like each other a lot. They like to compete against each other a lot as well. That is what you like as a coach."

Much of what coach Konkol wants to do is similar to the past two years ââ'¬" being aggressive defensively and share the ball offensively. The team spent a lot of time working on those two areas as well as shooting the basketball and working on offensive skills.

In the weight room, new strength and conditioning coach Blake Talos was pleased with the effort and the energy level this summer.

"Blake was pleased with the amount of improvement guys made," Konkol said. "It is a brand new program for him. It is a brand new program for the guys getting on the same page with him. There is a great tempo in that weight room and some terrific strength gains that we are all happy about."

Some players are staying in Ruston from now until the start of fall quarter. Others are going home for a few weeks before the entire team reports on September 7 to get back to work in the weight room and on the court.

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