After two previous tours with USA Basketball teams, Arizona trainer Justin Kokoskie has a pretty good idea of what Tommy Lloyd and the Americans are supposed to bring back from Switzerland next month.
“Medaling is not the goal,” Kokoskie says. “You’re expected to win the gold medal, and there’s pressure.”
Kokoskie first found that out a decade ago, when he served as the trainer for USA Basketball’s 2015 FIBA U19 World Cup team led by then-UA coach Sean Miller. Even after USA made it past Greece and its deafening home crowd in the semifinals, USA needed overtime to beat Croatia for the gold.
“I remember Jalen Brunson, who was already a phenomenal player, catching fire and winning it for us in overtime,” Kokoskie said. “It can be that close. The world has caught up. They have some phenomenal players.”
USA had an easier time of it last summer, when UA coach Tommy Lloyd led a junior team that won the U18 AmeriCup gold with Kokoskie serving as trainer. But Kokoskie is bracing for much stiffer competition starting Saturday, when Lloyd brings the same American cohort into the FIBA U19 World Cup.
Arizona trainer Justin Kokoskie, shown during USA’s quarterfinal win over Puerto Rico in the 2018 FIBA AmeriCup, will also work with the American U19 team in the FIBA U19 World Cup in Lausanne, Switzerland.
During an interview with the Star at USA Basketball’s U19 training camp in Colorado Springs, Kokoskie touched on what he’s learned from the international competition, his role with USA Basketball, and incoming UA freshman Koa Peat, who is expected to play a key role for the U19 team.
Kokoskie said Arizona’s training staff, doctors and administrators are “cutting edge,” but that he’s learned from other countries’ “physios,” or physiotherapists, as athletic trainers are sometimes known elsewhere.
“I like to see what else everybody is doing, and a lot of the physios have come from soccer, other sports, and it’s just great. I’ll pick their brains,” Kokoskie says. “I feel like I can keep up with what everybody’s doing in the United States, but seeing what other people are doing across the world is good.
“A lot of countries look at the whole body, and that’s interesting. What I’ve kind of learned over time is if a guy at Arizona has a knee injury, don’t just focus on the knee. You’ve got to focus on the lower extremity, joints, above and below the joint. You look at the way the foot strikes the ground. You’re looking at his ankle mobility. You’re looking at his hip mobility.”
Since his 2015 experience, Kokoskie said USA Basketball’s training operation has improved considerably.
“You’ve got these really nice facilities on campus, a dorm, a nice cafeteria that’s first class, where they get really healthy food throughout the day, and the medical stuff has gotten much better. And as we’ve learned more stuff, we’re able to do more stuff with the kids. When I first started doing this, it was just myself. Now it’s mostly NBA athletic trainers that are here and myself, so they give me all the support I need, but let me run the show.
“One thing I really like about this, because basketball season is so busy and I don’t have as much time to attend a lot of the continuing education, is I can spend a lot of time outside of the season talking to colleagues.”
While some players opt-out of USA Basketball events to focus on upcoming seasons — or have pressure from others to do so — Kokoskie says he works with other schools’ trainers and strength coaches to keep players up with their normal offseason work.
“They can’t miss a beat. They have to be ready. Each kid has a certain plan and I’m making sure they’re following that. With (Purdue center Daniel) Jacobsen, I talk with the strength coach at Purdue. I talk to the coach at Duke, the strength coach at BYU. While we’re representing the USA, I also understand that there’s a lot invested in these kids with their universities.
“I’m doubling as a strength coach. I’m filming (weight-training sessions), sending some things to their strength coaches. They’re sending stuff to me, so the communication is important. I’m proud to represent Arizona, proud to represent USA Basketball.”
As physically ready as Peat appears heading into his freshman season at Arizona, Kokoskie indicated that UA conditioning coach Chris Rounds still may have a few things coming for him.
“He looks like he’s super strong, but there’s a lot more work to do, and that’s (information) I’m gonna give him. Coach Rounds is the best in the business. He’s gonna make some strides with him on strength and mobility. You’re gonna see a different Koa in six months. But I have to make sure that he’s doing here what he would be doing at Arizona, so he doesn’t miss a beat.
“The nice part is some of the same equipment here in the Olympic Training Center, we have at the RJ (UA’s Richard Jefferson Gym), so it translates over. I can have Koa doing almost the exact same workout here that he would be doing at Arizona.”
While the work with USA Basketball means Kokoskie won’t have much time off this year, he says the relationships and experiences he gets out of it make it worthwhile. Sometimes that’s even in the form of a joking reference to the past.
“I make fun of Sean (Miller) to this day, saying ‘Remember when you brought the future Hall of Famer Jayson Tatum off the bench?’ (on the 2015 U19 team). But back then, nobody knows who they are. I’m in the room sometimes with the coaches where you’re trying to decide, ‘Do we take Jalen Brunson on this team? Do we not? Do we? Is Jayson Tatum good enough to be a starter? Josh Jackson, who’s later a lottery pick, where does he fit in? They’re making those decisions now, and you don’t know who’s going to be what, and also, they may not fit in with what you’re doing right now.
“Sean Miller was here (for part of this year’s training camp), Ed Cooley (Georgetown coach and a U19 assistant in 2015) was here, and I talked to them. It’s friendships that last a lifetime. So while the Arizona pride is there, this is a different picture, something different.
“As I get older, I appreciate seeing new places. These kind of opportunities have taken me across the world. At Arizona, I’m proud, it’ll take me to some of the greatest college and basketball environments in the country. USA Basketball takes you to some of the some places I would never see in my life.”
