After dribbling furiously down the sideline during a game-defining 15-2 run against Fresno State last month, 5-foot-10-inch Arizona guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright ran smack into 285-pound Bulldog center Terrell Carter II under the basket.
The layup went in, but that may not have been the most important thing for the Wildcats. At least if you consider the culture of toughness and strength that coach Sean Miller and strength coach Chris Rounds have cultivated at UA.
Instead, it was probably that Jackson-Cartwright bounced off Carter and stayed upright as if nothing really happened.
A year earlier, Jackson-Cartwright might have fallen, or maybe even gotten hurt on such a play. Just 144 pounds when he reported to UA as a freshman in June 2014, then playing 10 pounds above that during the 2014-15 season, Jackson-Cartwright was banged around last season and also suffered a concussion against Oregon that kept him out four games.
But Jackson-Cartwright put on another dozen pounds of strength last summer, and he’s now about 165 pounds.
Similar stories run up and down Arizona’s 2015-16 roster, which might help the Wildcats heading into a potentially rugged Pac-12 race that begins Sunday, when the eighth-ranked Wildcats take on Arizona State in Tempe.
Kadeem Allen bought into weight training after two years of junior college ball. Dusan Ristic and Ryan Anderson shed body fat while putting on considerable muscle, with Anderson shattering UA’s bench-press records under Miller by doing 21 reps of 185 pounds. Even slender grad transfer Mark Tollefsen, already the veteran of four years of college, has added 13 pounds of lean body mass since joining the Wildcats last June.
Then there was the 15 pounds of muscle freshman center Chance Comanche put on before he even played a game, prompting his mom to hit Twitter with the news.
“4 months with Coach Rounds in U of A’s Strength Program has completely transformed my son Chance,” she posted.
There’s a simple formula for all this, the way Rounds explains it, but it’s not easy.
It’s about putting maximum effort into minimal time — UA weight training sessions rarely last longer than 35 minutes — and, if that doesn’t work, Rounds can always show off database proof of how guys such as Derrick Williams and Solomon Hill turned themselves into first-round NBA picks in part by changing their bodies.
“Derrick came in at 228 and had 15 percent body fat,” Rounds said. “He was weak as hell but he became a physical monster.”
And if that doesn’t work? Well, watch out.
“I can punish people,” Rounds said. “It’s really not that hard and it gets easier when you’re on the job for a while. We have all this data. But realistically, it’s just teaching them how to work hard when they get here. It kind of shocks them.”
New players “can see how far behind they are based on the players that are here and they can feel from day 1 that they’re not prepared. So it’s really not too hard. Usually it takes about six weeks really to get a guy to buy in.”
Rounds’ straightforward, almost blunt, approach has infiltrated the Wildcats since he left Xavier with Miller for Arizona in 2009, saying Miller likes his players strong so they can play power basketball.
Since then, UA players have routinely talked with a smile or a laugh about their initiations with Rounds, who is officially UA’s associate director of performance enhancement.
Like Jackson-Cartwright did before this season.
“Coach Rounds just pushes you because he wants to maximize the best of your abilities,” Jackson-Cartwright said. “We had a lot of tough moments where I had to make a change in myself, to change my body.”
According to Rounds’ data, Jackson-Cartwright put on 20.2 pounds of lean mass between June 2014 and October 2015, and he now weighs 165 pounds overall with a 7.2 percent body fat.
“That’s incredible for me because I don’t think I gained one pound in high school,” Jackson-Cartwright said. “Bringing my body fat down, so I can be in the best shape I can be has helped me. …
“When my weight is up, it negates my size. I can bump guards and I’m just a lot tougher. I had to get stronger in my stance. I was falling down a lot and running into guys when I was falling down.”
Rounds detailed his work with Jackson-Cartwright and some of his bigger projects in the past year during a recent interview.
- Parker Jackson-Cartwright, 5-10 sophomore guard
June 2014: 144 pounds, 7.7 percent body fat
October 2015: 165 pounds, 7.2 percent body fat
Increase in lean body mass: 20.2 pounds
Rounds: “Freshman year usually changes most players, particularly when they don’t have the success they expected. Credit to him, he’s done a really good job with his body. He’s just got to continue to be aggressive. He’s getting there. He’s learning.”
As a smaller player “he has to be able to maintain his balance when he gets bumped and hit. You want to have enough strength and mass that you can kind of pinball off people. If you put on muscle and decrease body fat it’s almost impossible to slow down. You always see an improvement in athleticism.
“In addition, if you generate mass in your legs, it lowers your center of gravity so you automatically become more agile. So there’s really no negative to putting on muscle.”
- Ryan Anderson, a 6-9 senior forward who sat out last season after transferring from Boston College
- June 2014: 232 pounds, 18.5 percent body fat.
October 2015: 235 pounds, 5.8 percent body fat
Increase in lean body mass: 32.3 pounds
Rounds: “Every scout I talked to talked about his lack of physicality, that he’s soft. So you’re trying to get the kid to understand that you have to be a physical presence if you want to play the game professionally. He’s heard the message and he’s really playing well.
“He was injured (coming off shoulder surgery in 2014) so I couldn’t work on his arms for a while. But Ryan’s a smart kid. You kind of have to know who you’re dealing with. I just talk to them a lot about this process and what to expect. We set a pretty significant swing — he had to gain about 35 in muscle and lose 35 in fat to be where we want him. Obviously, he’s such a good kid that he took care of his body himself.”
- Chance Comanche, a 6-10 freshman center who arrived from Los Angeles last summer
June 2015: 187 pounds, 4.7 percent body fat
October 2015: 202 pounds, 4.4 percent body fat
Increase in lean body mass: 14.9 pounds
Rounds: “Chance just didn’t have the intensity he needed. I have a ton of guys who can talk to him behind the scenes, older players who are here. It really helps to have a positive influence. Players can be the good guy and I’ll be the bad guy. But we’re always trying to do things in a positive manner. We’re not trying to degrade anybody.
“Chance has gained about 22 pounds. He’s still going heavy duty. He’s like 211 (in December), the highest he’s been. We’re trying to get him around 230.”
- Dusan Ristic, a sophomore center from Serbia
June 2014: 234 pounds, 20.7 percent body fat
October 2015: 255 pounds, 12.1 percent body fat
Increase in lean body mass: 38.5 pounds
Ristic teamed with Anderson last summer, working out in the weight room, while also running in water and doing agility work on the UA sand volleyball courts.
Rounds: “We put them in the deep end of the pool and did track workouts. They’re above water but they’re running. It’s really hard. Du was a little scared so we had him in the Aqua Jogger (a flotation belt). … (The sand workout) is just change-of-direction stuff. We went out there and just tore it up once a week. Just 45 minutes but everything we do is full speed usually.”
- Kadeem Allen, a 6-3 junior guard from Hutchinson (Kan.) Community College who sat out last season while redshirting
- July 2014: 191 pounds, 10.0 percent body fat
October 2015: 200 pounds, 6.4 percent body fat
Increase in lean body mass: 15 pounds
Rounds: “He never worked out. He was really behind. But he’s maybe changed as much as anybody from a mental standpoint. … I literally held him out of weights and punished him for six months. He would just show up late. Wasn’t totally committed. Didn’t understand structure and discipline. But he’s the nicest kid in the world though, and he’s done a fantastic job of changing. I’m really proud of Kadeem.”
