I wrote a little bit yesterday about how much I like Keon Lawrence being in a leadership position on the MU basketball team next season. I've always been a big fan of Keon even during his season-long slump last year. In fact, I'd consider him my favorite player on the team. But that might change real soon and it's no fault of Keon's.
Freshman guard Kim English's mutigers player bio says he "has been called a gym-rat by coaches and teammates because of his tremendous work ethic." But after reading this Mike DeArmond story in Thursday's KC Star, I'm starting to think that gym-rat doesn't do him justice. It's a short blurb (but very telling) so I'll go ahead and post the entire thing:
Kim English lives only half a mile from Mizzou Arena. However, for the last four nights, he has made the basketball locker room his bedroom.
“On my recruiting visit, they told us this was a 24-hour practice facility,” English, a 6-foot-6 freshman guard from Baltimore, said Wednesday. “We’ve got a key and it works at 12 p.m., it works at 1 a.m. It works 24 hours a day.”
English sleeps in a leather chair that he drags from the players’ lounge to the locker room, allowing him to work around the clock.
“To help this team win this year, I’ll do anything,” said English, who played at Notre Dame Prep in Fitchburg, Mass., last season, averaging 17.3 points, 6.2 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game.
“I’ll sleep outside if that’s what it takes.”
How many 18-year-olds do you think spend the summer prior to their freshman year of college literally living in a gym? How many nights do think Jason Horton spent sleeping in the gym during the last four years?
In addition to the locale that he's decided to take up residence in, his mutigers bio also calls him a "basketball junky that follows the prep, collegiate and NBA games with a passion." So he's also a student of the game. Oops! Sorry, I just drooled on my keyboard.
1 comment:
go kimmie!
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