Since Buzz Williams took over the Marquette basketball program, it has become more and more common to hear members of the national basketball media using terms like, "The Marquette Work Ethic".... "He's a Marquette type player"..... "He would be perfect for the Marquette system". Just last week CBS' Jeff Borzello wrote a story about "The Marquette Way". Borzello's story touches on the fact there are no stars on Marquette's roster, but the same could be said about the team at this same time the last three seasons. Before Jae Crowder was named the Big East Player of the Year, before Darius Johnson-Odom, Jimmy Butler or Lazar Hayward were even considered NBA draft picks. So what is it? Where does the work ethic come from? What type of player is a "Marquette type player"? The answer comes from within.
There is no question that Buzz Williams marches to the beat of a different drum, some suggest it is the same drum that AL McGuire used to march to. But one thing is for sure, he builds his team in an unusual way, and it all starts with Boot Camp. Boot camp is not just a physical grind, it is a physical and mental challenge that brings the team together forming a bond of brotherhood.
In the world of Buzz Williams, it builds team chemistry. "It's everything. It is where our team is formed. Once you have lived through it, it is not the strain on you physically, it is the strain on you emotionally and mentally. It impacts the staff in the same way, we're all in there strung out. We're in there saying what are we doing, and what we are doing is finding out who we are collectively."
Boot Camp is supposed to be hard, and it is. They run until they can't run anymore, and then they start over and run again. A couple of years back we were allowed to look in on Boot Camp and some of the drills are designed to help players physically and mentally fight through fatigue. When the players were completely exhausted, Williams would yell out instructions, "Get on the line - I want five lines of two". Mind you there were .10 seconds on the clock and it was running. Overcome with exhaustion, the younger players were scrambling to find a line to fit into, all while the older players were screaming, "Just line up and go!" Well, with thirteen players, five lines of two does not exactly work out....and that was the point. When you are so exhausted, can you figure out a way to succeed? When the buzzer sounded they started running whether they were in a line or not, because in a game when the buzzer sounds, you don't have the time to stop and think.
Boot Camp does build team chemistry, and no one knows that more that the players that have lived through it. Former Marquette point guard Maurice Acker, now playing professional ball in Poland, feels it was an important part of becoming a team, "Buzz's boot camp is the toughest thing I've ever did in my life, but what it does is forces you to grow as a team." One of his former teammates, Dwight Buycks, now playing professionally in France agrees. "Boot Camp is the best experience you could go through to build team chemistry and relationships together."
Of course it is easier for them to say such things as boot camp has been in the rear view window for a few years now, but even the current players can see the importance. Junior Jake Thomas knows how important it is to work to become a team. "Everyone thinks it is about your physical toughness, but its about mental toughness as well. Its rough, but everyone is pulling for each other and I think that is where our team chemistry starts to build."
There is no question that the new team leaders emerge during Boot Camp, especially because it is the hardest on the new players who have yet to experience it. Having played at Arizona State for three years Trent Lockett is no stranger to hard work, but was he prepared for Boot Camp? "I don't think anyone can really prepare for the workload that is needed to make it through the preseason. You try to prepare, but there is really no preparation for that."
So how do the new guys feel once they do make it through Boot Camp? Freshman Steve Taylor said, "Boot Camp was the hardest thing that I have ever had to do in my life, and the crazy part about it is that I have to do it for three more years. I'm glad its over, but after Boot Camp I feel like I can do anything. I can do anything."
Also a freshman, Jamal Ferguson agrees with his roommate. "Its the hardest thing I've had to do in my life. You really have to put your mind to it, but once you get through it, I feel like I can get through anything." Having been through two boot camps, and being three years removed, Dwight Buycks still gets the same feeling as the freshmen. "It's tough as nails but when it's over the best feeling ever, you feel like you can accomplish anything, and you believe it too."
Perhaps Boot Camp is in fact where the stars emerge, and Buzz Williams believes that to be true. "Our guys see everything. They know who they are individually, and they know who we are collectively." Thomas agrees, "You can see who is stepping up. Its really rough, and you can see that's where it happens."
In the end Boot Camp accomplished its mission in Williams mind. "This has been by far the hardest one we have had by far. And the guys were better than I could have hoped. They were champions."
With boot camp behind them, the team set out on part two of their quest to "Find Out Who We Are", and that is a trip to training camp. What is training camp you ask? Well, it's even crazier than Boot Camp. The team takes a school bus to a remote location, works out and lift weights in public park picnic shelters, stays in the most basic of cabins with crowded rows of bunk beds and they practice in high school gyms. Afterall, in the words of Jeff Borzello, "It's the Marquette Way".