Aug. 26, 2009
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
As he showed in Baylor's postseason run last year, 7-footer Josh Lomers can be a productive post player in the right situations.
And now that he's added a few moves, Lomers might get even more chances during his senior season. The senior from Boerne, Texas, went to the 33rd annual Pete Newell Big Man Camp earlier this month in Honolulu, Hawai`i.
"It's mostly just learning new moves and trying to perfect them," said Lomers, who averaged 3.4 points and 1.9 rebounds overall last year. "It's all about repetitions. If you do it enough, it becomes second nature rather than having to think about it. It was good to kind of focus down on the post moves."
Considered the world's premier "big man" basketball camp, the Newell Camp's impressive alumni list includes Shaquille O'Neal, Akeem Olajuwon, Ralph Sampson, Rasheed Wallace, Shawn Kemp and Shawn Marion. The Texas Longhorns' Dexter Pittman parlayed a trip to last year's camp into being named the Big 12's Most Improved Player last season.
Alton Lister, another alum who spent 16 years in the NBA, was one of the coaches for this year's camp along with coaching veteran Pete Gaudet and Golden State Warriors strength and conditioning coach John Murray.
"I don't think I ever watched him play, but I knew who he was," Lomers said of Lister. "It's always a little easier to take information from somebody who's kind of lived it - been there, done that, that kind of thing. It's helpful to hear it from someone who's been around the block a few times, and he obviously has."
Lister demanded consistency, making sure that they did it the right way.
"He was on everybody to do it right, do it right, do it right, all the way to the end," Lomers said. "A lot of times you go places, and they're like, 'Do it right,' and then they kind of slack and don't care anymore. By the end of the camp, they're kind of like, 'Just do it.' But he was do it right every time, and I think that was good for me to get that kind of consistency that he demanded."
After going through two-a-day sessions on Monday through Thursday (Aug. 3-6), Lomers got Friday afternoon off following a morning session and visited Pearl Harbor.
"Which was cool, even by myself," he said. "I tried to get a couple of the other guys to go, but not many of them were history buffs. A lot of them were leaving early, and then the few that were still around just didn't care about Pearl Harbor. They just wanted to go to the beach."
With Curtis Jerrells, Henry Dugat, Kevin Rogers and Mamadou Diene gone from last year's team, Lomers and guard Tweety Carter will be the only seniors on a team that's added a talented freshman class with Givon Crump, Nolan Dennis, Cory Jefferson, Mark McLaughlin, Dragan Sekelija and A.J. Walton and transfers Ekpe Udoh and Duran Diaz.
"It will be different, but you can say the same thing about other guys we've lost every year," Lomers said of playing without the senior quartet for the first time in his career. "We lost Mark (Shepherd) and AB (Aaron Bruce) and Tim (Bush) and Patrick (Fields). You learn to live with losing teammates, and you gain new ones. You just do the best you can with what you have and work on your chemistry out there."
That transition started this summer, when the newcomers joined the veterans to go through the strength and conditioning program and play some 5-on-5 games during open gym time.
"I think a few of them will probably be major impact players for our team," Lomers said. "I'm impressed with all of them. They're all good guys."
The probable starting frontline would have Lomers playing alongside Udoh, a 6-10, 240-pound junior transfer from Michigan.
"He's a force to be reckoned with," Lomers said of Udoh, who started as a sophomore at Michigan, leading the Big Ten with 2.91 blocks per game and being named to the league's All-Defensive Team. "I think when he wants to score, there are very, very few people that can stop him. And when he wants to stop somebody, there are very, few peole he can't stop. He's just a great player on both ends of the court and works his butt off. Even as a practice player last year, he made us exponentially better. And now, being on the court in the games, is going to be that much more."
As for his own game, Lomers said he needs to work on improving his defense and conditioning while battling the asthma that sometimes limits his minutes.
"That's just something you live with," Lomers said of the asthma. "Some people say they grow out of it, but I know it's never gotten any less for me. I've got it under control a little bit. I take meds for it, and I have my rescue inhaler that I probably use a little more than I should. But I also work out a little bit harder than most people (with asthma). You learn to deal with it. It's something that scares some people. But when you've lived for with it as long as I have, it's just kind of there. You deal with it."
Lomers is on pace to graduate in May with a double major in human resource management and finance. But he's not sure about his plans beyond that.
"I'm definitely excited, maybe a little nervous and a little scared for the future," he said. "I guess I want to see where life takes me. I would definitely be interested in playing. I'm not sure how interested I would be in playing overseas . . . but I'm not going to say I'd never leave (the United States). If I can't play in (the NBA), I might just get a job. Baylor, without a doubt, is a very good education. So I could always go into the business world and see where that takes me."
