True to himself
|
| WSC MENS BASKETBALL |
BY TY REYNOLDS
SVN REPORTER
treynolds@svnmail.com
All his life, all Nate Trueblood dreamed about was playing college basketball at a Division I school.
He worked tirelessly, poured his blood, sweat and tears into it every day to get better, to try to achieve his childhood desire.
But when the time came to pick a college, Trueblood realized that it wasn't about going to a D-I school at all - it was just about playing in college.
So when Division II Wayne State (Neb.) College came calling, Trueblood had no problem saying yes.
"I have absolutely no regrets," Trueblood said on Thursday night from Fayette, Iowa, where the Wildcats were preparing to play Upper Iowa the next day. "I love where I'm at right now, and I couldn't have asked for anything more this early in my college career."
"Playing" has been the key term for the former Dixon standout. Trueblood is averaging 13.5 minutes per game, and has appeared in every one of Wayne State's games so far this season, with two starts.
He has 20 points in 15 games, to go along with 25 rebounds, 10 assists, seven steals and two blocks in 203 minutes, and he's still making the adjustment from being the go-to guy in high school to a young role player for the Wildcats.
"My main job is to set good screens, keep moving through the offense and sometimes pop out for an open look for myself," said Trueblood, who likes playing beside other high school standouts. "I basically go out and try to play solid man-to-man defense, help the team however I can."
The biggest adjustment has been the amount of time basketball takes up in Trueblood's life. Starting over the summer, each Wayne State player had a personal workout plan to adhere to, devised by the coaches and trainers. Since arriving on campus in mid-August, Trueblood and his teammates have had innumerable open gyms, plyometrics and weight-lifting sessions.
And that's all in addition to learning a new playbook.
"We've got twice as many sets to learn as we did in high school, and everything up here is just so much quicker," Truebloodsaid. "It's actually a little harder than I expected. It may be a step down from D-I, but you have to push just as hard to get in game shape and earn some floor time."
But Trueblood is quick to add that the adjustment hasn't been as tough for him as for some of his fellow freshmen thanks in part to the highly-structured system he was a part of with the Dukes.
"It doesn't seem as overwhelming because it's basically like the things we had to do in high school, just magnified a little," Trueblood said.
He also credits a strong relationship with his teammates for making things go smoothly.
"We're so much closer than any other team I've ever been on," Trueblood said. "You're just around them so much, hours spent on bus rides together, practices, workouts, staying in hotels before and after games. It's hard not to get to be friends when you see these guys so much."
Wayne State started the season 5-1, but has gone 3-6 since. Through Saturday's loss at No. 5 Winona State, the Wildcats are 8-7 overall and 3-3 in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference.
Wayne State was picked to finish fourth or fifth in the 10-team conference, but Trueblood expects big things in the future from the young Wildcats. Next year, four more teams are joining the NSIC, and the Wildcats will be that much more experienced to take on even more competition.
"It's a great balance this year, because we have us young guys who are all going through the same things and then the veterans who are like extra coaches for us," Trueblood said. "We want to crack that 20-win mark, but we're really going to have to pick it up the second half of the season.
"But we spend a lot of time working on plays and trying to get better, so I think we'll start to take off once we learn how to play together."
As always, it's Trueblood's hard work that has gotten his foot in the door. He is one of three 3-guards in the Wayne State system, and the hours he spends in the weight room and working on his shot and overall game before and after practice is one of the reasons he's playing more than he expected.
"It's been full-force," Trueblood said. "Once I signed, I never thought about it again, never considered another school, never looked back on the decision. I've just done everything I can to get ready to play at Wayne State, and it's really paying off for me already."
