Scott in Peak Condition as Season Approaches
Sept. 16, 2010
By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
CHARLOTTESVILLE — On VirginiaSports.com, the 2010-11 men’s basketball roster shows updated heights and weights for Tony Bennett’s players.
At 242 pounds, 6-8 senior Mike Scott, the Cavaliers’ top returning scorer and rebounder, also is the heaviest player on the team.
It’s good weight, Mike Curtis said. Curtis has worked closely with Scott since taking over as UVa’s strength-and-conditioning coach for men’s basketball in June 2009.
“From a physical standpoint, I can’t take any credit for what his parents gave him,” Curtis said recently. “He came in with a great frame for basketball.
“Genetically, he had pretty much had the physical tools to be successful at this level or even beyond. What we try to do is try to lean him out a little bit. He’s lost some body fat, and put some more functional strength on.”
When Curtis arrived at UVa from the University of Michigan, he said, Scott “had a lot of brute strength, but my focus was to try to get him to be able to move in and out of all three planes of motion: moving forward, moving laterally, moving rotationally a little bit better. And he’s become a lot better from his movement abilities, because from a strength standpoint, at 240, he’s strong.
“My biggest thing was trying to get him to be a little bit more efficient as a mover, and also cut down on some of his body fat. Because he did have some baby fat. But we’re shedding that away. We’re still working on those eating habits of his, but his body fat has decreased, and that’s been the biggest thing that I wanted to do, to give him a better chance to be able to get through a season injury-free, to be able to maintain his energy stores and compete throughout a game, and be able to maintain his mental focus. All those things kind of come together. If you’re not fatigued, you’re not tired, maybe you won’t [have concentration lapses].”
In 2009-10, Scott averaged 12 points — second only to Sylven Landesberg at UVa — and a team-high 7.2 rebounds. He shot 50.5 percent from the floor and 71.9 percent from the line.