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The weight lifting program for incoming freshmen is extremely important to the impact they can make immediately. That means the first session of the summer is a critical part of the development.
To start the initial month of summer workouts, the freshmen spend most of their day with Indiana Director of Athletic Performance Clif Marshall. That's when the official nutrition and weight program is put into place.
Indiana's freshmen have all seen benefits from Marshall's program over the years, but there haven't been quite few classes as openly complimentary of Marshall this early in the summer as this season.
"Coach Clif has put a program together to ultimately get us better strength wise and he is doing a great job with that," IU freshman forward Malik Reneau said earlier this summer "We have been in the weight room and putting on the muscle and the strength that we need to compete with the older guys because coming from high school to college is a big difference and the playing style and the toughness, so we have to get stronger and Coach Clif is helping us do that."
All four of Indiana's freshmen come from a different playing background. For Reneau and Jalen Hood-Schifino, both played at powerhouse prep school Montverde Academy. For CJ Gunn and Kaleb Banks, both come from a more traditional high school, albeit both programs extremely successful in their own right.
For this class, they all had different ways of preparing for their first summer session of workouts. For Gunn, the in-state prospect put together a pre-summer plan with the help of Marshall and former IU wide receiver Courtney Roby.
"[Former Indiana WR] Courtney Roby down at Sparx, he definitely did a good job preparing me to get down here," Gunn said. "We actually had a meeting with Coach Clif before I came down to IU and he told us the keys that they were going to focus on during the weightlifting program.
"The weightlifting with Coach Clif from what I was doing during the summer is definitely more intense, more energy in the weight room. But Courtney did a good job preparing me for that. I'm getting used to it, but I love it."
Each player has their own individual program and part of that includes nutrition and keeping your body right after all the workouts.
"It's really important to me. Me and Coach Clif, we really been focusing on getting me to 200 pounds where we go back home in August," Gunn added. "But yeah, getting to 200 pounds, and nutrition is really important. Nutrition, sleep, it's really all a part of the process, so you have that take in all of those factors and really lock in on staying disciplined to those. So that's what I really learned over this summer."
"So far, I've seen pretty good improvements," Kaleb Banks said. "I went from 200 to 215 so far. Feel like I'm getting stronger in the weight room. So, I think I am progressing well."
"As far as in the weight room, he does a great job with us on our body making sure we are staying on top of our nutrition," Jalen Hood-Schifino added. "So overall it's been great for me."
While some of the freshmen are looking to add weight and muscle, five-star forward Malik Reneau came in with a college-ready body. His program was quite a bit different.
"When I sat down with Coach Clif it was really maintaining my weight and building muscle and trying to stay at a good weight, not trying to gain weight or lose weight, because I came in already built and had that weight on me," Reneau added. "So, I'm really just maintaining my weight, getting stronger in the weight room, and that's, yeah, that's pretty much it."
While the weight lifting programs are a major part of Marshall's role, he's also taken on a larger role off of the court. Something all of the freshmen have enjoyed.
"Aside from him being a strength coach, he's just a great guy," Hood-Schifino said. "Outside of, you know, being in the weight room he does a great job of sending motivational messages."
"We spend a lot of time together with the weight room but also a lot of time off the court," Banks added. "We'll go fishing. He took me to the fair one time and other stuff like that."
It's clear that the impact Marshall has made with this current freshmen class has gone even much deeper than on the court or weight room. And despite all four freshmen expected to have different roles this season on the floor, they all seem to be ready for whatever that looks like after a summer with Marshall.
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