Helping make the team better

He’s big, but not that big.

Calvin Jurich realizes that.

And that’s what sets the University senior basketball player apart from most of his peers.

“I know I’m not going to get a growth spurt and get to 6-10 or 7-foot,” the 6-foot-5 Jurich said. “I have to keep working on ways to play against guys who are bigger than I am and who can jump out of the gym. Since I’m not going to get taller, I have to work on my perimeter game, too.”

Not that there are many in the Greater Spokane League who answer that description. But Jurich knows they’re out there. He played against them during his summer vacation – at AAU tournaments in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Portland, to name a few.

“I played summer ball with my school team, but I also played summer league baseball – that way I got a little balance,” Jurich said. “But I’ve also played basketball with an AAU team the last couple years: Eastern Washington Elite.

“It helped prepare me and showed me what I have to work on. I played against some of the best players in the nation. I got a chance to really know what my abilities really are.”

“He’s worked very hard over the summer,” University coach Marty Jessett said. “I think he’s picked up where he left off last year.”

A second-team All-GSL selection a year ago, Jurich is a primary cog on this year’s University Titans team – the sort of player every team devises game plans for.

“Pretty much everyone double-teams me,” Jurich said. “But I look at that as an opportunity for my teammates.”

Through the Titans first six games, Jurich has averaged 19 points per game, scoring no fewer than 15 points in any one game. After dropping their first two games, to Central Valley and West Valley, University went on a four-game win streak – including a victory at Ferris.

“One of the things that we have talked about with Calvin is the fact that teams will double-team him, so he’s not always going to get good looks at the basket,” Jessett said. “He’s going to have to create his own shots by hitting the offensive boards hard.

“The nice thing about him is that he hasn’t hung his head and pouted about that. Some big kids do that. He’s just gone out there and worked hard and done what we’ve asked.”

Jurich has embraced that phase of the game.

“The thing about rebounding is that it pretty much comes down to who wants the ball more,” he said. “You have to go after the ball on the boards. You have to want to get the ball.”

Jurich also has worked on his passing game.

“It’s not something that I’ve broken down and worked on specifically,” he said. “But in practice, I do work hard on making good passes.”

That’s all part of what the Titans coaching staff has asked.

“He’s done all the things that we’ve asked him to do to help make the team better,” Jessett said.

That work has included attending basketball camps designed specifically for posts and forwards.

“I’ve learned a lot from those camps,” Jurich said. “I think what it all comes down to, the most important part of playing in the post is balance. You have to maintain good balance, and that’s harder to do than you might think. It’s crowded down close to the basket, and there’s a lot of pushing and shoving.

“But I’ve learned that if I can keep good balance, I will be able to do what I need to do.”

The hard work has paid off.

“I think we’re playing pretty well right now,” Jurich said. “I think that loss to Central Valley stung us, humbled us. The good thing is that it showed us that anything can happen and that we have to go out and play hard every game.

“That win at Ferris was a very good boost for us, too. To go to Ferris and win a game like that was big for us.”

Now on Christmas break, Jurich and the Titans can go back to the drawing board.

“Two weeks is a long time to be off,” Jessett said. “We do play one game over the break (Wednesday against Sandpoint). But for the most part, we’re going to go back and re-stress some of the fundamentals and make some adjustments. Once you’ve played six games, you get a pretty good idea of what teams are going to run against you, what works and what isn’t. You can tinker a little bit and try to fix things before we get back at it with the GSL season.”

It helps, Jurich said, to concentrate on basketball without the added pressure of attending class.

“You’re mind is definitely fresher when you go in during the day and practice,” he said. “I can see it in the way we approach practice. You’re just that much sharper.”