Northwestern University Athletics
Lumpkin Undergoes Transformation
11/19/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
Sanjay Lumpkin IS A THROWBACK in this age of the highlight reel, which is the ultimate aim of so many performers. They long to see their mugs in that over-hyped segment and, in their quest for that ephemeral notoriety, they mottle their productions with pirouettes and poppycock, with finger pointing and chest thumping and any number of histrionics. But that is not way of the `Cats sophomore swingman, who is instead the very symbol of substance.
He is a lunch-pail laborer, a descendent of the long-honored blue collar worker, an old-fashioned type who guards and rebounds and sacrifices his body taking charges and diving for loose ball. None of this, of course, is spectacular stuff. But it is the very stuff that has prompted his coach, Chris Collins, to often call him his team's glue guy. "I take a lot of pride in that. I take a lot of pride," Lumpkin will say when asked about that appellation.
"He said I was the heart and soul of the team. I'll take that. I'll take that. I think that's a really important part. I take pride in that. I've got to help lead the team. I'll probably have the same role this year. So I bring my toughness everyday and see what happens."
Sanjay Lumpkin IS AN ACORN that has fallen close to the tree, which is why he grasps the importance of his oft-unheralded role. His father Sean was a defensive back at Minnesota and later, in the early `90s, for the New Orleans Saints as well. His stepfather, Jim Petersen, played basketball for the Gophs in the early `80s and later, in the NBA, had stops with the Rockets and Kings and Warriors. (He is now an assistant coach for the WNBA Minnesota Lynx.) Both, along the way, imbued him with their special knowledge. "They could tell me what it takes, tell me how they did it," explains Lumpkin.
"My whole life I've been raised to do whatever it takes to get it done and you need guys to do the dirty work in order to win. In order for us to win, someone has to do the dirty work. If that's what it takes, I'm happy to do it."
Sanjay Lumpkin IS TRANSFORMED as he and the `Cats compete in the early stages of the 2014-15 campaign. Last season, despite his innate grit, he was still no more than a 6-foot-5, 205-pound waif often asked to guard an opponent like Michigan State's 6-foot-10, 245-pound Adreian Payne. "He was too strong (for me)," he says, thinking back to that night. "I felt I couldn't really do anything. I was trying to rely on my help as much as I could. He was a beast."
But now the same can be fairly said of Lumpkin himself, who enters this season a finely-chiseled 220. Some of his gain resulted from the work he did with Katie Knappenberger, the `Cats sports dietician who last spring put him on a plan that had him consuming 6,000 calories a day. "For awhile I was kind of eating whatever I wanted to," he recalls. "I would eat until I was full, and then I had to keep eating. I pretty much stuffed my face for two months, three months. Now I'm just trying to maintain. I feel I'm at a good weight, but I still talk to Katie about what to eat and what not to eat."
"That's been a huge, huge benefit for us, being able to bring in a full-time sports dietician. . .," explains Mike Schweigert, the team's sports performance director. "For him, for someone who needs to gain, it was a big jump. You need to offset all the work you're doing and the calories you're burning and give your body fuel to grow with."
And some of his gain resulted from the work he did with Schweigert and his staff in the weight room, where he edged out Tre Demps to win the coveted Swolly Grail that goes to the `Cat who shows the greatest overall improvement in that setting. "He had to change his body," says Schweigert, delineating why Lumpkin copped that award. "Adreian Payne is an example where you're undersized compared to him, (so) you need to get physically bigger and stronger. He really embraced that. He put on about 23 pounds in the off-season and that pushed him over the edge."
"Coach wanted me to bulk up a little," echoes Lumpkin himself. "As you've seen from some of the guys I had to guard, guys are a lot bigger than me. I'd always lifted. But this past spring and summer, compared to the summer before, we really ramped it up. It was a lot of hard work and I'm just happy it paid off. Now I've just got to keep it up during the season as we do a lot of running."
But, no matter the source, his gain is sure to prove beneficial in the season ahead. "My whole life," he says, "I've pretty much got pushed around on the court and last year I sometimes got pushed around. Now I feel I'll be able to guard bigger guys. The Big Ten's gotten really strong, so I feel it'll definitely help me. And the wear and tear of the season, I feel it'll help me as the season goes on."
"In all facets," Collins says when asked where Lumpkin's added muscle will most help him. "He guards the toughest guy on the other team. Sometimes they're power forwards. Sometimes they're two guards. He has to guard some point guards at time. He knows he's a physical, energy player. To add that kind of strength, it helps him finish around the basket. It helps keep him a little more durable. And more than anything, it gives him confidence."
Sanjay Lumpkin IS MORE CONFIDENT offensively entering this season, which he certainly was not a year ago while shooting just 36.8 percent and averaging a mere 3.8 points-per-game. "I thought last year," says Collins, "he was unsure of himself on the offensive end of the floor. He was very confident on defense. We want him to stay as confident on defense and we want him to be more of a threat on offense."
"I feel I can be a threat," says Lumpkin. "It can't be four-on-five. I've just got to make the plays I know I can make. Just find an easy way to score and still do the things I do on the defensive end of the floor. But I've definitely got to contribute on offense."
He knew this even at the end of last season and that is why, during the summer, he joined Demps in California to work with a shooting guru named Mike Penberthy. He had starred at The Masters College in Santa Clarita, had been a Laker when they won the NBA title in 2001 and would be hired by the Timberwolves in September to be their full-time shooting coach. But here, during sessions at his alma mater, his focus was on the pair of `Cats.
"He's very different than your typical coach," remembers Demps, who also worked with him in the summer of '13. "He kind of focuses on different things than most coaches. It's not as intense. It's more about technique and adjusting the form of your jump shot. Smoothing your jump shot out and making it an easier shot, a simpler shot. That's one of the things that he emphasizes a lot. Sanjay's done a great job of embracing that here and he's definitely been more efficient shooting the ball this year."
"Last year," adds Lumpkin himself, "I felt at times I hurt the team. You've just got to have confidence and step up and shoot it when you're open. You've just got to be a threat out there, and I feel at times I wasn't. That was on me. I'm going to change that."
"He's not going to be a go-to guy for us," concludes Collins. "But he has to be a guy people have to respect on the offensive end and he's done a really good job with that. He's more confident with his shot."
Sanjay Lumpkin'S GIVEN NAME IS NOT UNIMPORTANT HERE. It is of Sanskrit, Indian origin and generally means victorious, triumphant, conquering.
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