La Salle gets ready with grueling practice

LOS ANGELES - There was huffing and puffing. Some tongues were hanging out.

After taking a day off from basketball while traveling from Kansas City, Mo., La Salle resumed practice Tuesday, and the players went at it hard at Southern Cal's training facility.

It will be the only difficult practice for the Explorers in preparation for Thursday's Sweet 16 West Regional game against Wichita State (28-8) at the Staples Center.

While playing and winning three NCAA tournament games in five days, culminating in Sunday's 76-74 win over Mississippi at the Sprint Center, La Salle (24-9) had to worry about conserving energy.

Now, with some time off before the next game, coach John Giannini wanted the players to do much more than break a sweat. So they ran up and down the court at a brisk pace.

"I'm a little tired, a little winded," said guard Tyrone Garland, now a Twitter sensation. "It is good to get it out of the way now so we're not winded during the game."

Garland isn't tired of talking about the most famous shot in the country, his Southwest Philly Floater that was the game-winner against Ole Miss. Yet he isn't as consumed with it as the rest of the country appears to be.

"I don't pay too much attention to it, but it is all over Twitter, and I don't get too high or low about it," Garland said. "It's a great thing going on, but I am worried about getting a win."

And Giannini wanted his team to get its wind.

"We ran them hard because we don't want them to get de-conditioned," the coach said. "It is better that they are tired [Tuesday] and not Thursday."

Center Steve Zack, out since the last week of the regular season with a sprained left foot, rode a stationary bike for the first time. But it's unlikely that he will see action this week.

So that makes La Salle even smaller, but that has been the case the entire tournament. And the players will need all their stamina to counter a Wichita State team that is seventh nationally in rebounding margin at 7.9 boards per game.

"Wichita State has great will," Giannini said. "Will shows up in rebounding."

That will put the onus not only on 6-foot-8 Jerrell Wright but on the backcourt players in the four-guard set to rebound more.

The Explorers will need their wind.

"A workout like this helps a lot," leading scorer Ramon Galloway said. "We are not letting our bodies feel the beating."

The Explorers had to go all out knowing they will go light Wednesday when they practice at the Staples Center.

"Even though we didn't play today, it felt like a game because we were running and going hard," Galloway said.

Another reason the Explorers will need their running shoes: Wichita State has a deeper team and, like Ole Miss did, can throw some big bodies at La Salle.

While Wright is La Salle's only rotation player who has decent size, Wichita State starts 6-8, 238-pound senior Carl Hall and 7-0, 250-pound center Ehimen Orukpe.

Galloway insists that the Explorers weren't tired while competing in an NBA-type schedule, and he said a practice like Tuesday's was good preparation for Thursday.

"We may be tired when we get back to the hotel, but not in the games," he said. "We're living the moment and understand we have had to gut it out."

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