Why is it a surprise that these guys can average 5:20 fresh. Many decathletes run the 1500 in the 4'40" range at the end of a competition. These players are more aerobically trained than decathletes.
This is a joke, right? Surely you don’t actually believe this.
I don’t think people appreciate how exhausting it is to play defense in a real game, especially at the D1 level. It is nothing like playing defense in a pick-up game.
I was pretty skeptical about this at first (no disrespect intended it's just these guys all carry 200-260) but Magness apparently confirmed. I guess the video & times are from their 4th & best time trial. They progress over the summer so they filmed the best one. I'm still pretty surprised that in a group of 15 in warm weather that everybody got it dialed in that well to have such a small spread. Not one person fell off to > 6:00 pace? That's what's impressive to me. Their conditioning program gets everyone to a strong level. I would have assumed most could run something solid from 100-800 but that there would be some sort of drop off over a mile. & I think there is because I would guess they would all be relatively faster 800 & down. I know people will say 5:0x-5:4x isn't that fast but it's moving imo, especially for bigger guys. My unanswered questions with the video are 1) why do they look to be starting/finishing in the middle of a straight & 2) it certainly doesn't look like anybody is running 5min pace but I guess 5min pace doesn't look crazy fast.
These guys are probably the most aerobically fit they will ever be in their lives. I ran a 5 minute mile flat when I was sick and injured during gym class, as a 14 year old, I could barely walk at the time. I wasn’t even a miler at the time. Nor competitive at the state level at the time. These are soon to be d1 champs in a sport that inarguably pretty aerobic. this is no surprise to me. And a 260 6’9 guy running 5:45 is exactly what I’d expect from someone who is a freak athlete set potentially to make millions off their athletic abilities.
You make it sound as if professional teams are handing out contracts like candy but only a small percentage of the players will make it to the NBA.
What I always find interesting about these other sports running mile time trials is the way they tend to group up. I've watched Premier League side AFC Bournemouth, USC basketball, and Gabby Thomas run mile time trials like this and they're all in that same range at sub 5:20 for the faster ones. I think one of the Bournemouth players did break 5 but he was an outlier (admittedly that run was done on turf fields in cleats so worth more than the others). To me, it puts into perspective just how little mile fitness = general sport fitness and how many other areas these athletes need to be fit that doesn't translate to the mile. I think we all assume that pro level athletes or the top crop of college athletes are just scaled up versions of athletes we know, so if some kid on our track team came out straight from the soccer field or basketball court and ran sub 5, obviously Messi and Lebron are 4:30 milers easy!
But it obviously doesn't work that way! Having the ability to run a strong mile is not necessary for these sports and they don't get anything extra from being a little bit faster. Again, in the range we've seen, the best players typically are not the ones winning the mile. So most of these guys are just ticking off the box of doing their fitness test and then moving on to real training for what they need. I have no doubt that there are many would-be decent milers enjoying a lot more success in other sports but I sometimes feel we unfairly act like massive quantities of world beaters are syphoned off this way. Yet the true outliers of running talent who come from other sports demonstrate ability that is so outsized compared to their initial sport that it is immediately obvious they should focus on running. And then there's always the question of staying healthy or continuing to improve with better training. I think we all knew someone who came from another sport, off little training and showed talent but then either stagnated or got injured.
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Imagine if Jordan's bulls had done this. 4:30 avg easily
There are stories out there that they did do this. I'm relying on distant memory at this point, but supposedly Jordan usually won the mile run they'd do at the beginning of preseason conditioning, but one year another player looked like he'd beat him so Jordan tackled him.
Head coach of the celtics ran 48 in high school as a basketball player. Played for west Virginia
You’re referring to Joe Mazzulla? Obviously, he would have to be on the track team to run that fast, but I can’t find any results for him at his HS in Rhodesia Island. Running a fast 400m isn’t necessarily a good indicator for running a mile, anyway.
This is a joke, right? Surely you don’t actually believe this.
I don’t think people appreciate how exhausting it is to play defense in a real game, especially at the D1 level. It is nothing like playing defense in a pick-up game.
I did xc/basketball/track sr year of high school. (football/basketball/baseball as a soph).
Distance and hoops just different fitness. First BB practice after State xc meet, winded and vomiting from shuttle sprints. (Nobody else on 15 man varsity basketball could run 6:00 for mile, but all could do the suicide shuttles.)
First end March track mile 5:05, then down to 4:18 for June State meet. (ran 4:30 as a jr at State)
By end basketball, I weighed 175. (need some bulk in paint, lift eat) By June 145. (no diet, just 50-70 miles/wk)
I still don't believe these times, but there is the whiff of credibility in that it was at end of a summer program with 4 time trials across the summer as benchmarks.
So the claim should be: Houston players run 5:19 mile after full summer of training and 4 race efforts.
The post makes it look like they are doing it with no training, just basketball fitness. Clearly that's not the case.
That is pretty good for players of that size. However, I want to share an anecdote from my HS days. I remember my freshman year in HS. I was the #16 XC kid. My older brother (a junior) played on the HS basketball team. The BB coach kept bragging about how good his players were at running. He challenged the XC team to a competition, so we ran an exhibition meet against them. Their best runner (who just happened to be my older brother) finished a few seconds behind me. He claimed he was sick, and could have won the race, but what about the rest of them that were all behind him?
Yeah, BB players can be in tremendous shape, and run a decent time, but the training of a HS XC team is far superior when it comes to actual competition.