Lucas at Large: Reuvers finding right recipe for success
October 24, 2018 | Men's Basketball, Mike Lucas, Varsity Magazine
Sophomore forward getting stronger thanks to better habits on and off the court
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BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. — After Sunday's Red-White scrimmage, Nate Reuvers was planning on going out to eat with his mom and dad, Teresa and Paul, who made the four-hour trip from their home in Lakeville, Minnesota to Madison. Once served, he was thinking about sending a text picture of his meal to Erik Helland.
"I'll make sure I get something good," Reuvers said. "Maybe a nice steak dinner."
Helland, the UW basketball strength and conditioning coach, would expect no less. Since the end of last season when Reuvers, an undersized, 215-pound freshman, made a commitment to put some meat on his 6-foot-11 frame, Helland noted, "He would text me pictures of what he was eating."
It was part of the bigger picture and it has since acted as a stimulus — food for thought.
"We've had these conversations," Helland said of working with Reuvers on weighing good eating options versus bad, "and he was just confirming the point … if he ordered out or if they cooked something at the house, he might send a picture of his plate. He took pride in that preparation."
After sizing up some of his meals, Helland would tease, "I've got to start hanging out with you."
@EthanHapp22 ➕ @braddavi34 🆚 @DMitrikTrice0 ➕ @aleemty2 Best of three in cornhole, ladder toss and pool... Who ya got? For the Culture: First Practice
— Wisconsin Basketball (@BadgerMBB) October 24, 2018
Reuvers ate well. And often. He even began to take a liking to protein shakes. "It's a lot of extra eating," he said with a sigh. "Basically, you're stuffing yourself. I don't eat portions; I eat until I'm full. It's not very fun. It's like working out, it's just like weight lifting. You have to push yourself."
Since March, Reuvers has put on a little over 25 pounds. Once the season was over, he swears he put on 10 pounds the first week. He says his current weight is fluctuating between 240 and 244. "I don't know if I necessarily see it," he said of any dramatic change in the before-and-after photo.
"But I can tell that I'm a lot stronger. My legs are bigger."
From his office in the Kohl Center weight room, Helland confirmed, "He's much stronger in here. He's a bouncy kid, reactive, fairly explosive. But he ratcheted that up another notch. His strength levels were terrific this summer. He squatted 350. When he first got here it was more like 225 maybe, at best."
Helland doesn't put much stock in what somebody might bench press ("Doesn't mean a thing."), but he does believe in the squat as a better indicator of Reuvers' lower-body strength. "He was always a good worker," Helland said. "And he became an even better worker. He gets all the credit."
Nonetheless, credit Helland for seeing what maybe others didn't beneath the surface.
"What we struggled with during the year was that transition to being a freshman," he said, "where he's not handling his eating, his sleeping and those kinds of things the way he should. You can work hard, but if you're not supporting that growth with good habits then you can hit a stumbling block.
"Probably the good news is we had to take him off his redshirt and he experienced the physicality of the Big Ten schedule. It was very evident to him that he struggled with the contact aspect of it. Like a switch, he flipped it and he's taking a great deal of pride in how he's eating and sleeping.
"To really become a complete player, you have to understand that this is a lifestyle; it's something you're doing 24/7, 365. You just don't turn it on and turn it off. He was engaged in the whole process and now everything is starting to come together."
Mind you, there was nothing abnormal about Reuvers' diet. He's a college kid, after all.
"He was eating more like a kid would eat. He was eating things that he liked to eat and there's a happy medium in there somewhere," Helland said. "It's not realistic to ask a kid to eat things that he just doesn't like to eat. But finding options that he's okay with is a pretty important part of the process.
"How to structure a meal are things that we teach on a daily basis whether it's at the training table here or on the road, especially if we have a chance to help them make choices. This is not real complex. But when the kid takes possession and ownership the process is driven forward very quickly."
To maintain his weight, Reuvers has to be conscious of his caloric intake. "We're monitoring how many calories we're using during practices, sometimes 2,000 to 3,000," he said. "I have to make sure I'm eating the right things. You can easily get that back by going to Arby's and McDonalds."
He has been good at resisting that temptation. Although he hasn't completely eliminated fast food ("Everything is okay in moderation every now and then."), he has gotten into the habit of eating chicken, steak and pasta at home. On the court, Reuvers has already noticed some physical benefits.
"When Ethan is driving on me, if I'm able to cut him off, I can stop him," he said of preseason All-American center Ethan Happ. "He's obviously way quicker and hard to stay in front of. But I can definitely stop him from coming into the paint a lot more than I could last year.
"We need another solid defender, too (on the frontline). Last year, I was going against guys a lot bigger and it was just kind of 'bully ball.' This year, if I get caught behind a guy, I can hold my ground as opposed to last year if I was behind the guy, it was probably a basket."
As far as defining his role as a sophomore, Reuvers said, "It's basically just expanded. I can do a little bit of everything. A lot of times in the games last year if it was a close game towards the end, I wouldn't play a lot the last four minutes. This year, I think there will be a lot more trust."
Reuvers, a starter in 15 of the last 18 games, averaged modest overall numbers: 5.5 points, 2 rebounds and 16.6 minutes. He shot only 25 percent from the 3-point arc (12-of-47). "A lot of it was getting used to playing out there with pace and being comfortable with a guy flying at you," he said.
He felt that there was another factor impacting his shooting: a lack of stamina. "Last year my shot would be just flat because I was fatigued and it would bring my percentage way down," he said. "Plus, it's hard to have a good percentage when you're only getting a couple of looks a game."
Does more weight (and better eating and sleeping habits) + more physicality = more minutes + more production? That's the equation and big picture for Reuvers. Until it all crystalizes and everybody learns how much he can handle on his plate, Helland will continue to welcome the photo texts.
"The hardest thing is, 'What's taking place when he's away from everybody?"' he said. "Character reveals itself when nobody is watching. To me, what differentiates a good or average player from a great player is, 'Do they hold themselves to that higher standard when nobody is watching?'"
More food for thought.
