Tracking proCanes - Lance Hurdle - Part I

proCanes.com is continuing our “Tracking proCanes” feature with former University of Miami and new Bakersfield Jam point guard Lance Hurdle. Hurdle played in 65 games as the Miami Hurricanes point guard between the ’07 and ’09 seasons. Hurdle averaged over 7.5 points a game in his two seasons as a Miami Hurricane. Before being a Hurricane Hurdle played for San Bernardino Valley CC where he was named Foothill Conference Player of the Year after averaging 16 points, four rebounds and six assists per game He also earned first-team all-state and San Diego Union Tribune All-Academic Team honors, while guiding San Bernardino to the Foothill Conference Championship. Hurdle was drafted by the Bakersfield Jam in the 5th round last Thursday in the NBA D-League Draft. Hurdles heads out to California on Wednesday to start preparations for his upcoming season.

Part I: Lance talks about getting drafted by Bakersfield, his days as a Hurricane and much more!

pC: You were drafted in the 5th round and going back to California. Have you spoken to any coaches or players from the Bakersfield Jam?
LH: I just spoke to the coaches and they just told me they couldn’t wait for me to get out there and stuff like that.

pC: So do you know any other guys on the team?
LH: I know of some other players, but I don’t know anybody personally.

pC: How many other point guards are there on the team?
LH: I’m not sure, I heard that they drafted one other point guard and I’m pretty sure they have two others. The other point guard they drafted in the 8th round from Chattanooga, I think.

pC: When did you find out you were going to Bakersfield? Did you expect to be drafted higher or was that where you thought you would go?
LH: I didn’t know where I would go, actually. It didn’t really matter to me as long as I just got drafted. I actually found out from Twitter first. I was following it on the draft board and I was trying to reload the page and as I was reloading my page a tweet came saying ‘good luck in Bakersfield.’ [Laughter]. I actually reloaded and it stopped right before the Bakersfield pick. I had talked to the Bakersfield coach the day before and they said they were interested and stuff like that, so I had a feeling I had a chance to be in Bakersfield. When the page paused right before the Bakersfield pick, I said “watch that I go to Bakersfield.”

pC: When did you actually talk to the coach?
LH: I talked to the coach the day after, on Friday. They were still busy during the draft and they knew I was on a time difference so they thought it would be too late to call. I actually talked to the secretary that night to get everything situated in terms of my flight and arrangements, just welcoming me and the next day I talked to the coach.

pC: You fly out Wednesday and when does practice start?
LH: I read somewhere practice starts Thursday, but Training Camp starts Sunday. I’m not sure when it starts, to be honest, because I have seen two different times. I just know I have to be out there Wednesday.

pC: So how does the D-League work?
LH: I signed with the NBA D-League and with the NBA D-League I sign with the league and then you’re in a pool of draftees and then they pick.

pC: So do you sign for a certain amount of years?
LH: Its’ just normally for a year because a lot of these players get called up to the NBA or they get a great contract overseas so this is a great opportunity to be seen.

pC: So you know any other people that went to the D-League and then went overseas. Do you have any friends that followed that track?
LH: Not really. I’ve heard a lot of stories about it.

pC: You said you worked out with the Miami Heat how did that go?
LH: It went well. I did the pre-draft camp like two or three times. Then they had the rookie camp but I couldn’t do that cuz I was back home in Virginia but I came back and I worked out with them for a week but they just needed an extra guy.

pC: The Heat are thin at point guard. You think that was part of the reason for them calling you in? What were their workouts like?
LH: It was like a team individual, running their plays and stuff like that. But the thing that I think hurt me was the fact that I went home and I graduated but then I had one more semester in the summer so I stayed in the University Village but my contract was up so I had no place to stay right after so I went home for a couple of weeks and they had called me and I was like, well I can come back right away and they were like it’s not that big of a deal but if it’s meant to be it will come back around so I wasn’t too worried about it.

pC: So were those workouts with all the starters?
LH: For the most the part most of the team was there but D-Wade [Dwayne Wade] wasn’t there, Jermaine O’neal, Mario [Chalmers] was there in the rookie camp, but I wasn’t there for that but he wasn’t there the week that I was there.

pC: Was James Jones there?
LH: Yeah it was voluntary for them but he showed up everyday.

pC: Did you talk to James Jones?
LH: Yeah, we actually exchanged numbers. He’s a real cool guy especially doing the pre-draft workouts so I was asking him what are they looking for and he told me ‘a point guard with a lot of confidence who can play defense and show that their aggressive on the offensive end.’

pC: So what would you say you’ve been working on the most? What part of your game?
LH: Honestly I went back to the basics. I think my biggest advantage on field is my speed. So when I work out, I just practice going full speed and doing a move at the same time. So that’s basically what I’ve been improving on, full-speed and into a jump shot, full speed and so on. Whatever I do is full speed and pacing it up and slowing it down just making my defender have to think about what am I gonna do next and whether I am going to go fast or slow

pC: Who do you workout with? Do you workout at UM?
LH: Yeah I work out with strength coach Matt Callaway, he’s a big time help and I’ve been working out with Raja Bell he’s in there too. He’s been a big time help as well just keeping me confident. He went through the CBA. I didn’t know that till he told me that and told me the D-League is more connected with the NBA so if that’s your goal you’ll be there one day if you stick with it. They’ve given me a lot of confidence and actually Boozer was up here playing pick-up. Roger Mason was with the Spurs so I’ve been around a lot of NBA guys all summer and just working out on my own

pC: Do you workout in the new gym they built?
LH: Yeah it’s nice. It’s like maybe 15 baskets in there. It’s two big main courts but on each side they have more baskets.

pC: Tell me about how you ended up at UM. Who recruited you and why UM?
LH: When I left UC santa Barbara that was a tough year for me, I didn’t play very much and I really did not have that connection with the coach that I would like to have so I decided to go to Junior College in San Bernardino and my older brother went to Cal State San Bernardino so personally it was a good fit for me because I stayed with him and I was just working out. I always wanted to come to Miami and we actually talked about just coming out here for a spring break and I said “man how cool would it be to get recruited by them and go on a full scholarship” and he said ‘don’t knock it, it might happen’ and I was like yeah they not gonna put a junior college transfer in the ACC. But one night I get a call from a 512 number, that’s Texas, and you know Coach Suarez and Coach Haith used to be at Texas and Coach Suarez still had that area code number. So I asked my brother what area code is 512 and he says Texas so I was like it might be Texas A&M because I heard they were trying to recruit me. So I listen to the voicemail and it was Coach Suarez and I was so excited. From that point on they came to see me at our college championship game and I had my best performance of the year and from there God just took over.

pC: So were any other schools recruiting you at the time?
LH: It was UM, Marshall, Southeastern Missouri State, Western Carolina, Tennessee Chattanooga. There were a lot of them

pC: So Miami was the top one?
LH: It was Miami, the day I committed to Miami I took an unofficial visit to Pepperdime and during that day when we took the unofficial with my mom I came home that night and said “you know what, I just want to go to Miami, I don’t want to do the five visit thing, Miami is special.”

pC: I didn’t know that your dream was to come to Miami so it must have been then not that difficult to transfer?
LH: It wasn’t difficult at all.

pC: You didn’t have to sit out a year so when did you sign and when did you start working with the team?
LH: I signed April 15, my birthday, and I came out here in June. I worked out in the summertime and went to class. They wanted to get me out here so I came out here second session of summer and I came out here started working out with the team, taking classes, school started and then the season was here.

pC: Who was the other point guard when you came in?
LH: The year I came was the first year [Denny] Clemente was gone. I came in with Eddie Rios, so it was Eddie and I. That’s the year they were still trying to put Jack [McClinton] as a point too, but since we had Eddie and myself they just kept Jack at the two for a little bit.

pC: Last year Jack played a lot more the point and then you lost Eddie. Talk about that and not having Eddie as a back-up. Did that hurt the team a little bit down the stretch?
LH: It did effect b/because Jack had to play the point and Jack is a good point guard but he can score and teams started to key on him when he’s at the point guard position but not having Eddie hurt us because it limited the looks Jack had and it tired him out. Jack is a good player and he found his shot but if he had Eddie it would have helped us out a little more.

pC: Talk about the previous season you guys surprised everyone and then the following season many would say you didn’t live up to expectations. Talk about that and what went wrong the second season and what went right the previous season.
LH: The first season we felt disrespected. My first year here when we went to the tournament. we felt like everybody picked us to finish 12th in the ACC. We felt we get no respect. We worked hard in practice and we even put extra time in practice. We went down to Mississippi State in a tough environment and pulled out a win there and that’s when we really came together so we just felt we put that chip on our should the first year but last year everything was given to us. We were preseason ranked, we were on TV a lot, we were in the media and I don’t think we had that edge that we had to work for it and by the time we got it, it was too late.

pC: So would you say there wasn’t a sense of urgency from the players?
LH: Yeah I think last year’s team talent on paper was obviously better. We had a year of experience with everybody we had good freshmen coming in. Julian Gamble who was supposed to play the spot Anthony King left open, was young but very skilled. You just had too many chiefs and not enough Indians, you know what I mean? We had a lot of good players. My first year we knew our role but last year it was too many people trying to find their role, but everyone is going to be good this year.

pC: You think so?
LH: They’re really going to be good and Malcolm Grant, who I work out with, that’s like a brother to me. When he first came to campus, being point guards that’s how we clicked and we’re real good friends and he didn’t go back home and we stayed out and worked out together and competed against one another so him as a point guard, his talent is going to take him to another level, but his leadership more importantly

pC: Who is going to be the scorer now?
LH: James Dews can score the ball.

pC: He showed that last year but he wasn’t consistent.
LH: I think he’s worked on his scoring ability and being able to score in a variety of ways. Dews is a good scorer Dequan [Jones] has gotten much better Dwayne Colline is going to get you and he’s going to be a beast this year. Dwayne and you’ve got the freshman guys who are really good. Julian Gamble, Reggie, you’ve got a lot of really good players.

pC: Who would you say is your mentor? Who really helped your game when you were here?
LH: Coach Suarez. That’s my go-to man. When I decided to make the decision whether to do the D League or not, that’s the first person I called. Everyone else when I talk to them about going overseas or the D League they give me negative stuff about the D League. When I talked to Coach Suarez the first thing he said to me is you’ve got to do what’s best for you. Overseas is good but there’s some negatives. The D League is good but there’s some negatives, either way wherever you go there will be some negatives and positives. I worked out with him after every practice during the season even now when he’ll come in and work out with me. He’s just a great guy.

pC: Where’s the toughest place you had to play when it was a road game? Where the fans were the worst the loudest?
LH: Well the obvious ones were Carolina, Duke, Clemson but I have to say Kentucky. They had 25,000 fans and when they started to come back they were so loud I couldn’t hear anything, literally. It was crazy.

pC: Talk about playing at bank united center? Was it tough to play somewhere that was never full?
LH: Well when we had a packed house it was easy to get pumped up for games but obviously the two years I wasn’t here they would talk about how no one was really in the stands, unless it was a big game. So it was different. The student section was always packed. I love our crowd, I love our fans here even during school they say ‘hey Lance good game or when’s the next game.’ Even when we’re out in the city. I love our fans here I wouldn’t trade them for nobody.

pC: So what do you think about what Coach Haith is doing with the program? How do you see the future?
LH: Coach Haith is a great coach and a great person. He’s a father figure to everyone. He’s definitely taken this program to a another level but I think he will stay. Last year you heard the rumors and he even said it himself, this is where I want to be and this is what I want to be doing and you even see it in his recruiting each year. It’s getting better and he’s just a great coach and a great guy.

pC: So what do you think Miami needs to do to take it one step higher?
LH: To get that ship back, I think they’ve just got to play hard because I think they were picked last again. I was looking at it with Malcolm. I think they’re picked 11th or 12th either way it’s disrespect, that’s not where they want to be. They don’t like it at all. They’re working hard, they’re running and they’ve gotten better so I think they might have a lot of growing pains because they’re young but sometimes being young can help you out because with young players there’s a lot of confidence. They really don’t know what they’re getting themselves into, so they just want to play and there is not a lot of pressure at all and the expectations are going to be like just go play and that’s the best time to play.

pC: Why the number 1? Have you always been number 1?
LH: When I was young and started playing basketball I had like number 5, number 14, random numbers and one day we got new uniforms for my AU team and my dad had number one and I said alright I like that so I’ve had that it since but when I got to high school, our high school had no single digit numbers. Our high school coach was very stern, I love him to death, so I said well let me get number 11. 1 and 1 together and then when I went to Santa Barabara I had to pick a totally different number, number 3, and that didn’t work out at all, so then I went to San Bernardino and I got “1” back. When Coach Suarez said ‘hey what number would you like?’ and I said “is “one” available” and he said ‘yeah, you’ve got it’ so I kept “one.”

pC: So at what age did you start playing? Was your dad a coach?
LH: Yeah he was a coach, he was an assistant coach to our AU team but I started playing with our AU team when I was 7 years old.

pC: You were always a point guard?
LH: I was thinking about this last night. It’s crazy that you ask me that. I was taller than everybody else when I was younger so I played “the three” but I was young so you have no true position so I was “the three” until I was about 13 [years old] and my AU coach said in the middle of the game, he says, ‘you’re a point guard not a three so you’ve got to bring the ball up,’ and I was like “what? Alright, whatever.” So it took me a while to get used to it but I got used to it and it’s been with me ever since.

pC: You could always handle the ball even at “the three” spot?
LH: Yeah but when I was 12 [years old] I wasn’t good. I would just score, score, score at the “the three” position but I learned how to be a point guard.

Click here to read Part II of our interview with Lance Hurdle and see what he has to say about who is favorite player growing up was, Jimmy Graham, the hardest away game he played in the ACC and much more!