[Quality88]

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- It's called "boot camp," and Billy Gillispie intends for it to be as tough as the name implies.
It's two weeks of intense physical conditioning, a training tradition Gillispie borrowed from his old boss Bill Self and brought to the University of Kentucky for his first year as the men's basketball coach.
"My first impression of it was pretty much hell," UK freshman Patrick Patterson said yesterday at the Wildcats' media day. "It lived up to that. It really did. Hardest thing I've ever done in my life."
The Cats opened practice last night, first with a private workout at 7, then with Big Blue Madness festivities at Rupp Arena.

But the work began in earnest more than two weeks ago with the opening of boot camp.
The phrase itself struck fear into the hearts of Gillispie's new players.
"It scared me," guard Jodie Meeks said. "It definitely scared me."
"I was like, 'Boot camp? We're not in the Army. What's going on?' " senior guard Ramel Bradley said.
"I was already here, so it's like I was stuck," freshman forward A.J. Stewart said. "There was nothing I could do."
And boot camp was all it was cracked up to be.
Though the training regimen lasted only eight days -- Gillispie joked yesterday that he wished it was eight weeks -- the Cats said yesterday it felt longer, in part because a typical boot-camp day began at 5:30 a.m.
"My alarm went off, and I just wanted to lay there and go back to sleep," Patterson said. "My roommate, Alex (Legion), got me up out of bed. The first day I was dead. I walked into class and just about passed out."
Boot camp lasted from Monday to Thursday for two straight weeks. Often the early-morning workouts were followed with a second one in the early afternoon.
The sessions -- usually about 40 minutes each -- included sprints, defensive drills, lane slides and other conditioning drills, players said.
"Suicides," Stewart said. "A billion of them. It's like they never stopped."
Sometimes the Cats stopped.
It wasn't unusual, Patterson said, to see a teammate go to the floor to catch a quick rest. When he did, the rest of the Cats would rally, helping their teammate up off the floor and encouraging him to finish.
And while Gillispie said boot camp is about getting a team into the best condition possible, the moments of pushing a teammate to finish are among the most significant.
"You try to bond your team," said Gillispie, hired in the spring to replace Tubby Smith, who left for Minnesota. "(Boot camp) is a very important thing for chemistry-building, and I really believe we made as much (of a) stride there as we did in any area."
Pulling a team together during a harrowing conditioning session sometimes requires giving players a foe to unite against. That's the role Gillispie fills.
"Coach said, 'You're going to hate me on the court, but off the court, you're going to love me,' " Patterson said. "That's how I feel. We're doing the (boot-camp) drills, and if we mess up and he makes us run, we hate him. But off the court, we love him to death."
The Cats are about to get a lot more acquainted with the on-court Gillispie.
Gillispie said he still has plenty to learn about his new team, but he likes what he's seen. He said this could be his best shot-blocking team as a head coach. He anticipates the Cats being tough and competitive. UK performed better in boot camp, he said, than any of his previous teams.
Still, there are plenty of questions as the Cats open camp.
Senior guard Joe Crawford still hasn't fully recovered from knee surgery last month. Derrick Jasper, who had microfracture surgery on his left knee in June, is only now approaching full speed. Center Jared Carter is about a week from returning to contact drills after shoulder surgery cost him last season.
But Gillispie yesterday lauded Bradley's leadership and the maturity of his freshmen, and he sounded like a man eager to get to work.
His players sounded happy to be finished with the boot-camp workload.
"It's a test of you, mentally and physically," Bradley said. "At the time when you're going through it, and you're killing yourself on the court, you're like, 'I can't stand this right now.' Afterwards, you realize what it's done and how much better it's made you. Then you love (Gillispie)."
Adoration wasn't the goal of boot camp. Rather, Gillispie said, it was achievement.
"I think any time you complete boot camp -- because the last couple days are very difficult -- (the players) have a victory before your season even starts," Gillispie said. "They say, 'Hey, I didn't know that I could do this, but I know that I can do it now.' So I really do believe that it gives you a mental edge going into the start of your practice."

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