Talk the talk

An integral part of learning to walk the walk, Lady Vols Center Nicky Anosike also must talk the talk

The words came from basic English and yet they sounded like a faraway foreign dialect to Nicky Anosike.

Seal, pin and spin, leg whip, drop step ...

"It was like a whole other language,'' Anosike said.

She was a freshman women's basketball player at Tennessee, eager to learn and hanging on coach Pat Summitt's every word.

Anosike thought that she was right where she wanted to be. And suddenly she was lost.

"I had no clue what Pat was talking about,'' Anosike said. "... You get here and you find out you don't know anything. It's the worst feeling.''

Anosike was laughing as she recounted her bewildering encounter with the basketball vernacular of post play. The comfort comes from being more fluent.

"In basketball speak and post lingo,'' Lady Vols assistant coach Dean Lockwood said, "she's gone from first-year student to third year.''

Wherever Anosike is going with her basketball career, she is following the words and the accompanying voices. They are the cadence for a determined journey that's heading into her sophomore season.

Lockwood has been coaching for 27 years. He has one year's worth of experience with Anosike. Already she ranks as one of the best listeners he's ever coached.

"Her antenna is always up,'' said Lockwood, who works primarily with UT's post players. "She's not afraid to ask questions and challenge something in a positive way. A player like that is going to grow by leaps and bounds.''

During Thursday's basketball workout, Lockwood introduced a shot fake to a shooting drill. Anosike immediately asked for a more detailed explanation.

Lockwood thinks he knows the scope of Anosike's attentive nature. But he really doesn't know. Last season, she pulled herself up from a player who had never played a true post position to an SEC All-Freshman team honoree with double-double potential for points and rebounds. She did so, in large part, by clinging tightly to a few early season words of encouragement from Lockwood.

He told her, "You have great potential. Never lose hope. Never stop fighting.''

"That meant so much to me when Dean said that to me,'' Anosike said. "I don't know if he even remembers what he said to me.''

Be careful what you say to Anosike. Every single world is being processed and refined as fuel for her engine. A timely insight or a thoughtful compliment is, in her words, "like feeding you confidence.''

Anosike built enough confidence last season and during the summer playing for the U.S. U19 World Championship team to approach Summitt about having a bigger scoring role.

In the meantime, she's listening to Summitt's advice on how to best marshal her abilities and achieve her objective.

"Coach, she's harping on the idea that post players need to have composure,'' Anosike said.

Ultimately, Anosike's journey will speak not only for her ambitions but also the coaching she receives. The Lady Vols pledged to develop her into a post player. It was part of her recruitment. Since he wasn't on the staff then, Lockwood wasn't privy to the sales pitch. Anosike brought him up to speed during an individual meeting last season.

"They said they were going to teach me to be a post player,'' Lockwood recalled Anosike telling him. "You have to be patient with me.''

Lockwood is a good listener, too. Last June, during a UT basketball camp, Lockwood came back to Thompson-Boling Arena late one evening to turn out the lights.

He heard the sound of a basketball on the arena floor. Thump. Thump. Thump.

He went up to his office to do some work and wait out a player's work session. Occasionally, he would come down the steps, listen and go back upstairs.

The thump-thump of the basketball carried past midnight until nearly 1 a.m.

It was the sound of Anosike. She was right where she wanted to be.

Notebook: Center Sybil Dosty missed Thursday's workout with a left quadriceps strain. ... The Lady Vols are practicing this morning at the arena. ... Junior prospect Sydney Smallbone, a guard from South Bend, Ind., is making an unofficial visit this weekend. ... Guard Sa'de Wiley-Gatewood, who sat out some basketball workouts last month with a tendinitis flare-up, took part in Thursday's workout.