An alert on Tremont Waters’ phone goes off every 45 minutes telling him to drink more water.
It’s one of the things he learned after hitting the freshman wall late last season — in part because of the rise in competition, but also because his body broke down on him. He said earlier in the year that he didn’t do enough off the court to excel on the court as a freshman.
It’s something LSU coach Will Wade is conscious of. He knows the team still needs to improve, but it can’t be at the cost of the players’ legs at the end of the season.
“You’ve got to walk a fine line,” Wade said. ”We need to continue to get better. Our half-court defense has gotten away from us a little the last three or four games.
“We’ve got to certainly work, but we do a lot more stuff in the film room. We do a lot more skill work this time of the year and try to have our guys with clear eyes and fresh legs come game day.”
Beginning in the summer, Waters worked with strength and conditioning coach Greg Goldin and assistant sports dietician Lauren Marucci to formulate his off-court plan for this season. He focused more on his water intake — hence the alert — sleeping around eight hours a night, and staying off social media late at night and before games.
“They’re just staying on top of me saying I have to keep eating — not huge plates of food, but I have to eat enough to where I’m not hungry anymore but kind of pushing it in myself,” Waters said. “After I’m finished playing I usually never want to eat. That’s my biggest thing, forcing myself to eat, forcing myself to drink water, and I feel like I’ve done a good job of it.”
There’s another part of Waters routine as well: cold tubs. And he makes sure to bring freshman guard Ja’Vonte Smart along with him.
“I don’t like getting in there,” Smart said. “He’s forcing me to get in there. He said I need it, so I get in there with him.”
The players have access to the cold tubs, which also functions as a hot tub, whenever they want to use it. Besides the tub, athletic trainer Shawn Eddy says the team began using recovery massages to help the players around five years ago, and they have continued the use of the NormaTec, a compression-like device that removes excess fluid from players’ legs. The NormaTec goes with the team on every road trip and sometimes multiple are brought on road trips.
“That’s the basis of what we do from a recovery standpoint,” Eddy said. “Just trying to relieve muscle soreness so the muscle functions better against the competition.
“Coach Goldin does a great job with coach Wade. From postgame to the recovery: foam rolling, stretching, and things of that nature. It’s all about trying to keep the guys as healthy as possible and eliminate any soft tissue injuries that may occur throughout the year, and we’re fortunate to be able to do that.”
Smart and Waters have also incorporated float tanks in their routine. The float tanks are isolation tanks filled with skin temperature water and over a half ton of Epsom salt to make sure one’s body is able to stay on top the water.
Despite all the focus on recovery off the court, it doesn’t discount the work necessary on the court and in the gym.
From that aspect, Waters doesn’t need an alert on his phone when it’s time to get extra shots up after practice. He has Smart for that.
“If we’re at practice and he’s about to do extra work he’ll tell to me stay after, and we’ll actually go from shooting to the cold tub,” Waters said. “Just doing little stuff like that is a great attribute to our team and it shows that we care for one another.”