'Winner's work.' How postgame stretching is part of Niles' boys basketball resurgence

NILES — At 8:29 p.m. Wednesday, the Niles boys basketball team wrapped up a 49-33 win over Wolverine Conference foe Edwardsburg.

After a few minutes of celebrating on the court, the team headed back toward the school’s weight room. Instead of talking about the win first, Vikings coach Myles Busby had his team grab yellow resistance bands.

It was time for the postgame recovery stretch, a rarity at the high school level.

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“We’re not trying to be an average high school team,” Busby said.

If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it, right?

Niles is 9-2 overall on the season and 7-0 in conference play. It's the best start to a season since the 2011-12 campaign, one that finished with a 19-5 record. They’ve won eight games in a row overall and are in control of its first conference championship since 2010, which was Busby’s sophomore year as a player for Niles.

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So, why the postgame workout?

“If Jalen Hurts, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, all these elite athletes can take 20-30 minutes after they just played 100% … we can do the same,” Busby said. “It’s to maintain and keep our bodies sharp because it’s a long season. It’s preventative from an injury standpoint, and I think it shows when we play.”

It’s all part of a message Busby has used this season: winner’s work. It’s the first thing he said to his team before they began the postgame stretching.

“It’s something I saw in a video,” said Busby of the “winner’s work” mantra. “I’m always thinking about ways where we can improve as a team, whether it’s mentally, physically or emotionally. Our expectations are the same as everyone else’s: we’re trying to fight and be the best team in this area, so in order to be the best, you have to do things other teams aren’t doing.”

Busby has had to work to make Niles a contender again in boys basketball. He took over following a three-year stretch that saw the Vikings go a combined 7-50. It was a program looking for an answer, and they found it in Busby.

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After going 7-14 in his first season, the Vikings went 15-11 last year, including an upset victory over Benton Harbor to win an MHSAA Division 2 district championship. They’ve parlayed that success into the start of this year, where its only losses have come to No. 5 (Division 3) Brandywine and Indiana’s South Bend Clay.

A catalyst for that has been senior Mike Phillips Jr. After scoring 32 points in a win over Vicksburg Tuesday, he followed that up with a 26-point performance against Edwardsburg Wednesday.

“Our coaches have been helping us get ready before the games,” Phillips said. “We’ve been doing a visualizing exercise, and I think that’s really been helping us focus.”

Busby was not short on praise for his dynamic point guard.

“The only person in this area who can stop Mike Phillips is wearing number 3 for the University of Notre Dame right now,” said Busby, referencing Fighting Irish freshman and Penn High School graduate Markus Burton. “Mike Phillips is a collegiate basketball player, 100%. He is by far the best basketball player in this area, and it’s not even close. He’s the best in this conference, and it’s not even close.”

The wins could keep coming for Niles, as its next four games are against teams with .500 or worse records currently. Its biggest threat to a conference title will likely come from Otsego, who the Vikings beat, 62-52, on Dec. 8. The double round-robin format of the Wolverine Conference means a rematch between the two teams is scheduled for Feb. 2 at Otsego.

“It’s great,” said Phillips of the team’s first 11 games. “Everything’s clicking for us so far, but we still have to put the work in every day to get better. … We just need to maintain what we’re doing, keeping our defensive effort up throughout the whole game.”

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: 'Winner's work.' How postgame stretching is part of Niles' boys basketball resurgence