There’s a small takeout place on El Cajon Boulevard, not far from San Diego State, that serves delicious baskets of fried catfish over a bed of French fries and garlic toast. Taj DeGourville and Pharaoh Compton were regulars.
DeGourville used to pair it with some mac and cheese, maybe some sweet candied yams. Compton preferred fried chicken wings to catfish. There’s also a different flavor of homemade lemonade every day.
“We’ve been taking a break,” Compton says. “We haven’t been over there too much lately.”
The SDSU freshmen from Las Vegas have changed their nutritional habits since the basketball season ended in mid-March.
Changed their attitudes. Changed their work ethic.
Changed everything, really.
“I just want to make a change for myself,” DeGourville says. “Next season, I don’t want to be the same version of myself. I have to make that next step.”
“I’m taking a different approach, for sure, a different mindset,” Compton says.
No two players on SDSU’s roster have made greater strides since the unceremonious 27-point loss against North Carolina in the NCAA Tournament’s First Four.
Compton’s body transformation is immediately apparent if you wander into the JAM Center practice facility.
And DeGourville, in the words of veteran teammate Miles Byrd, “looks insane right now, looks like he’s made a huge jump.”
Both opted against entering the transfer portal in pursuit of a more lucrative NIL payday, instead thrusting their energy into preparing for anticipated larger roles next season as sophomores.
It took sweat, certainly. But before that, it took a change in their minds and stomachs.
The orchestrator is Daniel Marshall, SDSU’s strength and conditioning coach who arrived two years ago from Arizona State. The season belongs to the coaches. The offseason, literally starting days after it ends, is the purview of the guy they call “Marsh.”
“With Pharaoh, I told him my Christmas present to him, I hoped, would be abs,” Marshall says. “And sure enough, you can see his abs now.”
You couldn’t last summer. The 6-foot-8 forward arrived at 230 pounds. Barely two weeks later, he was pushing 260.
“These guys suddenly have some money and freedom,” Marshall says. “We didn’t have DoorDash when I was going to school. If I needed to go get something to eat, I had to walk to the student union or get on my bike and go to a restaurant. It’s so accessible to them now. Habits come into it.”
Marshall began tracking Compton’s weight on a daily basis and soon realized that his body is a hyper-responder to what he puts in it, good and bad. There would be 15-pound weekends if he guzzled soda and wolfed down fried foods.
Now?
Compton uses part of his NIL payments for a professional meal prep service that provides healthier options with proper amounts of carbohydrates and protein. Eighty percent of his fluid intake, at Marshall’s urging, is now water, cutting out soda and juices so “you’re no longer drinking calories.” Electrolytes are allowed only an hour before or after workouts. Protein shakes are low-carb.
“There’s a bunch of tactics you can use,” Marshall says. “But for me, I’ve got to get to a place where the guys are honest with me about what they’re doing, because I can’t help you if you’re not at least honest. We got to the point where he was open with what he ate. We kept having weekends where he gained a bunch of weight. He’d do great throughout the week and then give it all back over the weekend.
“One day I just pulled him into the office and said, ‘Hey, you’ve got to decide. Do you want to sit next to me during these games, or do you want to be on the court? Because if you’re 265, 270 pounds, you’re probably not going to do a lot positive for us. You have to make a decision.’”
Compton made a decision. The goal is a playing weight of 245 pounds but with more upper body strength and lean muscle mass that doesn’t sacrifice explosiveness.
For inspiration and aspiration, he’s been watching film of Houston’s JoJo Tugler and Texas Tech’s JT Toppin, both 6-foot-8, lefty forwards with 7-foot-plus wingspans who wreak havoc with their uncanny length and athleticism. During a team watch party for the NCAA championship game, assistant coach Jaydee Luster motioned to the do-everything, be-everywhere Tugler, his favorite player in college basketball last season, and told Compton: “Seriously, that could be you.”
“Next season I know I’m going to have to carry a different load,” Compton says. “As a sophomore, more is going to be expected from me. I’m just getting ready for that. … I’m crazy into the water.”
DeGourville, Compton’s 6-5 childhood teammate from Las Vegas, also arrived at SDSU last summer without a chiseled physique.
“He just had some baby fat,” Marshall says.
“I would eat anything I wanted,” DeGourville says.
The light-bulb moment came not in Marshall’s office but on a Tuesday night in February at San Jose State’s Provident Credit Union Event Center. The Aztecs trailed the eighth-place Spartans by 17 at the half, eliciting a come-to-Jesus speech in the locker room from senior guard Wayne McKinney III.
The Aztecs recovered to win 69-66, and DeGourville experienced his own, personal revelation.
“After that game, I realized I’m not treating my body right, my mind is not right,” DeGourville says. “I had to make changes.”
He started drinking more water. Chips became fruit. He preps meals for the week at home, conscious of ingredients and portion sizes. During the spring, the staff treated the players to a meal at a local barbecue t; DeGourville perused the mouth-watering menu of ribs and sides … and ordered grilled chicken with greens.
The other change came in his approach. DeGourville played at a deliberate, methodical speed that sometimes could be interpreted as lazy, and the coaches wanted to elevate the urgency. Marshall no longer lets him conduct weightlifting sessions at his own pace, quickening the tempo and spiking the heart rate.
Says Marshall: “With him, it was, ‘Hey, you had a great season, but you weren’t all the way bought in. Please, until the next season starts, just trust. Maybe my tone isn’t right all the time, just know that it’s always with love and I know what you can be. Just commit fully. If I’m pushing you, telling you we gotta go and giving you a countdown, just go.’
“He’s done a phenomenal job with just trusting the process and being coachable and doing what we ask him to do.”
The results are showing. The increase in energy from a healthier diet has maximized his gym workouts, and his shooting — 3-pointers, mid-range, off the dribble — has taken a giant step forward. He’s driving the lane and dunking with ease now.
Mentality and nutrition are two parts of the equation. Workouts are the other.
Marshall refined his approach during the season, using redshirts Reese Waters and Thokbor Majak (along with director of player of development Aguek Arop) as “guinea pigs.” He settled on three full-body weightlifting workouts per week, each with a different emphasis — eccentric (lengthening the muscle), isometric (holding a muscle contraction) and concentric (pushing against the weight).
“We’re doing everything that nobody sees,” DeGourville says. “We’re lifting. We’re eating right. We come here and play 1-on-1 at nighttime, just the two of us. We just try to make each other better. We’re like brothers.
“It was like, ‘Fix your jumper.’ We fixed our jumpers. It was like, ‘Get your body right.’ We got our bodies right. … We’re not young anymore. We have a year of experience. We know what it’s like. We’ll be extra prepared next year, for sure.”
