Kell and Pope: SDSU’s quiet captains

Hear from SDSU head coach Brian Dutcher as he prepares to lead the men’s basketball team into a new season.

Oct. 3, 2017 3:10 PM PT

Drive south on College Avenue from San Diego State’s campus to El Cajon Boulevard, and there’s a Popeyes Louisiana Chicken on the corner. It’s open late.

“I’m not going to lie,” SDSU senior guard Trey Kell said. “Oh my gosh, I love me some Popeyes, especially when they have the $5 box. It’s great and it’s cheap. You can’t lose.

“But you gotta do what you gotta do. I haven’t had it for so long. I drive by sometimes and I get sad, but it is what it is.”

The key word in all that: senior.

Kell and Malik Pope are the remnants of what many considered SDSU’s finest incoming freshman class, Kevin Zabo and Zylan Cheatham both having transferred. As such, Brian Dutcher named them team captains for his first season as head coach and entrusted them with reversing the fortunes of a program not accustomed to watching college basketball’s postseason on TV.

It’s an interesting move. Neither is your traditional captain, barking encouragement, holding players-only meetings, acting as coaches on the court, being the voice of the team.

“He knows TK and I are not vocal players like that,” Pope said.

“I’m not the most rah-rah guy, get in the middle of everybody,” Kell said. “I’m just a lead-by-example guy.”

And there it is. Kell stopped eating Popeyes and radically reconfigured his diet – he’s eating vegetables and “I hates vegetables” – as much for his body fat percentage as for the vibe it sets across the locker room. If he’s not succumbing to the late-night Popeyes siren, if he’s loading his plate with asparagus, if he’s getting to bed at a reasonable hour, if he’s the first guy in the gym, maybe his teammates will, too.

It’s an unorthodox form of leadership, and it undoubtedly will be tested this season, but it is Dutcher’s only real option at this point.

The most experienced guy on the roster, fifth-year graduate transfer Kameron Rooks, has been around barely a month. The most outwardly vocal and fiery guy, USF transfer Devin Watson, has never worn an Aztecs uniform, either. The guys who won the most in high school and are allergic to losing – Jalen McDaniels, Jordan Schakel and Adam Seiko were a combined 86-5 in the final season – are freshmen.

“It’s always hard to step outside your personality, and both them are more lead by example guys,” Dutcher said of Kell and Pope. “Even though I’ve appointed (them) captains, that doesn’t mean they’re the only leaders. But I’m expecting a lot from them, not only by example but by the way they express their opinions to the team that will make them all feel better about themselves.

“To be a leader, you have to know you’re good but you have to be willing to give to others. I can’t be all about you. I think as they’ve grown in the program and they’ve reached their senior years, they understand that.”

Again, the key word: senior.

Kell had planned to increase his offseason workout regimen after his sophomore season but was shut down due to knee problems. He had no such restrictions last summer and regularly worked out twice daily, including four sessions per week with Aztecs strength coach Randy Shelton.

He ate better. He slept more. He trained harder.

The result is what happened in practice Monday, when the 6-foot-4 Kell sliced through the defense for rim-shaking, two-handed dunks just moments apart and declared to his teammates in rare display of his vocal chords: “I told you my legs feel good.”

“You look at him, and he looks like a new player,” Dutcher said. “He’s in the best shape of a four-year career.”

Pope had a different goal: Get healthy, stay healthy.

The five-star prep prospect has yet to approach 1,000 minutes in a season, the residual of twice breaking the same leg in high school and a pesky knee problem last year. He, too, changed his diet and – perhaps most importantly for him – his work ethic. The coaches arrived one morning over the summer and poked their heads into the JAM Center practice facility, and saw something they had never seen before.

Pope, at 7:30 a.m.

“Yeah,” he said, laughing, “it’s true.”

Fitter bodies generally heal quicker from injury, and that theory was tested in August after he landed on a foot and suffered the dreaded high ankle sprain. But the 6-10 forward was back on the floor for the start of official practice last Friday, without knee sleeves, looking faster and more nimble than before.

“That’s what the summer was about, getting my body right,” Pope said, “making sure I can start practice healthy and keep it flowing, pushing through the season, preparing my body. Every summer is a grind, but this summer I turned it up a notch.”

Dutcher isn’t surprised. Watching the sand dwindle in your college hourglass tends to have that effect.

“We can preach the message and talk about how important everything is,” Dutcher said. “Until you get to that senior year, you never realize how important that is. Malik said to me (Friday): ‘First practice of my last year.’ With the seniors, it’s the last of everything.

“You have to take enjoyment in that. You have to say, ‘Wow, this is the last time I get to experience this,’ and treasure it and value it.”

Those buttermilk biscuits might melt in your mouth, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

Aztecs