This spring and summer, former Nicholls State University basketball standout Anatoly Bose turns his attention to preparing for the 2011 NBA Draft.  The eighth ranked scorer in the nation last season, Bose will be checking in periodically to update Colonel fans on what he is doing to improve his chances at earning a career in professional basketball.  In his third edition, Bose fills Nicholls fans in on his first workouts with NBA teams.

Greetings Colonel Fans

Since my last blog entry, I have been working hard in Chicago to improve my basketball skills and my conditioning. Life has been great for me, and I am extremely fortunate to be in the position which I am in.

This week I was lucky enough to be invited to participate in two NBA workouts: the Chicago Bulls and the Milwaukee Bucks. On Monday morning I had a light workout here in downtown Chicago which included a lot of shooting. I was picked up from my apartment in the afternoon by the Chicago Bulls and driven to a hotel right next to their practice facility.

I checked into the hotel and was given a packet that included a psychological test with over 200 questions I had to complete and hand in the next day. I guess I was wrong in my previous blog when I said I was finished with taking tests. Lucky for me, the psychological test had "no wrong answers." An example of a question would be: "Would you rather watch someone paint a picture or build a house?"

The next day, me and five other players headed across the street to the Bulls training facility. From 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. the trainers conducted analysis which measured my flexibility, balance, strength, and trainability. Some of the tests included vertical jump, height, weight, wingspan, shuttle run, cone drills, hand size, balance drills etc.

After about two hours of testing we finally got on the floor to showcase our basketball skill. The on-court session took approximately one hour and included multiple shooting drills from different positions (2-pointers, off the dribble, on the move, and 3-pointers) and 1 on 1, 2 on 2, and 3 on 3 competitions.

I was pretty nervous during my Bulls workout but all the coaches were extremely friendly, thorough, and supportive which helped a lot with the jitters. After the workout I grabbed some lunch, and I was picked up and driven to Milwaukee for my workout with the Bucks the next day.

The Bucks workout was very similar to the Bulls. We had breakfast at 8:30 a.m. with the Bucks coaching staff. Afterwards we were transported to the Bucks training facility where we took another psychological test and had more physical testing similar to the ones with the Bulls. The on-court session included a lot of competition, as well as shooting. Once again the coaches were extremely helpful and the workout was incredibly effective.

After the workout I had some lunch and waited to be interviewed by the coaching staff. During my wait, I was lucky enough to see Brandon Jennings work on his game. The interview went smooth and afterward I was picked up from the training facility and driven back to my apartment in Chicago.

I feel incredibly privileged to be able to showcase my basketball skills to two terrific NBA organizations. Hopefully over the next few weeks I will be able to attend more NBA workouts, and I will keep y'all posted on everything I do.

Go Colonels!