Duke's Matt Hurt on adding weight

Duke sophomore Matt Hurt used the pandemic to add 20 pounds of muscle. He discusses his weight gain and how that will impact his game this year.

Transcript

00:00Yeah, for sure, it's, you know, I got home around mid-March last year, took a week or

00:05two off since the season ended and just try to focus on just eating right, eating a lot

00:10and just stay working out and lifting.

00:12You know, I got with our strength coach, Coach Will, three, four times a week and he lifted.

00:17So just doing that every day during quarantine.

00:20I was lucky enough to find a gym and a weight room.

00:24So I was blessed with that.

00:25So I think just doing that day by day until I came back, back to Duke on August 2nd was

00:31really a benefit for me.

00:33I feel like it's going to impact a big part of my game because, you know, a knock on me

00:38was, you know, I was a little lighter guarding the floor.

00:41People would try to take advantage of me down low, but I feel like this year, especially

00:44on defense and also on offense, just like attacking it, be strong with the ball and

00:49just taking contact and finishing over taller defenders.

00:54Yeah, you know, I think, I think coach has been using me a lot of different ways on the

00:57perimeter and the blocks if there's a mismatch, just trying to be, just trying to be an attack

01:02one all game.

01:05Right now, playing away, I'm about 240.

01:09So playing away last year was around 220.

01:12So it's about, it's about 220 or about 20 pounds of muscle.

01:17And then I think, I think it was more like just like being motivated to like get better

01:21and to see like the feedback from my coaches, just try to get better during quarantine.

01:27Yeah, you know, just just trying to get trying to be in the post more, you know, I'm a lot

01:33more comfortable in the post, whereas a bigger guy or shorter guy, I mean, that's that's

01:37usually stronger than me last year.

01:39So I think just knowing that, you know, I had 20 pounds and that I feel I feel a lot

01:44my base feels a lot better.

01:47So I think just using that more in the post, but also also driving to I think, just be

01:53strong with the ball.

01:54You know, there's gonna be a lot of people trying to swipe with the ball when I'm driving

01:56the lane, but just just trying to just trying to be strong and just go through contact.