With a Purpose

Collin Sexton continues to make big strides in his sophomore season with The Cavaliers for one primary reason: you won't, under any circumstances, outowork him.

- By Alex Squadron

DARNELL SEXTON used to take his son’s car keys. He worried that Collin was training too hard and didn’t want him going to the gym.

“He was never a kid that you needed to push,” Darnell explains. “He was always the kid that you would say, Hey dude, can you rest?”

The answer was always no, and so dad looked for other ways to slow Collin down. But none of those worked either. “He would actually take one of the bikes and go to the area parks,” Darnell recalls with a chuckle. “I couldn’t stop him. I just couldn’t stop him.”

Now in his second year with the Cavaliers, Collin still won’t stop. He’s gotten off to an impressive start, averaging 17.9 points on 44 percent shooting as we went to press.

After last season, Sexton re-watched tape of all 82 games from beginning to end. Then he watched them again. He took notes on what he did well and what needed to be improved. He got frustrated seeing all his mistakes and missed opportunities, whether it was unnecessary turnovers or botched layups. He studied his tendencies on defense and how they could be adjusted. Everything was recorded and stored away to be addressed in the ensuing months.

He would get up at 6:30 each morning, eat breakfast and head straight to the gym to hoop. From there, he’d hit the weights and transition into some agility stuff. At night, he’d always return to shoot more.

“I had to make sure that I was polished,” Sexton says. “I had to correct the things that I needed to.”