How I spent my summer vacation
— -- The summer is not quite over, but in advance of the inevitable, ESPN.com decided to get a jump on the age-old welcome back to school essay question and ask a few players and one coach to tell us how they spent their summer vacations.
Duke senior Marshall Plumlee
He came to the phone only after he finished folding the clothes in his locker, one of many new habits Marshall Plumlee hopes will not die. The Duke senior wins the award for most unique, and perhaps most difficult summer non-vacation. Just two months after he hoisted a national championship trophy with his teammates, Plumlee packed his bags for Fort Knox, Kentucky, and a grueling 28-day Cadet Leadership Course.
While his basketball-playing peers worked on their jump shots, Plumlee donned Army fatigues and crawled through the mud.
Suddenly, Mike Krzyzewski didn't seem so tough.
"It was extremely humbling,'' Plumlee said. "I wasn't Marshall Plumlee, Duke basketball player, national champion. I was just a cadet. I needed that. If I wanted to be treated like a basketball player, I would have stayed at Duke.''
With an affinity for service and a dream to join the Army, Plumlee signed on as a student in Duke's ROTC program and in January was sworn into the U.S. Army, a decision and path his coach, a West Point graduate, heartily endorsed. But in order for Plumlee to graduate as an officer, he had requirements to fulfill. The camp at Fort Knox was one of them.
A typical day was atypical, the unknown as much part of the process as the actual physical and mental tasks thrown at the cadets. Most days began at 4 a.m. and would end no earlier than 10 p.m., but some nights, just as he was ready to crash hard into sleep, Plumlee would be told he'd be platoon leader for the next day. Suddenly, his handful of hours of rest were cut in half as he worked through the night trying to make sure he was prepared to be in charge the next day. On other days, he'd be on his hands and knee as blank rounds popped off around him, simulating a battle.
"Things would get really loud, with people yelling and the blank rounds,'' he said. "I remember once thinking, 'Wait a minute. This is like playing defense in a basketball game.' Instead of calling out screens, I was yelling out to my fellow cadets. It flicked a switch in my head. I realized I had more experience than I thought I did.''
The parallels between basketball and the Army, he learned, were everywhere. He likened working together with his fellow cadets to achieve a common goal to working with his teammates to win a national championship. Leadership, he realized, requires the same skill set regardless of the people he is leading. And confidence can grow only by experience.
So while his summer prep might not have been traditional, Plumlee believes he is every bit as prepared for his senior season.
"One thing I'm trying to carry forward, when I think I can kick up my feet and relax, there's always something I can be doing to make myself a better person and a better basketball player,'' Plumlee said. "A day's work is never done; it's just a matter of how much the body can take.''
And apparently, how many pieces of clothing need to be folded.
LSU freshman Ben Simmons
Ben Simmons' summer reads no different than any other recent high school graduate's pre-college break -- travel, some hoops, more travel, a show, schoolwork, and a little more travel.
Upon closer inspection, however, Simmons' summer has been typical only if you are the top incoming player in your class, which Simmons happens to be.
The LSU freshman-to-be jetted to Los Angeles for the Nike Basketball Academy (where he played against James Harden), attended the ESPYS, took summer classes at LSU and next month will join his teammates back home for a handful of exhibition games. That's back home to Australia.
"It's definitely been busy, but it's been a lot of fun,'' Simmons said while catching his breath on campus between trips.
Simmons might as well get used to fun and busy, because the summer's wild ride is just the beginning. Already tabbed as the likely No. 1 draft pick in 2016 and labeled as the latest "next LeBron," the hype machine is just getting rolling for the player who already is the Gatorade Player of the Year, Naismith Trophy Boys High School Player of the Year, Morgan Wooten Award winner and McDonald's All American.
Just weeks after graduating from Florida's Montverde Academy and leading the school to its third high school national championship, Simmons' summer odyssey began in Los Angeles, where he dazzled onlookers -- including James and Kevin Durant -- at the Nike Basketball Academy.
In July, he made a return trip to L.A. for the ESPYS, where he rubbed elbows with James, Kevin Love, the NBA champion Golden State Warriors and other athletes.
"It was a lot of fun,'' he said. "But I don't really get starstruck.''
For now, he's back on campus taking classes, quickly finding that college life suits him better than high school.
"I'm definitely more of a college guy than a high school guy,'' said Simmons, who has slotted his classes for the morning, leaving the afternoon for workouts. "I like the way the schedules work with more independence.''
But before the summer is out, he might be the one leaving people starstruck. In August, LSU will take a seven-day trip to Australia, visiting Sydney, Brisbane, Newcastle and Simmons' hometown of Melbourne.
He and his family moved to the United States in 2013, and Simmons hasn't been to Australia for more than a year.
He expects a huge crowd for the game in Melbourne. He won't really hesitate a guess as to just how many friends and family will be in attendance, other than to say "a lot," and he's already fielding questions from curious teammates about what to expect Down Under.
"They're asking me all kinds of questions,'' he said. "I just told them to relax and have fun. It's a great place.''
Georgia State head coach Ron Hunter
When last we left him, Ron Hunter sat at an NCAA tournament podium, letting the tears slide down his cheeks as he spoke about the pride in both his Georgia State program and his star son after the Panthers lost to Xavier in the round of 32.
He called Georgia State's run, from the Sun Belt Conference tournament championship celebration that cost him a torn Achilles tendon to the buzzer-beating upset of Baylor that sent him giddily crashing on his derriere, the time of his life. It wasn't winning that moved the coach, but sharing the excitement with his son, R.J.
"As a father,'' he said at the time as he reached out to R.J. seated next to him, "I love this kid, man. I love you.''
Surely life couldn't get any sweeter.
It didn't. Instead the sweetness just stretched on, one joyful month after another.
On April 23, D'Marcus Simonds, ranked 68th in the ESPN 100, verbally committed to Georgia State.
On May 24, Hunter walked his daughter, Jasmine, down the aisle.
On June 25, he was at home in Atlanta with his son when the Celtics called, telling R.J. he would be the 28th pick in the NBA draft.
And on July 16, he slid his left foot into a shoe for the first time since the injury.
"Honestly, I've just been on cloud nine,'' Hunter said last week, just before he boarded a flight to Las Vegas to recruit. "I haven't woken up from the dream.''
Yet as wonderful as all of those big, milestone moments have been, the best time for Hunter came earlier this month, quietly and without fanfare.
R.J. played his first two NBA summer league games in Utah, and his father was there to watch, seated casually among the other proud parents. The college sharpshooter went scoreless in his first official act as a pro.
After the game, father and son went out to lunch. Ever since R.J. was a third grader, Hunter has straddled the line between father and coach, and so when the two sat down, he asked his son the same question he's always posed after a game: "Dad or coach?''
"He looked me dead in the eye and said, 'Dad,''' Hunter said. "And that's how it's been. For the fist time in a long time I've been just dad, and it's been the best summer of my life.''
Maryland sophomore Melo Trimble
After what can only be described as a breakout freshman season, one in which he collected a host of awards and honors, Melo Trimble thought he knew what it meant to work hard.
And then this summer happened.
The Maryland sophomore has taken three courses this summer, but he's learned just as much off the court.
The Education of Melo began in April, when he received a video invitation from NBA champion and reigning league MVP Stephen Curry to work as a counselor at Curry's SC30 Select Camp. Two months later, Trimble was in Oakland, California, counseling 20 high schoolers and spending quality one-on-one time talking and working with Curry himself.
"I thought I was working pretty hard already,'' Trimble said. "When I went to camp, I realized I wasn't, at least not to the point of exhausting myself.''
Armed with his new knowledge, Trimble spent the summer redefining the term "downtime."
As in there is no such thing.
From Curry's camp, Trimble went to Colorado Springs, Colorado, for Pan-American Games tryouts. After making the 12-man roster, beating out some more seasoned collegiate point guards, he went to Chicago for training camp and then one final trip, this time to Toronto for the Games.
The United States won the bronze medal, and the 20-year-old Trimble, the youngest player on the roster, received another dose of education along the way.
"The group of guys I was out there with were all the best players on their teams,'' Trimble said. "You're facing guys who are stronger, more mature, and that just makes you better. When I got back to Maryland, I had a better idea of how to be a leader.''
The lessons couldn't have come at a better time for the Terps. Maryland is almost a lock to start the season ranked in the top five, if not at the top, with fans already dreaming about the school's second national championship.
Trimble already can sense the buzz on campus, even without the entire student body around just yet. He was nearly anonymous last summer when he arrived before his freshman season, and his team was just as much of a mystery. No one quite knew what to expect of the Terrapins or Trimble, so no one really expected much of either.
"Yeah, a lot of people are talking about bringing Maryland back to the top,'' he said. "They're happy for us.''
But rather than getting annoyed by either the bandwagon-hoppers or the attention, Trimble is embracing it.
"We didn't get that a lot last year,'' he said, "so I'm enjoying the experience, and I'm grateful for it.''
Lesson learned.