November 11, 2005

Newfound Toughness Helps Cage Shine

11/11/2005

The Indianapolis, Ind. native has redefined himself with a new mental outlook and physical conditioning program. Last season, Cage averaged 4.0 points per game, making 40.7 percent of his shots from the field. During the off-season, he wanted to improve those numbers and decided the best way would be to work on conditioning. Stallings attributes Cage’s newfound toughness to his exceptional conditioning.

“He is a great kid who has great intentions and team understanding. It is not surprising he has made a leap like this,” Stallings said. “I think he got himself in better condition, which I think physically enabled him to mentally take the next step. That has been a big reason for his progress.”

The junior’s toughness was demonstrated recently in practice when he took an elbow to the nose from freshman forward Kyle Madsen. Cage simply went to the medical trainer at practice, put some cotton in his nose and continued playing.
“Practice was getting physical and one of the drills we were doing was a live segment,” Cage said. “A ball went up in the air and a couple of guys went up for it, and I just caught an elbow on the top of my nose. I broke my nose in three places.”

Stallings was not even aware that Cage broke his nose at the time.
“I knew he had a broken nose after the day was over, I just didn’t know when he broke it,” Stallings said.
Although smiling and being tough do not seem likely to co-exist, Cage always seems to have a smile on his face. He says it is his smile through which he tries to show his positive attitude everyday in practice.
“I try to come out here everyday with a smile on my face, a good attitude and lots of energy,” Cage said. “I certainly am not going to let a broken nose stop me from practicing.”

With this new energy and toughness, Cage has moved up on Vanderbilt’s depth chart. Last season, he played in 33 games, averaging a mere 13.2 minutes per game, but he did not start any of those games. This year, Cage most likely will serve as the Commodores’ sixth man.

“I consider him like a starter because of the impact he has made in practice and how well he has played,” Stallings said. “I think he will be our first permanent player off the bench, and he probably will end up starting in some games.”

Part of Cage’s responsibilities as the sixth man will be to come off the bench and toughen up the team’s defense when he enters games. He hopes his toughness and energy will wear off on his teammates.
“Coach said things are going to be a little bit different this year,” Cage said. “We’re going to approach this like animals.

“We would like to win every single game we can and beside that grow closer as a team. If we’re going to win, I want to win as a team and if we’re going to lose, I want to lose as a team and know we gave it our best effort. Toughness is the biggest thing. We need to go out there and intimidate teams with our toughness and our intensity.”

Cage hopes his toughness will keep the men’s basketball team upbeat and help them get back to the NCAA Tournament. The new and improved Dan Cage can first be seen Nov. 18 at 7 p.m. in Memorial Gym when Vanderbilt opens its regular season against Jacksonville State.