By Mike Pearson
FightingIllini.com

There's little surprise why University of Illinois men's basketball players respect their strength and conditioning coach so much. After all, Adam Fletcher has walked—or should we say dunked—in their shoes.

Now in his fourth season with the Fighting Illini, "Fletch" provides his pupils with an especially valuable perspective. He's one of only two current Big Ten men's basketball strength coaches who've actually played college hoops.

"Understanding what the athletes go through is extremely helpful," Fletcher said. "The academic schedule, the study table schedule, the practice schedule, the travel schedule … those are the outside stressors that every college athlete goes through. Being a former college basketball player gives me an idea of what those guys are experiencing."

Fletcher lettered at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio under the late Charlie Coles. He co-captained the 2010 RedHawks, a title previously held by such Miami stars as Wayne Embry, Randy Ayers, Ron Harper and Wally Szczerbiak. Fletcher twice won MU's Jamie Mercurio Award, honoring the team member who best exemplifies the namesake's courage and determination. He also earned Miami's defensive player of the year award and spirit award during his four letter-winning seasons.

"I was physical, defensive-minded player," Fletcher said. "In Charlie's offense, you had to have a good screen-setter to get guys open and I loved that role. You had to embrace being physical and I enjoyed being in the weight room."

Fletcher was sidelined by an ACL injury as a freshman at Miami, but wound up earning four varsity letters and twice won a Miami basketball award for courage and determination.

Originally enrolled in Miami's School of Business, Fletcher suffered a knee injury in his freshman season. It forced him to go through a lengthy period of physical therapy and opened his eyes to the possibility of a career in rehabilitation. He then began to study exercise science and interned as a therapist.

"Most of the time, therapists are working with people who have non-athletic injuries, but I wanted to work with athletes," Fletcher said. "That's when I turned toward strength and conditioning. Starting with Dan Dalrymple (now with the NFL's New Orleans Saints), Miami has always had a strong breed of strength coaches. I got into an internship program my junior and senior seasons, and that's what convinced me that this is what I wanted to do."

Upon his graduation, Fletcher became assistant strength and conditioning coach for John Beilein's University of Michigan basketball team. During his two years in Ann Arbor, he procured his Master's degree through a renowned program at Edith Cowan University in Joondalup, Australia.

"I noticed that a majority of the sports scientists in the NBA were coming from Australia," he said. "Studying there gave me insight about the athlete monitoring side of what we do, making sure the athletes don't over-train, and listening to the science of the body."

In 2011 Fletcher was hired as the basketball strength and conditioning director at Towson University near Baltimore. Thanks in part to Fletcher's efforts, the Tigers' 2013 team made the largest single-season turnaround in NCAA history, then the '14 squad won a program Division I record 25 games. Soon, Fletcher was overseeing the conditioning for all of the Tigers' 19 sports.

In August of 2015, John Groce hired Fletcher as Illini basketball's strength and conditioning coach. He inherited an Illinois team filled with players who were suffering from a variety of physical maladies, headlined by senior Tracy Abrams who in back-to-back seasons had been sidelined by knee and Achilles tendon injuries.

"I owe a lot to Tracy (Abrams) because he believed in me," Fletcher says. "He laid that early foundation as to how Illinois basketball trains."

"We took over a group that was really injury prone," Fletcher said. "Tracy was really great for me because everyone had kind of written him off. It was like, 'he'll never play.'  Fortunately, Tracy believed in the process, stayed focused, and went through a whole movement screen process.  We addressed what Tracy's issues were and made corrections. What he did with his body in that time that I had with him was special. I owe a lot to Tracy because he believed in me. He laid that early foundation as to how Illinois basketball trains and why movement is so important."

Abrams, who currently is in Serbia playing his second season of professional basketball, thinks as highly of Fletcher as Fletch does of him.

"To call Fletch a hard worker would be an understatement," Abrams said. "He goes to the extreme with every player. He's competitive and definitely inspirational. He wants the best of people. Fletch helped me a lot from not having days when I could have been discouraged. Today, I'm two years clean of injuries."

Fletcher has made a few alterations to Illini basketball's strength and conditioning plan in his second year serving Brad Underwood.

"Coach Underwood wants to play fast, so we're going to train fast," he said. "Our emphasis is a little bit different. We do work a little bit more on sprint speed than I've done in the past. Our offseason development has been player led. Trent Frazier, Aaron Jordan, Drew Cayce … our veterans guys have grabbed it. The player-led culture has really led to the way that we train. Train fast, play fast … that's the identity they want to have. That's what's made this thing special. It's kind of taken its own form and it's been our players who have taken us there."

Fletcher loves the players on Illinois's 2018-19 squad.

"They're a great group," he says. "They all work hard. They don't take no for an answer and that's special. We've got a group of guys who are totally committed. They want to make Illinois basketball great again and it's fun to be around them."