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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Josh Almanson Feature
February 15, 2005 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 15, 2005
Bowling Green, Ohio - Josh Almanson is having a season to remember as he closes out his Bowling Green career.
The Bowling Green High School graduate scored his 1,000th point as a Falcon in a 77-73 victory at Kent State on Saturday.
From practicing in the driveway with his father, Norm, to youth basketball with Dr. Jack Taylor, making long drives to Columbus for AAU practices and games and playing through the Bowling Green school system, Almanson has developed into one of the top players in the Mid-American Conference.
"His mental and physical preparation are beyond any kid that I think I've ever had, except for Keith McLeod, in terms of getting ready for a game," said Falcons' head coach Dan Dakich. "He's really become a pro. He's professional in the way he handles his body; he's professional in the way he goes about our shoot-arounds; he's professional on the day of the game."
Fans have watched Almanson develop as a student, basketball player and community member for more than a decade. Almanson has also matured as a person, first having to deal with his father's medical problems, which have included two kidney transplants, to battling back from his own foot surgery.
He is nearing the end of the his college career as both a student and an athlete.
"It's been fun to watch him grow," said Mike Vannett, the athletic director at Bowling Green High School, who coached Almanson for three years in high school.
Family is important
Norm Almanson was a standout basketball player at Crestline High School and played two years at Heidelberg College. Josh remembers playing basketball with his father starting when he was 5-years-old.
"He pushed me all the time when I was young," Almanson said. "Part of the reason he pushed me in basketball was because he saw I really loved it.
"If it was something I didnít like it, he would have probably would have tried to push me in something I enjoyed."
His father and mother, Marty, have been supportive throughout Josh's career and they still come to as many games as possible. Both were in attendance Saturday, along with younger sister Emily, when Josh reached 1,000 points on a rebound basket with 4:35 remaining in the game.
"They never got tired of driving me around to all the different places in the summer," Josh said. "It was a big chunk out of their time ... but they loved doing it. "He's been able to see all of my college games at Bowling Green and that's been a great thing," Josh said about his father. "It is nice to have your family close by."
Almanson has enough basketball-playing cousins in the area, to have a good pick-up game at every family function. "I have a lot of family in the Bowling Green-area and they have always been good about coming out and supporting me at whatever level I was playing," Almanson said.
Early years
Almanson played baseball as well as basketball growing up, but it was basketball which became his passion.
Taylor and Gil Maienknecht started to nurture that passion, coaching Almanson as a fifth- and sixth-grader on a local travel team.
"You could see he had talent and the one thing he had that many people didnít, obviously, was height," Taylor said. "I'm not surprised at the level of success he has achieved. Because one, he is very coachable and two, he is athletic."
At that time Marcus Taylor and several other former players for Jack Taylor were on the BGHS team and Almanson said those players were good role models for him.
"We all looked up to him (Marcus Taylor) quite a bit and the other guys on the high school team because they had all played for Jack," Almanson said. "We all wanted to be in that situation when we got to high school."
As a Bobcat
With the preparation from the local travel team and continuing to grow several inches each year, Almanson decided in junior high school, basketball would be his sport.
"Somewhere between the seventh and eighth grade, I started thinking my best chance in sports would be to play basketball," Almanson said.
Almanson played for Steve Dobbins and Mike Lanseer in junior high school, Hans Glandorff as a freshman on the junior varsity and then three years on the varsity.
With 1,256 points, Almanson finished his prep career as the leading scorer in school history while earning various honors, including being selected second-team All-Ohio as a senior.
"Off the floor, there was never any worry about him doing the right or wrong thing. He always did the right thing," Vannett said.
However, fans had a hard time finding out who he was because for one whole season his last name was spelled 'Almonson' on the Bobcat roster.
The Bobcats did not win a Northern Lakes League championship during Almanson's career, missing out his junior year because of a four-overtime loss to Northview. He scored 23 points in that 94-89 defeat.
"I thought he had potential. Heís athletic for a big guy. He could handle the ball. He could shoot the three. Heís versatile," Northview head coach Dennis Shoemaker said recently. ìWhen we played him, all of our concentration was on him. ìI thought he needed to get stronger to play Division I and he has ... He's doing a heck of a job."
Almanson says the match-ups at Ottawa-Glandorf were the most enjoyable of his prep career because of the atmosphere.
"They have a great environment down there for high school basketball," Almanson said. "They sell the place out; there is a ton of fans."
For Vannett, two games during Almansonís senior year were defining examples that Josh was ready for the next level. Against Oak Harbor, Almanson faced 7-footer Nate Vandersluis and ran him ragged. Almanson scored 26 points in a 47-40 victory, battling a diamond-and-one defense and well as Vandersluis, who earned a full scholarship at Miami.
"He was a big, physical-type kid and Josh went in there that night and blocked I don't know how many of his shots, and really intimidated him," Vannett said, adding that Almanson became a physical force that night.
Almanson's final high school game was against a highly athletic Lima Senior team and he had his first shot blocked. Still Almanson scored a game-high 20 points, despite sitting out the final four minutes of the game with leg cramps.
"There were some college coaches there and they came up to me afterwards and said that Josh was the best player on the floor," Vannett said. "When we took Josh out, the Lima Senior fans gave him a pretty good round of applause, like they respected his game that night.
"He showed people that he could play in that type of game against those kind of athletes and stand out a little bit," Vannett added. "That was a game where you could see him taking another step in regards to what he was capable of doing."
Practice makes perfect
While he was in high school, Almanson and his family traveled extensively to play AAU basketball.
"I played basketball year-round with fall travel teams and different things like that," Almanson said.
The practice regimen has continued at BGSU. While there are numerous team and individual workouts as well as practices, Almanson spends countless hours working on his own.
"Josh has always put the work in. The work not only on the court, but the work in terms of the weight room," Dakich said. "He's a serious guy about his basketball."
The workouts were extremely intense since last March as Almanson worked to make his final season a success. He and fellow seniors Cory Eyink and John Reimold put in many hours of sweat-equity.
"We basically gave everything we had to have a successful season," Almanson said. "Last season was not where we wanted it to be."
Flourishing as a Falcon
This season Almanson has found his niche. He can play in the post, shoot the 3-pointer and also make the mid-range jump shot.
"One of the main reasons I came to Bowling Green was because coach Dakich talked about playing all over the floor, not just being a wing guy or being considered a post guy," Almanson said. He started his career in a reserve role, playing in 61 games the first two seasons with five starts. In his third season, Almanson suffered ankle and foot problems and played in only six games before under going surgery to repair a stress fracture. Last season, Almanson came back to average 8.0 points and 4.8 rebounds per game, Now he's fully recovered and playing like an all-conference performer.
"It's a great feeling, coming off surgery because you never know you how long things are going to take to get back to where you can feel like you did before an injury," Almanson said. ìYou work hard to get back to where you need to be physically and then the skill work on the court.
"When you can go out and have success, it makes it all worthwhile."
He's among the conference leaders in scoring and field goal percentage and is in the top 10 nationally as the most improved player in scoring average, adding more than 9 points a game to his total from a year ago.
"I can't explain how big it is that Josh has been able to step up and play the way that he has," Reimold said. "He's one of the best players, if not the best player, in that the entire conference.
"When you have a guy like that it takes a lot of pressure off everybody else ... A great player like that makes the team a lot better."
Opposing coaches have taken notice of Almanson and he has become a top defensive priority.
"It's great to see him back on the floor. I didn't care for him too much with all that scoring he was doing against us," Western Michigan's head coach Steve Hawkins said last month. "But it's so good to see a kid that has gone through the injuries he has gone through get back out on the floor and be able to compete ... and perform well."
Closing it out
The end of Almanson's college career is near and while the Falcons have been a surprise team in the Mid-American Conference this season, there are still plenty of games to be played. "The last games of the season, however many we play, will really determine how successful we are," Almanson said.
Almanson entered the season with 637 points, a 6.5 per game average. He's raised his career average to 8.4 points per game with his 366 points this season.
While he's always believed he could get to 1,000 points, it's been a struggle.
"It's been some up and down times," he said. "But perseverance and staying with something, it always works out."
After college
Starting this week Almanson is at Eastwood High School and will be there through the end of the school year, finishing his student teaching in government, when he's not on the road with the basketball team.
"I'm really not surprised at his level of success," said Taylor. "He's a good student ... He's going to make a fantastic teacher because he's going to relate very well to kids. "He's just a well-mannered, respectful young man." However, teaching and coaching are not in Almanson's immediate future.
He would like to play professional basketball, maybe in Europe. "Right now Iím worried about our season and all that other stuff will work itself out," Almanson said.
