A year ago St Mary's Australian centre Jock Landale was an athlete who didn't eat like one.
"I'd eat pasta, sugar, soft drink, lollies ... junk," the 21-year-old told AAP on Monday from St Mary's campus, located 37km west of San Francisco.
St Mary's and the bloated Landale did not live up to their potential last year and suffered the bitter pill of failing to make US college basketball's Super Bowl, the 68-team knockout NCAA Tournament.
The 211cm-former Geelong Grammar student knew he needed to change.
"He was good last year, but he just couldn't sustain his effort because he wasn't in good enough shape," St Mary's Australian associate head coach and former NBL player, Marty Clarke, said.
"You could see flashes of what he was capable of and it frustrated him."
This year the US college basketball world saw what a slimmed down, focused Landale was capable of and on Thursday he will lead St Mary's to the NCAA Tournament in a first round game against Virginia Commonwealth University.
"I lost 30 pounds (14kg) between last year and this year," Landale, who now weighs 115kg, said.
"I went heavy into chicken, meat and veggies and that was my diet for the off season."
Last season he played 14.5 minutes a game and averaged 7.9 points and four rebounds.
This season Landale not only averaged 27.7 minutes, 17 points and 9.3 rebounds, but on Friday he was named as one of the top five centres in college basketball.
Landale and four other elite big men are on the short-list for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame's 2017 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Centre of the Year Award.
Instead of patting himself on the back he says his personal success was only because of his great teammates, which include six Aussies.
It's the pick and rolls executed by his guards including Sydney's Emmett Naar or the way his sharpshooters space the defence to allow him to work one-on-one against his opposite big man.
Landale also talks about how his junior coach back in Melbourne, Simon Giovannoni, made sure when he went back for a holiday in the off-season he did not relax and stack on the kilos.
"He gave me a whack around the back of the head and said 'You need to switch on while you're back home'," Landale, who woke up at 5.45am to work out with Giovannoni for 90 minutes during the trip, recalled.
Landale's mother Suellen also gave him a crash course in cooking healthy food.
"I feel a lot healthier," Landale said.
"I had a lot of mineral deficiencies in Year 12 and was on the verge of chronic fatigue, so cutting all that bad food out and taking my minerals, pills and potions and stuff like that has helped a lot."
St Mary's received a respectable seven seeding for the NCAA Tournament and are expected to beat 10th seeds VCU on Thursday in Salt Lake City in game one of the three-week tournament.
If they win they will take on one of the hottest teams in the second round, the University of Arizona featuring another Aussie, forward Keanu Pinder, son of former NBL star and Harlem Globetrotter Tiny Pinder.
With his new status Landale could skip his fourth and final year of college and seek a multi-million dollar contract in the NBA, but he appears to be leaning toward staying at St Mary's, completing his finance degree and leading the Gaels again in 2017/18.
"Honestly, I have no idea," Landale said.
"I've heard a bit of chatter about going to the NBA this year, but I'm pretty set on hanging around here for another year with the boys."
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