Walking into the Durham College gym on Friday afternoon, it would have been easy to chalk the Oshawa Power practise up to any other training camp because the head coach was yelling out instructions to his players as they were dripping with sweat after a gruelling practise.

However, the coaching staff and players find themselves in a pretty unique situation.

The Oshawa Power are about to embark upon their inaugural season in the National Basketball League of Canada which means the coaching staff has to get a group of players who have never played together before all on the same page. Throw into the mix that training camp will only stretch over a few weeks and it is clear Mark Strickland and his coaching staff have their work cut out for them.

In an interesting twist, despite fighting for spots on the team and employment this winter, all of the guys battling for roster sports are currently living together.

Think of it as the Ultimate Fighter house without the fights.

The current face of the franchise, Morgan Lewis, raved about the experience of living with all of his teammates because it has given the players a chance to bond quickly.

“We all live together  on top of each other right now because our living arrangements aren’t situated yet,” Lewis told HOOPSADDICT.com. “We go out to eat together twice a day as a team and after practise we’re either going to the hot tub or playing video games. It’s just little stuff like that which is helping us to form a bit of brotherhood or a bond because we look at it as a family. It’s not just a team, it’s a little deeper than just that.”

Another player who likes the experience, point guard Tut Ruach, believes the unique experience will help the players form bonds that will pay dividends during the season.

“Living together has been a weird dynamic because we are all competing for the same jobs, but guys have been really friendly with each other,”  Ruach told HOOPSADDICT.com. “We have gotten to know each other on a personal level and we have been so much physically and mentally we kind of have to stick together even though we know we are competing against each other. It has been a weird dynamic, but I would definitely say it has been helping us and will help us in the future.”

While living together has helped to build a sense of unity and cohesion on and away from the court, the coaching staff has still has a lot of work ahead of them getting a group of players who haven’t played together before on the same page on the court.

“It has been a slow process,” Oshawa Power head coach Mark Strickland explained to HOOPSADDICT.com. “First, I had to get them to learn the plays and now that we’ve got that down it is going to be a minute before they are able to see the game through my eyes. I learned the game from a lot of good guys like John Chaney and Pat Riley, so I can kind of pick it up quick, but with these guys I’m trying to relay that message to them, but I’m relaying it to them late. It’s just late in the game for them. Some of these guys have been out of school for a couple of years and some of them are just coming out, which is a benefit to them, but they should have learned the stuff I’m teaching them years ago. I’m kind of starting from the beginning and getting them to a professional level fast. That’s a really challenging thing.”

Adding to the challenge is the fact a lot of these players are raw and relatively inexperienced in regards to playing professional basketball.

“A lot of these guys haven’t been worked with,” Strickland told me. “In these types of leagues you’re dealing with raw talent. That’s why guys in the NBA are in the NBA; because they pick up things quick. They develop quick and they can also pick up stuff quick. Or, somebody has worked with them, but a lot of times nobody has really worked with these guys. I’m trying to teach these guys the mental part of the game and they don’t really know that yet. That has to be the most challenging part of training camp so far.”

The team has already gone through a number of gruelling practices which has helped them grow closer during their a relatively short amount of time together so far.

“As you saw, a lot of guys are tried right now,” Lewis admitted to HOOPSADDICT.com. “It’s not a good or bad thing, it’s just how it is because we have been practising so much, but the only way to get somebody and their tendencies is by playing with them every day and spending time with them. For example, our four, Kevin Francis, is a pick-and-pop player, and when I first started training camp he would set a pick and I would expect a roll and my pass would go out of bounds. He was open for the dunk but I had to learn he was a pick-and-pop guy.”

As the players go through growing pains on the court, the benefit of living together is that the frustrations which build during a tough practice can easily be talked about over dinner, in the hot tub or while playing video games. Instead of having issues or frustrations build over night and erupting the next day at practise, their frustrations can easily and quickly be defused with a quick chat at the kitchen table or on the couch while watching TV together.

Instead of being limited to seeing the guys a couple of hours each day, these players are fully submerged in each others lives which allows for a lot of time to chat on everything from where they want the ball on the court to sharing information about their personal lives.

Hopefully living together forges a bond that helps the Oshawa Power have a strong start to their inaugural season.