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What does it take to succeed as a basketball player at the small-college level?

After watching Viterbo University run Edgewood College out of the Edgedome with a 75-39 non-league victory Tuesday evening, it’s safe to say high school basketball stars who hope to continue playing the game beyond their senior year will need a great deal of talent, physical strength and a whole lot of stick-to-itness.

At the collegiate level, things don’t always come quickly and they rarely come easy, even for the brightest high school stars.

The college game, at the small-college or big-time levels, is much quicker, much better defended and much more physical than the high school game.

Some prep stars adjust and become better players at the next level, while others kind of fall by the wayside.

Now in his 14^th year as head coach at Viterbo, a NAIA Division II school that can award some scholarship money, Wayne Wagner believes the physical and mental adjustments required to succeed in the college game are the toughest hurdles for most to clear.

“The first things you hear from high school kids experiencing the college game for the first time is the speed and strength are so much different,” Wagner said. “That speed and that strength is there all the time.

“To me, another big adjustment for high school kids is the whole ‘every-day’ thing. The first practice of the season is like a game, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Many of our freshmen hit the wall before the season even begins. The fall conditioning program, which starts in September, is not like what they have in high school.

“Most kids come in guns-a-blazing, but they tend to slip back a bit after a week of conditioning.”

Wagner has five true freshmen on his roster and four – Tyler Kastenschmidt of West Salem, Connor Kaiser of Bangor, Vince Kube of La Crosse Logan and Chris Johnson of Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau – likely will redshirt.

Kastenschmidt, Kaiser, Kube and Johnson were all all-league performers in high school.

“It’s a day-to-day, every day type of thing for those guys,” Wagner said. “They will get there, but right now it’s a big adjustment, physically and mentally.”

The one freshmen receiving significant playing time for the V-Hawks, who improved to 7-6 with the victory over Edgewood, is Racine Lutheran graduate Peter Drummond, a smooth 5-foot-10 point guard who serves as the backup for junior Jasper Duberry.

Junior wing guard Matt Turba (6-1), who led Viterbo with 16 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists, was in the same boat as Kastenschmidt, Kaiser, Kube and Johnson three years ago.

Coming off a successful high school career at Wisconsin Rapids Assumption, Turba redshirted during the 2009-10 season in an effort to gain weight, strength and confidence.

“The college game is a lot faster and a lot more physical,” Turba said. “Everybody is quicker, faster, bigger and stronger than you might expect.

“My freshman year I had some very good players ahead of me and I redshirted. I looked up to those guys and learned a lot from them during my redshirt year. I spent a lot of time in the weight room and working on my lateral quickness and that has helped me out a lot.”

Unlike some others, Turba has battled through the adjustment period to become a significant contributor to the V-Hawks program.   

“I hope I’m the kind of guy our young players can look up to like I looked up to our players three years ago,” Turba said. “I hope I’m somebody they can talk to and maybe learn a few things from.”

Viterbo expended a great deal of effort on the defensive end of the court Tuesday, holding the Eagles to a dismal 28 percent shooting night.

Competing on every single play and communicating with your teammates on defense are other big changes between high school and college, Turba says.

“I like to think I never took a play off in high school, whether it was a game or practice,” Turba said. “But I probably did a bit. If you do that at this level, the guy behind you will take your place in the lineup.

“There is great depth and a lot of good players on every team. The competition for playing time is very intense.”

So is the competition for victories.

Edgewood, which slipped to 2-7 under first-year coach Justin Meyer, is left searching for some answers as it heads into a gauntlet-type schedule with upcoming non-league games against Stevens Point, Whitewater, Concordia of Texas and the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor over the next couple of weeks.

And like so many high school stars, the Eagles need to figure some things out soon or they will quickly get left behind.