Coach Bill Fitch's reputation for conducting a rough training camp isn't idle talk -- Just ask seven-year veteran McCoy McLemore.

McLemore, whose ports of call in the National Basketball Association have been San Francisco, Chicago, Phoenix, and Detroit, rates the Cavalier training camp his toughest yet.

"In this camp you even go through the fundamentals at a fast pace," he said yesterday at Baldwin-Wallace College.

"Being a veteran you learn to pace yourself, but we can't do that here. At this camp there's the constant pressure of competition.

"IF YOU TAKE it easy and the guy trying to beat you out of a job goes full speed then you look bad. So I'm going full gait. I have to."

Fitch, resident disciplinarian of the Cavaliers, hasn't set a curfew for his athletes. One player explained why. "He doesn't have to. We're too tired at night to do anything anyway."

After the club's first full scale scrimmage last Saturday night Fitch had his troops doing a series of sprints before they dragged themselves into the shower.

THE OTHER morning, Walt Wesley, 6-11 center with a hamstring pull, was six minutes late for breakfast, but he learned not to be tardy again. His penalty consisted of six minutes of sprints.

McLemore, a member of the Chicago Bulls expansion team of 1966, realizes how important conditioning is to a club, especially a new one.

"We had a hard camp the first year in Chicago. We went into the season in good shape -- and we won our first five ball games," recalled McCoy.

About the Fledgling Cavaliers, McLemore is optimistic.

"We have a pretty good nucleus of guards and forwards and I think our success will come from speed and finesse.

"A TEAM LIKE New York has played together and it is easy for them. We were all strangers less than two weeks ago and even now we're just getting to know each other's moves on the court. But I feel we'll be okay."

This article originally appeared in the Cleveland Plain Dealer September 17, 1970.