Let’s take an inside look at this year’s Basketball team!
Like the Coach, I am a die hard optimist when it comes to our basketball team. I asked you previously to temper your expectations about this team, but even I have a hard time doing just that. I’m sure as the season goes forward, we may lose some games that we expect to win, but as some say, “that’s basketball.” I can tell you this; Coach is really high on this group of players. As he said, “they have done everything right this summer, in training and conditioning. They have done everything right on and off the court. And they have the best chemistry of any team that I have coached.” So, let’s start with the knowns: We all saw how the team came together in the latter part of last year’s season by winning the West Division Championship (co) and then the run they made in the NIT with the short bench. This year is different. We can actually develop the younger players to the point that we will probably be able to go 9 or 10 deep later in the season. How did we get here? We have a great nucleus from the returning players. We have all seen how well Jamont, Ben, Barry, Charles and Jarvis can play. Then we add in to this mix the new guys, Brian, Kodi, Ravern, Elgin and Riley. These guys have been scrimmaging together this summer and into this fall semester. Because all of this scrimmaging means they have been practicing their offensive skills. The defense will start on their first official practice. That is what the coaches can teach. Offensive skills come with the players. What defense they use in practice has been what they learned in high school except for the experienced players. Surprise, surprise, we actually have 7; count them 7 shooters on this year’s team. From the perimeter we have Jamont, Ben,Barry, Kodi, Ravern, Phil, and Riley. And believe it or not, Riley is probably our best pure shooter. He has just not gotten the media attention that the others have gotten. On an individual basis, some of the players we need watch are: Kodi who has shown remarkable skills of shooting over just about anyone that has tried to defend him on the perimeter, Ravern has shown that he can shoot from anywhere on the floor, Phil can dribble his way into an open shot, and Riley can hit the downtown bomb. With the post players, Charles, Jarvis, Brian, and Elgin , I think we once again will see our Dawgs take the rebounding lead, totally and offensively in the SEC this year. There has been a lot of internet talk about Charles and his consistency of play. After tip toeing in the NBA draft this past year, he now knows what he has to do to insure he’s drafted next year. Can he do it? No one but Charles knows the answer to that. If he falters though, we have a bench replacement ready to step in. When you put all of this together, on paper and in my mind, we have all the right ingredients for a championship team. We have the offense, rebounding and hopefully the defense to insure a long, long season. Go Dawgs!!! -001
Like the Coach, I am a die hard optimist when it comes to our basketball team. I asked you previously to temper your expectations about this team, but even I have a hard time doing just that. I’m sure as the season goes forward, we may lose some games that we expect to win, but as some say, “that’s basketball.” I can tell you this; Coach is really high on this group of players. As he said, “they have done everything right this summer, in training and conditioning. They have done everything right on and off the court. And they have the best chemistry of any team that I have coached.” So, let’s start with the knowns: We all saw how the team came together in the latter part of last year’s season by winning the West Division Championship (co) and then the run they made in the NIT with the short bench. This year is different. We can actually develop the younger players to the point that we will probably be able to go 9 or 10 deep later in the season. How did we get here? We have a great nucleus from the returning players. We have all seen how well Jamont, Ben, Barry, Charles and Jarvis can play. Then we add in to this mix the new guys, Brian, Kodi, Ravern, Elgin and Riley. These guys have been scrimmaging together this summer and into this fall semester. Because all of this scrimmaging means they have been practicing their offensive skills. The defense will start on their first official practice. That is what the coaches can teach. Offensive skills come with the players. What defense they use in practice has been what they learned in high school except for the experienced players. Surprise, surprise, we actually have 7; count them 7 shooters on this year’s team. From the perimeter we have Jamont, Ben,Barry, Kodi, Ravern, Phil, and Riley. And believe it or not, Riley is probably our best pure shooter. He has just not gotten the media attention that the others have gotten. On an individual basis, some of the players we need watch are: Kodi who has shown remarkable skills of shooting over just about anyone that has tried to defend him on the perimeter, Ravern has shown that he can shoot from anywhere on the floor, Phil can dribble his way into an open shot, and Riley can hit the downtown bomb. With the post players, Charles, Jarvis, Brian, and Elgin , I think we once again will see our Dawgs take the rebounding lead, totally and offensively in the SEC this year. There has been a lot of internet talk about Charles and his consistency of play. After tip toeing in the NBA draft this past year, he now knows what he has to do to insure he’s drafted next year. Can he do it? No one but Charles knows the answer to that. If he falters though, we have a bench replacement ready to step in. When you put all of this together, on paper and in my mind, we have all the right ingredients for a championship team. We have the offense, rebounding and hopefully the defense to insure a long, long season. Go Dawgs!!! -001
3 comments:
Sleeper National Championship contender. Defense.
Read the ESPN tidbit the other day about unlucky teams last year. They highlighted that we were among the top 36 team both offensively and defensively last year, no major weaknesses.
You might raise the point about the Delks leaving but our FG % defense was virtually unchanged when thier playing time diminished.
As to Benock, he didn't participate in AAU basketball. Most college coaches scout summerball and determine who they're keeping tabs on over the winters during HS basketball. For this reason, Benock was an unrated and lightly regarded player. One can only speculate what his offer list would've looked like if he'd lit up a few AAU tournaments.
Good report. I'm especially pumped about "7 shooters" because I've closely observed a Vandy team that had 4 very prolific shooters the last several years. When you have that skill across the board the team becomes a nightmare to defend and you get the feeling that you're never out of a game. If we can coach them up to a typical Stansbury defensive unit then nobody wants a piece of this come March. ZD
Nice read.
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