001 Reports

Where are we really at now? Part 2

There has been a lot of speculation by fans about this year’s basketball team and especially about the incoming “freshmens.” I ask in an earlier report for everyone to temper their expectations for this coming season, but it is very, very hard to do. Why? Because we have extremely good talent on this team. I have a hard time doing this myself. I suppose that is because I listen more to my heart than my head. This will be a very young team with just starting one senior and one junior. All the rest are sophomores and freshmen. The coaching staff knows what the offensive skills of all these kids are. What they don’t know is, will it transfer over into games. The chief suspect of this team will be the defense of the freshmen class. We have already seen what the starters (Gordon, Harnsbrough, Stewart, Rhodes and Varnado) can do. So starting Friday, Stans and his staff will start teaching defense. It is imperative that this young bunch of players start getting acclimated to college ball and get toughened up enough to contribute. Stans has already talked repeatedly about how the team has done all of the right things during the off season both on the court and off the court. Every player has gained at least 5# and that’s all muscle. Coach is very, very high on this team. He says they have the best chemistry of any team he has coached. So how does the staff get them ready other than in practice? I think in the first two exhibition games we’ll get to see a lot of substitution, maybe even as many as four at a time. The only position on this team that is solid is Gordon at PG. But Stans always starts his most senior and experienced players in games. So how do you toughen up the new guys for the season. Everyone tries to put a label on each of the players such as Gordon at the 1 and Ben at the 2 and so on. I really don’t look at it that way. We have post players and we have perimeter players. To a large degree, the post players are interchangeable and so are the perimeter players. We have the talent now to go a long way. All we need is for the new players to get playing time to toughen up to the college level of ball. I think when the regular season gets underway we will see the freshmen go in for 2 to 3 minutes at a time to give the starters a breather. As the season goes on the players that perform in practice and on the court will see increased playing time. In this manner, when we get to the SEC portion of the schedule and beyond, we’ll be able to go 9 or 10 deep in each game. Two of the biggest pleasant surprises for the staff and well kept secrets are Augustus and Benock. Kodi has a lot of maturity and basketball IQ because of his playing prep ball and he can shoot. Hardly anyone on this team can stop him on the perimeter. And then there is Riley Benock. He wasn’t highly recruited and had committed to William & Mary as a PG. That is, until Stans came calling. Coach told me sometime back he knew Riley’s DNA. They both played at the same high school in Kentucky and Stans knows the family. The surprise to the staff is how well Riley can shoot off the dribble and his pull up jumper and his outside shooting. He most probably is the best pure shooter on this team. Outside of these surprises, we have Bailey who can play inside, take down a rebound and start a fast break with the best of the big men in college basketball. And Raven loves to shoot the ball and can do so from just about anywhere on the court. And last but not least is Brian Johnson. Brian is a leader, pure and simple, and can back it up on the court. So with these new additions, we should once again be the leading rebounding team in the conference. As you all know, Stans feels we can win every game with defense and rebounding. But I think somewhere along the line we also have to play a little offense. We now have all of the pieces in place. Can we get the job done? I think so, and forget my remark about tempering expectations. I can’t!! GO DAWGS!!