001 Reports

Basketball Practice Report

Hope all enjoy this report as much as I did in the preparation of it. Practices are going great. But before I get into that I need for you to understand the dedication these young men have to the program and what is expected of them. They started last Friday evening with their first practice and since them have been doing 2 a days Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Coach gave them a day off today, but starting tomorrow they go back on 2 a days until they have the open scrimmage everyone is invited to. These young guys get up at 5AM, get whatever they need for classes then get to the Hump, change into practice gear and on the floor ready to start the work out when the horn goes off at 6AM. The morning work out ends at 7:15AM and then they have to eat breakfast before classes. They are expected to make all classes and be there on time. They then have to be back at the Hump for evening practice which starts at 3:30PM and some of these last for 2 to 3 hours. Other than this, each player has to go for one hour of lifting and conditioning twice a week. That should give you and idea of what their day is like. Now for the practice notes. As we have discussed before, what the staff is now trying to accomplish is toughening them up so they can run the floor and defend. In some cases with the “freshmens”, I don’t think they have ever had to play defense. If we started the season tomorrow, we would only have one player off the bench, Brian Johnson, or maybe also Phil Turner that the staff could be happy with in a game. But man can they shoot the basketball. This offense will be as good as you have ever seen in an MSU team. But the coaches are beginning to teach them defense. It is just going to be a time consuming thing on the coach’s part. If Ravern has ever played defense in his life, it sure hasn’t shown yet. But did I say they can shoot the basketball. The way Stans has them running the court; they will toughen up fast enough. At the rate they are going, you will see some pretty good basketball when they have the open scrimmage on the 27th. I plan to try and sneak back in a couple of times between now and then to keep you updated. I will give you more information on the progress of individual players in my next report.. ‘Til next time, “GO DAWGS!”