starting now
Starts off congratulating the volleyball team.
Now a story about Dierks Bentley coming out in the Mizzou hoops jersey Kim gave him last week. "That was the highlight of my week."
"Practice has gone well." They've had a couple of scrimmages with SEC officials. "Based on what I've seen there's going to be a lot of free throws early" because of way they're going to call games. Said in their last scrimmage there were about 70 fouls and 58 free throws. Said it was beneficial for the players.
"Our energy's been good. I think our biggest challenge now is putting the ten guys together that we think are going to probably play the most." That doesn't include Jordan Barnett right now because he isn't yet eligible.
If he had to guess at a starting five, would include a lot of returners, but some of the freshmen and Jordan Geist have provided great competition.
"Sometimes you think you put the five out there that can do the best and then the next five beat them. You hope that there's a lot of competition."
Spent a lot of time on defense so far. "I think that we're going to be a better defensive team and I hope it happens early."
Been fortunate with injuries. Flu has gone around, but for the most part no health issues. Reed Nikko has come back strong from hip surgery, continuing to improve conditioning.
Recruiting: Signing date coming up. Have two scholarships, have had several visitors in.
Preseason poll: "We were picked last and certainly based on what we had coming back from last year and the way we finished last year, if I had a vote I probably would have picked us the same place, but that's certainly not where I think we'll finish. When they saw that, hopefully that motivated them to do better."
Says he thinks it is a mature team despite the youth.
On freshman class: "We wanted certain positions." Wanted a PG (Geist), needed a shooter (Hughes), slasher (Jackson), size (Nikko/Smith). Basically needed someone at every position.
Some days thinks they're a very good shooting team, some days he's concerned. CVL has shot the ball very well. Hughes can shoot it, has been a little bit streaky. Phillips has shot it better, Geist pretty well. Barnett is a really good three-point shooter. Puryear is capable. "I think we're better than we were a year ago."
On Van Leer: Going from Pacific High to the SEC, everything is exaggerated, everything is quicker. "He's an incredible worker. It's hard to simulate having to catch and shoot quicker than maybe you did a year ago. I think the experience was good for him. I wasn't shocked that he didn't shoot great. He was a freshman."
On size of the team: "You always want to be bigger. But again I think I'm more concerned with rebounding." Willie Jackson has brought a new dimension there. He's a naturally good rebounder. "Some guys are just kind of born with that instinct and he's one of those guys." Has talked with the team about getting easy baskets. "I always worry about size because we don't have any 6-10, 6-11 guys with experience, but I like the progress Russ has made, I like the progress that Reed has made." Says Smith is a guy that "is probably going to get pushed around for a while" but can use his quickness and his feet. Says Puryear has improved his rebounding a lot since last year.
Says Smith has a pretty good shot for a big man out to 15-17 feet.
KJ Walton: "He's done well. He's a guy that has improved defensively. His strength, it's not a big secret, he likes to take the ball to the basket. We're trying to create more opportunities for him to do that." His shot is improving.
"I would be disappointed if our effort wasn't more consistent every night. I think this is a team that does have energy, that has good young leadership. Obviously we're going to have some ups and downs, we're gonna have adversity. I think the biggest test is always how are you going to respond when you get behind ten or you get behind 15? Or maybe you lose a game and have to come back. How are you going to respond to that?"
Says people who have watched practice have commented on how hard they play, the energy level. "In the past sometimes I've worried about that, about are we playing hard enough?" Said a year ago the scrimmage against Creighton revealed some of those problems.
Confirms that they will have a secret scrimmage like they did last year. Not allowed to say anything else.
On Nick Michael's role: "Unbelievable...He's done a great job."
On Friday's Halloween and hoops: "I just hope we play well. I know how those games go. They get crazy and everybody's trying to dunk. I hope we play well and show some things."
Thinks the schedule is better, but still not perfect. SEC mandates that your non-con opponents have a three year average RPI of 175 or better. Next year that will go to 150.
Starts off congratulating the volleyball team.
Now a story about Dierks Bentley coming out in the Mizzou hoops jersey Kim gave him last week. "That was the highlight of my week."
"Practice has gone well." They've had a couple of scrimmages with SEC officials. "Based on what I've seen there's going to be a lot of free throws early" because of way they're going to call games. Said in their last scrimmage there were about 70 fouls and 58 free throws. Said it was beneficial for the players.
"Our energy's been good. I think our biggest challenge now is putting the ten guys together that we think are going to probably play the most." That doesn't include Jordan Barnett right now because he isn't yet eligible.
If he had to guess at a starting five, would include a lot of returners, but some of the freshmen and Jordan Geist have provided great competition.
"Sometimes you think you put the five out there that can do the best and then the next five beat them. You hope that there's a lot of competition."
Spent a lot of time on defense so far. "I think that we're going to be a better defensive team and I hope it happens early."
Been fortunate with injuries. Flu has gone around, but for the most part no health issues. Reed Nikko has come back strong from hip surgery, continuing to improve conditioning.
Recruiting: Signing date coming up. Have two scholarships, have had several visitors in.
Preseason poll: "We were picked last and certainly based on what we had coming back from last year and the way we finished last year, if I had a vote I probably would have picked us the same place, but that's certainly not where I think we'll finish. When they saw that, hopefully that motivated them to do better."
Says he thinks it is a mature team despite the youth.
On freshman class: "We wanted certain positions." Wanted a PG (Geist), needed a shooter (Hughes), slasher (Jackson), size (Nikko/Smith). Basically needed someone at every position.
Some days thinks they're a very good shooting team, some days he's concerned. CVL has shot the ball very well. Hughes can shoot it, has been a little bit streaky. Phillips has shot it better, Geist pretty well. Barnett is a really good three-point shooter. Puryear is capable. "I think we're better than we were a year ago."
On Van Leer: Going from Pacific High to the SEC, everything is exaggerated, everything is quicker. "He's an incredible worker. It's hard to simulate having to catch and shoot quicker than maybe you did a year ago. I think the experience was good for him. I wasn't shocked that he didn't shoot great. He was a freshman."
On size of the team: "You always want to be bigger. But again I think I'm more concerned with rebounding." Willie Jackson has brought a new dimension there. He's a naturally good rebounder. "Some guys are just kind of born with that instinct and he's one of those guys." Has talked with the team about getting easy baskets. "I always worry about size because we don't have any 6-10, 6-11 guys with experience, but I like the progress Russ has made, I like the progress that Reed has made." Says Smith is a guy that "is probably going to get pushed around for a while" but can use his quickness and his feet. Says Puryear has improved his rebounding a lot since last year.
Says Smith has a pretty good shot for a big man out to 15-17 feet.
KJ Walton: "He's done well. He's a guy that has improved defensively. His strength, it's not a big secret, he likes to take the ball to the basket. We're trying to create more opportunities for him to do that." His shot is improving.
"I would be disappointed if our effort wasn't more consistent every night. I think this is a team that does have energy, that has good young leadership. Obviously we're going to have some ups and downs, we're gonna have adversity. I think the biggest test is always how are you going to respond when you get behind ten or you get behind 15? Or maybe you lose a game and have to come back. How are you going to respond to that?"
Says people who have watched practice have commented on how hard they play, the energy level. "In the past sometimes I've worried about that, about are we playing hard enough?" Said a year ago the scrimmage against Creighton revealed some of those problems.
Confirms that they will have a secret scrimmage like they did last year. Not allowed to say anything else.
On Nick Michael's role: "Unbelievable...He's done a great job."
On Friday's Halloween and hoops: "I just hope we play well. I know how those games go. They get crazy and everybody's trying to dunk. I hope we play well and show some things."
Thinks the schedule is better, but still not perfect. SEC mandates that your non-con opponents have a three year average RPI of 175 or better. Next year that will go to 150.
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