Reports from open basketball practice

[tornado]

FWIW - we're here at the Ren-Col, and here's my observations...

-first - hafta leave one comment about the Main/Univ. intersection
..it wasn't like traffic was heavy but still had to sit thru a couple long, 3-min green light cycles while people waited to turn & the extremely few pedestrians took their time crossing diagonally.
Then you turn on Main & head to the parking deck, and at least a dozen more students along the next 3 blocks dart across Main street anywhere & everywhere they want.
They don't want to go to the corner, push a button, & wait - they just cross at their own choosing.
No amount of engineering or rebuild will ever make it safe - smh

-the practice started right at 6pm - the attendance at that time was 40
but around 6:30-7pm some more trickled in and it maxed out at 140 people.
I am sure someone will claim there were 500 or 1000 but there were pictures to document (Bob Hunt) and it wasn't hard to do a hand count of the few there.
Almost all were the same gray-hairs who have been to every Red-White for decades - but there were far, far fewer - pretty sparse - way less than I had ever anticipated.
I brought two children with but there were only 4 or 5 other kids there total - not like it used to be at the scrimmages.
..and nothing at all like the 3000 we always got at the Red-White until just the past few years when the changes hurt attendance severely.

- then when they broke into individual drills after the first Red-Black scrimmage finished people began to leave...

-during the warmups, and practice part - at first there were some 5-man team sets that they ran thru, but every play involved a screen then a pass down low and the play ended with a dunk. Nice - and we made most of them but I doubt we get too many of them once the games start.

Then - there were drills and the bigs worked out on one end, the wings & guards on the other end.
Regardless of what's been said Josh Cunningham worked out with Xzavier Taylor, Nate Wells, and Jermaine Morgan and went thru all the same back-to-the-basket drills and work that all the centers did.
In fact he may be the most mobile big man we have, but he seemed a bit reluctant to put much energy into jumping and clearly was protecting his knee a bit.

-then came a 10 minute Red-Black scrimmage...
Red team was Cunningham, Amerson, Shaw, Bell, Xzavier Taylor, & Omari Grier, Wells.
Black team was Jermaine Morgan, Jackson Kane, Anthony Fields, Jones, Donte Thomas, Barnes
Tramique Sutherland was not even present...and they changed things up later...

They played a 10-minute period...it was pretty ugly - lots of bad passes, & bad shots...
the score after 10 minutes was 9-4 but almost half those pts were FTs..
Nobody hit a 3-pointer...in fact nobody hit much of anything from more than a couple feet away.

Then they broke back into some drills and FT practice - with more scrimmaging following.......

Our bigs definitely got some rebounding practice.
We are not going to be a good shooting team - sorry if that bursts anyone's bubble.
Ka'Darryl Bell was the only guard who seemed anxious to drive and he made Red's only basket.

Nobody else stood out much - however Josh Cunningham is a big kid...
he certainly appeared to be within an inch in height from Xzavier Taylor (6-9) and he appeared bigger, stronger, & bulkier.

Warren Jones is listed as 6-3 but I'll take any bet on that one - he's an inch taller than Fields who is listed as 6-0

Other freshman Donte Thomas is an athletic 6-6 or so and likes to take the long shot - just needs to work on it.

Grier didn't look too good on 3-pt shots

I will answer more if anyone wants to PM - but I don't want to give away too much in case some of our opponents are reading to get a scouting report

[Da Coach]

When the structured practice ended a little after 7 PM, the players and coaches milled around a while, and a number of people left, including tornado with his kids. But then the teams split into 2 squads, and had another open scrimmage, where the coaches just let them go for a while.

Here are my observations. I am uploading a bunch of photos and videos, but to avoid any concerns about infringing on anyone's copyright, I won't post them here.

If anyone wants to see the pictures and videos from the practice & scrimmage, please PM me, and I'll send you all a bunch of them.

There were under 200 people at the scrimmage, and the pictures will show that.

Tramique Sutherland sat well away from the playing floor with a cast on his left hand.

Ka'Darryl Bell was playing the point, and did well handling the ball, but when his squad got into their offense, there were a lot of bad passes and turnovers.

Anthony Fields also played point guard for the other squad, and the results were about the same.

Surprisingly, Donte Thomas also played some at the perimeter, and worked out with the guards part of the time. I don't see him as a 2, but it appeared the coaches think he can play a bit there.

Warren Jones is a good ball handler, and I thought he looked a bit better running the point than anyone else. His shooting was off, but then so was everyone else's.

Omari Grier appeared to take more shots than the other guards, and made a couple.

Nobody appeared to make many outside shots. Most of the points on the 5 on 5 drills, and the scrimmages were on occasional defensive breakdowns, and inside baskets, or putbacks.

We do look like we'll be a good rebounding team.

Barnes looked smooth, but his shots weren't falling consistently.

Jackson Kane is a scrappy point guard, but he doesn't look to shoot. He protects the ball fairly well, but he won't see much, if any, playing time.

Kendahl Amerson has a strong upper body, and moves well without the ball, but he cannot handle the ball well. He seemed to shoot with confidence, and shot the three well in juco. But the shots were not falling much tonight.

Cunningham, Shaw, and Morgan looked comfortable around the basket, showed that they were a little more willing to bang with their bodies than we have shown in the past years, and finished well if they were right at the basket, but did not show any ability to score away from the basket.

Xzavier Taylor has bulked up, but his game is the same as last year. None of the big guys appear to be very consistent with free throws.

Wells showed a slightly smoother game around the basket, but I still don't think we'll see much of him.

Geno has been telling people that we might struggle to score, and that is what it looked like to me. But this team is more athletic, deeper, and a better rebounding team, so we'll have to find a way to capitalize on the things we do well.

If I forgot anyone, let me know, and feel free to ask any questions.

PM me for the links to pictures and videos.

[smitty]

Thanks for the report. I'd like to get the pictures and vidclips.

I hope the team can work out the kinks, but it sounds like the loss of Sutherland might hurt the team a bit.

[bigjimmy]

My thoughts about the practice was that it certainly seemed we are trying to force tempo on offense and it looked pretty ragged and really proved to me what I've been saying, that Sutherland is the key to this team. I would agree that we'll be more physical and will be a pretty good offensive rebounding team which we'll have to be. I didn't see Madame President there but I did see Dr. Cross who stayed in one spot throughout the practice. It would have been nice to have seen him go around and talk to the people who came, which with about 200 people there he easily could have, and thank them for coming. Will be curious to see what the rotation looks like.

[tornado]

at WIU's scrimmage, Billy Wright hits half-court shot
they also had a pretty good crowd

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2G2PgFsjvw&feature=youtu.be

Bob Hunt has a few photos from the Bradley scrimmage last night

https://www.facebook.com/bob.hunt.9634

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10204924214007243&set=a.10204003762996543.1073741828.1297326847&type=1

a little more thought on the team from last night...

what we have as a strong suit are plenty of big, solid athletes...Shaw, Jermaine Morgan, Xzavier Taylor, Josh Cunningham - all are big, strong, and look D-I ready.
Let's see how they get used and how they turn out.
Remember when Wichita State walked all over us with big bodies like Carl Hall, Durley, Stutz, Carter, Lufile..
well, now we got the big bodies...it took a few years but that's definitely our strong suit barring injuries.
and recall, over most all of the past several years - they (Wichita State) also have NOT shot the ball all that well from outside..
ONLY ONCE since 2007 have the Shockers shot over 33-35% from the arc - and some of those years they were down at the 30-32% range!!
Hey - even UK (33%) & Kansas (34%) were AT BEST just mediocre from outside.

So...if that's the plan- then we are getting it done - develop the bigs, do some major league banging down low and score by committee
and hope we can defend while finding some decent outside shooting. I like our athleticism

[Da Coach]

My thoughts about the practice was that it certainly seemed we are trying to force tempo on offense

I have heard that is what Geno is saying when he talks to groups like the Lions Club and at the ISC event. But from what I saw at last night's practice, it needs a bit more work. A team needs good ball handling and passing for an uptempo offense to be efficient, and last night there were way too many turnovers and bad passes considering they weren't really playing defense very hard.
I am sure that will improve with the return of Sutherland, but it sounds like he could miss at least 8-10 games.

[wufan]

ONLY ONCE since 2007 have the Shockers shot over 33-35% from the arc - and some of those years they were down at the 30-32% range!!

Factually incorrect. Only once in the past 5 years has WSU been below 35%

13-14: .351

12-13: .339

11-12: .371

10-11: .355

09-10: .357

08-09: .322

07-08: .308

[wily coyote]

factually incorrect. Only once in the past 5 years has wsu been below 35%

13-14: .351

12-13: .339

11-12: .371

10-11: .355

09-10: .357

08-09: .322

07-08: .308

oops

[tornado]

ok I will revise to only once have they been above 35.7%

but point still stands - their overall 3-pt shooting since '07 is not much better than the national average for all D-I's of about 34.5%

do you think they have been a good 3-pt shooting team over that span?

[wufan]

ok I will revise to only once have they been above 35.7%

but point still stands - their overall 3-pt shooting since '07 is not much better than the national average for all D-I's of about 34.5%

do you think they have been a good 3-pt shooting team over that span?

Not good. Fairly average. I would not call it a strength of the team, nor a weakness.

The strength of the team is defense, rebounding, and offensive efficiency. We are pretty average at everything else.