Nothing groundbreaking here, as I only saw 45 minutes worth, and it was just a practice, which isn't a good environment for evaluation. So, I'll just post some things I noticed with no promises of correlation to expected production.
First, overall, the whole time I watched, our offense was significantly different than last year. It's still multiple from a ball-screen/motion perspective, but far more ball screens. On one hand, this isn't a surprise due to the makeup of our team; on another, Mike has been primarily a heavy motion guy in the past. Secondly, overall, Mike was really aggressive coaching this team, demanding high tempo to manufacture offense.
Whitt: I've noticed it in pictures, but haven't said anything about it on the board, I don't believe. Whitt has really used the weight room to his advantage so far. He's still skinny, but if you saw him in high school, there's a significant difference in his upper body. In team sessions, he expectedly created the most off the dribble, using that drive, jump stop and fade-away mid-range jumper that a lot of us that followed him are familiar with. He also ran point for his team. As I've said for awhile, I expect him to show good value as a facilitator.
Kingsley: Showed improved fluidity; really moved well. Not sure if Mike was just toying it with it on this particular day, but it appeared that Moses could play more like Bobby (inside and out) last year than perhaps expected. He showed a confident trigger on the jumper, and while he didn't stick it as much as I would like, it looked good, and the misses were slight.
Kouassi: Yeah, really raw. Footwork and balance are big deficit areas. But, his size and length, coupled with the lack of depth for our post positions, will put him on the floor. He was the other big when Kingsley was moving in and out.
Thompson: As has been reported a lot, body looks really good. Still not explosive, but he's improved in that area to where he can play above the rim some now.
Jenkins: Looked good off the catch a few times. Coaches were on him a lot for not being where he was supposed to be.
No notables for the others. I plan to attend the red/white game to get a better look.
First, overall, the whole time I watched, our offense was significantly different than last year. It's still multiple from a ball-screen/motion perspective, but far more ball screens. On one hand, this isn't a surprise due to the makeup of our team; on another, Mike has been primarily a heavy motion guy in the past. Secondly, overall, Mike was really aggressive coaching this team, demanding high tempo to manufacture offense.
Whitt: I've noticed it in pictures, but haven't said anything about it on the board, I don't believe. Whitt has really used the weight room to his advantage so far. He's still skinny, but if you saw him in high school, there's a significant difference in his upper body. In team sessions, he expectedly created the most off the dribble, using that drive, jump stop and fade-away mid-range jumper that a lot of us that followed him are familiar with. He also ran point for his team. As I've said for awhile, I expect him to show good value as a facilitator.
Kingsley: Showed improved fluidity; really moved well. Not sure if Mike was just toying it with it on this particular day, but it appeared that Moses could play more like Bobby (inside and out) last year than perhaps expected. He showed a confident trigger on the jumper, and while he didn't stick it as much as I would like, it looked good, and the misses were slight.
Kouassi: Yeah, really raw. Footwork and balance are big deficit areas. But, his size and length, coupled with the lack of depth for our post positions, will put him on the floor. He was the other big when Kingsley was moving in and out.
Thompson: As has been reported a lot, body looks really good. Still not explosive, but he's improved in that area to where he can play above the rim some now.
Jenkins: Looked good off the catch a few times. Coaches were on him a lot for not being where he was supposed to be.
No notables for the others. I plan to attend the red/white game to get a better look.
