HHC Open Practice & Rotation/Minutes Discussion

[DanMcQ]

Post any interesting observations here for us out-of-towners.

[jerseyhoya34]

Great event... I'm curious to hear what others have to say about the players, so I won't say much of anything. Pleasant surprises in the areas where it is not expected.

[RBHoya]

Good turnout, much better than last years. Food was also a big step up.

Like last year I feel it's difficult to read too much into the open practice. You notice a few things, and those things may indicate something important or legitimate, or they may signify nothing in particular. Anyway here are some observations and inferences I've drawn.

--Tyler can shoot. I watched him in warmups hit probably about 20 straight 3's from the corner, all with very good form repeated. 007 and others can back me up on how many it was. And he didn't even miss any to end the streak, he just stopped and moved on eventually.

--I think Marc sees the court more than some people have him penciled in for. I thought he looked good. Unspectacular in a lot of ways, but very solid, and he can shoot, which is definitely a plus for him.

--Conversely I don't think Jeremiah sees a lot of court, especially early. If he gets much run this year, it won't be for a while. This is in no small part due to the fact that he's injured his foot and is sitting out at this point. For a freshman in a system like this, that doesn't seem like a good mix. III acknowledged that an early injury for a freshman is very tough, as this is an important learning period for the young guys. Plus I've heard Jeremiah isn't a top shooter, and I think that's what we'll be searching for from our guards this year. If we want big, athletic, good ball-handler, strong defender, we'll slide Jessie into the point spot.

--Roy looks amazing. To be expected at this point I guess. But he was MOVING, both in terms of "speed" as in ability to get from end to end quickly, and "quickness" as in making a little move at the elbow and getting to the cup. At one point during a fast break sort of drill, Roy converted the layup and then zoomed up the court back toward the other end. Everyone applauded this, both for his hustle and for the fact that he's looking so mobile (I assume). III asked the crowd, "What did he do?" It was just seeing the Big Man busting it up the court so fast that got the crowd energized I think.

--Rebounding is cleary a focus of III's. At one point during the Q&A somebody asked him "Who do you think will be your most agressive and effective rebounder?" III turned around and had the team stop their warm-ups, and he posed the same question to them, asking who they thought it'd be. Ewing raises his hand...Green raises his hand... Spann raises his hand... shortly, 13 hands are raised. Nice.

--Summers is an athlete. Macklin isn't the only freshman who can do some impressive stuff. Probably easy to classify Macklin as the raw athlete who needs work on his skills and Summers as the guy who has a diverse skill set but not as good an athlete. That wouldn't quite be fair. DaJuan's gonna play a lot, IMHO, and he's gonna be a key guy for this team for the duration of his time here.

--Sapp has a sprained ankle and was doing some drills and sitting out some others. Hopefully that heals up soon so he's totally back in the swing of things by 11/11. I suspect it'll be fine.

--DJ Owens is now in real estate in Louisiana. Good for him.

--Coach said something about the building (McDonough) at the end of Q&A, I'm almost positive. I couldn't hear it though. Hopefully somebody else knows and can help me out there. Others who were taking better notes than I will probably have a better summary of some of the other stuff from the Q&A.

[StPetersburgHoya (Inactive)]

On Sapp - coach said that he had missed one week of drills and should be back into practicing fully in a week. He'll be ready for the 11/11 game.

[GIGAFAN99]

I love this team even more now. The latest reason is that I always enjoyed when a coach asked one of those BS questions and got the real answer. You know the ones where it's, "who is going to go out and take that ball away" and you know two things:

1) It ain't you because you just don't want to lose any equipment trying to stay in front of the 90% of guys who are quicker than you and

2) You're supposed to raise your hand anyway

Truth is, Ewing, Green, and Spann (probably precisely in that order) will be our most aggressive and effective rebounders. Good to see they know it. Their strength and body control make them prime candidates to crash the glass, especially when Roy is getting a lot of attention.

[SFHoya99]

Thanks, RB. Last year, they posted a transcript of the Q&A on the website or in an email. Hopefully they will do that this year.

[YB]

To add to RB's good points:

-Summers really impressed me. Great athlete, very aggressive, can do anything on the court, just needs a bit more precision. Reminds me a lot of JG before his Freshman year.

-Shallow at guard right now. Rivers hurt and can't practice (which will delay his ability to get inot games until later this year, I suspect). Sapp is hurt and only partly practicing. He mentioned TC as being his only experienced, healthy shooter right now.

-He doesn't yet know what he has to adjust or who shoots from outside yet.

-About playing UM: he complained none of those questions ever get asked at Comcast Center. He said Gary wants a 2-for-1, 2 home games for one of ours. He doesn't see why that should be the case.

-He doesn't look at expectations from outside, just at getting better as a team.

-The juniors looked very smooth at practice, not one mistake among the 4 of them. That's the main difference between the talented freshmen and sophs and the juniors: clearly, more familiar and precise right now. Makes me feel better about working the froshes into the rotation, lots of cover for them and experience to lean back on.

-Had an interesting conversation about who would be good or bad in the BE this year. Lots of variables.

All I can remember right now- more to come on the HHC blog.

[hoyaboy1]

He also was asked about a comparison between last year's team and this year's.

He said we had more shooting and passing last year, but would be better on D this year.

I'm not going to say anything else about how players looked in the practice, because I don't think you can judge much from 60 minutes. Most of my opinion of the freshman is still based off Kenner.

Oh yea, one more thing - JTIII was asked why Ewing was listed at 6'10". He said he had no idea.

[sweetness]

Thanks for all the reports -- I know people are reluctant to break down individual players, but how did Macklin look? Also, some had said that they thought PE JR looks like he put on some lbs and lost some explosiveness - did people see this?

[JB5]

To add to the comments above:

-- The guys were working hard, hustling in all of the drills they did. Coach had them focused on passing, shooting the three and playing aggressive D.

-- Roy looks more athletic than last season and drew some applause for his speed down the court in the fast break drills and a couple of behind the back dribbles.

-- Jeff looked like Jeff. He's playing with confidence and was moving well throughout.

-- Patrick Junior showed his athleticism. I think we're going to see quite a bit of him this year.

-- Summers looked very good. He's fast, shoots well and has a good vertical leap. I'd compare him more to Bowman than Green at this point.

-- Tyler Crawford was unbelieveable from the 3 point line. At one point, I counted six in a row. Sead was almost as good. Wallace still has a nice stroke, so we may not be in as much trouble from 3 as I thought.

-- Macklin is long and athletic and did a nice job on Roy in a defensive drill.

Coach said Rivers has injured the top of his foot and would be out of practice for some time. Sapp did some shooting but stayed out of the running drills.

From the autograph session with the kids:

"Roy, you have to beat Villanova for me on my birthday."

Roy: "We'll do that, little dude."

[DuddingtonHoya]

The question at the end that RB missed was from someone who asked "What can we as boosters do for the program." JTIII's answer was something to the effect of "The fans have been great. The students have been great. But next we have to do something about this building" ... and then he just walked off as if to emphasize the point. It was pretty hot.

[jerseyhoya34]

Based on what I've seen, I think our core group/rotation will include (in no order at all): Summers, Jeff, Ewing, Roy, Wallace, Sapp, Crawford, and Egerson. I think we can afford to have Macklin and Spann in for a few minutes at a time to spell others, which is not to slight them. Both have improved since I've started watching them.

RB did a good thing in mentioning Egerson because he may be one of the most improved guys on the team out of the group trying to crack the rotation. The form on his jumper is very sound, and he showed good accuracy in the shooting drills today. He has also slimmed down and added muscle so he can reasonably play a little SG. He also had a good midrange shot in the halfcourt sets toward the end of the public practice.

Anyway, my $.02.

[DuddingtonHoya]

More thoughts

-- I thought Junior looked a bit less polished than I expected. Great nonetheless, but I expected more. He's going to have to fight Summers hard for PT. Which is, of course, good for Junior.

-- Jeff and Wallace must have the same brain. When they were running the floor or in drills together their chemistry was magical.

-- I thought Macklin looked raw... had trouble with some dribbles and passes. Or maybe he just looked raw practicing next to Roy, who looked NBA.

-- Crawford I think will play alot, especially at the beginning of the season. Might even start depending on how Sapp's injury heals. We could sure could have used Thornton this season. Egg might see some heavy minutes at the 2 early on.

-- Does anyone else suspect that Jeremiah might be considering a redshirt for this season based on JTIII's comments? I certainly do.

[jerseyhoya34]

Good points, but I think you lost me at the Thornton part. He seems like a nice guy, and I don't want to pile on him, but he hasn't made a big shot in a big spot, let alone a big shot in any spot. He is no more proven as a shooter than any of the other options we have.

The problem with redshirting Rivers is that it just kicks the can down the road where there will be more guards anyway. If he gains game experience this year, that would at least be something he has on Wright.

[hoyaboy1]

I think Wallace, Sapp, Ewing, Green, Hibbert, and Crawford are 100% guaranteed playing time.

I think Summers is very close to guaranteed. I suspect we only have 1 more guy who gets consistent minutes. I'd still lean towards Macklin, but it could be Egerson if JTIII prefers to go small.

[jerseyhoya34]

Macklin will get minutes by virtue of the fact that we're thin otherwise in terms of true PF's and C's. To be sure, Ewing and Summers can play minutes at PF too, but I think we'd much rather use them at SF. Playing Macklin is an investment. He won't have the highest return right now, but it'll be darn good by the end of the year or the beginning of the next.

[GIGAFAN99]

Thin at guard doesn't worry me when the first game is still three weeks away. Plenty of time to heal a tweaked ankle and worst case if Sapp isn't 100% is he backs up at point for 8-10 minutes and Crawford and Egerson split the 2.

Speaking of, if Egerson is really most-improved, good for him. He'd essentially be beating out Spann for the back-up three (since I still think Summers will be our back-up four). I did notice that contrary to summer reports, he looked slimmer at MM. I guess that's a recent development. Nice to see we still have some no-sales-tax state representation.

[jerseyhoya34]

I'm not saying the Egerson is the most improved on the team. I'm just saying he may be most improved of the guys trying to crack into the mix. I don't think he'll back up at 3 as much as he'll back up at 2. We're set at 3 with Ewing and Summers.

Summers can play some 4, but it wouldn't do us any favors to pigeonhole him as this or that. He's too good to keep off the floor for any reason, much like Green, Hibbert, and Ewing.

[hoyaboy1]

A lot of people seem to think that we will be giving 9-10 guys consistent minutes. I'm not confident of that.

[SFHoya99]

Last year we ran a 3 man rotation at guard (Sapp, Wallace and Cook) and a four man rotation at the other three spots where DJ essentially subbed for SF, PF, C. So we could see that again, say with Wallace, Sapp and Crawford and then Hibbert, Green, Ewing and Summers. Aside from a couple of blowouts and a few AKD cameos, we only played seven.

That said, I'm squarely with Jersey. Even if that is our best seven, I'd like to see us invest a bit more game time in some of our other players, especially early in the season and open up both rotations an extra player -- say, Marc and Vernon, if that's how it comes out. Vernon especially, given his potential.