Practice 10/18/12

[garyeb2]

Today was back to defense, defense, defense. They were on the main floor and the crowd was the largest that I have seen. I'm not good at this. But, mayby upwards to 75. Most days is just me,two other old men , and a couple of students. It was really a nice turnout. I'm sure the kids appreciated it.

I'm interested in who emerges as the 4th big. So I try to keep note of what Bennet and Arent are doing. Casey got a rebound and a put back and not much else. Bennett was big today. He snagged every rebound that came his way and had mayby 3 blocks. A really nice job by him today.

The redshirts today were Cousins, Hornbeak, Pledger, Osby, M'Baye, and Fitz. Cousins and Hornbeak split the point evenly and the bigs rotated between themselves. For a short while Cousins and Hornbeak were in together with all three bigs.

Pledger had another good shooting day and seemed to be in the right spot on defense most all the time. I counted 2 deflections and 2 slap away steals for him. Buddy caught him asleep once on a back door cut. Other than that he did fine. M'Baye still hasn't found his shot. I'm not worried about it. That is just the news.

Fitz had another workman like day around the basket. He wasn't doing anything of note with his outside shot. Others that watched the practice might want to build a case that Hornbeak had the best looking all around day at the point. Mayby he did. But, Cousins was the court vision & assist winner. Osby was outstanding today. Easily the winner of the best player in the gym award. He scored alot and defended and rebounded as well.

The white shirts have settled into walkons and transfers. No new news there. But, if I had to pick a partner off the team for a street fight, I'm thinking Spangler would be my man.

The black shirts were the rest of them. From that group, Grooms had a really good shooting day. His jumper was falling from several different spots. He is the best point guard in the gym. Both Cousins and Hornbeak may be better someday. But, not today. On defense, the young ones are pretty close to par. Buddy, wasn't a big scorer today. But, he was very good on the boards. He got a put back, a tip in, and I'm thinking another 3/4 more boards. Tyler deserves special mention. Those that have written him out of the rotation might want to pause for awhile. He had a really good all around practice. He has been pretty good a couple of times and none of the guys ticketed for reserve roles have been any better. Cam seemed asleep on defense but he made severl really good moves shooting the ball.

Generally, and as one would expect, they are much further along with teaching than they were last season. A year ago Kruger was literaly having to teach them which foot to put in front while playing defense. Capel left a fine mess. The difference is the returning guys have seen it and they jump right in to help the new guys. Everyone seems to be picking it all up right along. As an example, today they worked some on inbound plays. Last year I'm pretty sure they were at least a week further into practice before they got to that.

The conditioning and layup drills and such as that are looking much sharper. I refered to that stuff as ragged last week. That is over.

 

[BigTime]

Today was back to defense, defense, defense. They were on the main floor and the crowd was the largest that I have seen. I'm not good at this. But, mayby upwards to 75. Most days is just me,two other old men , and a couple of students. It was really a nice turnout. I'm sure the kids appreciated it.

I'm interested in who emerges as the 4th big. So I try to keep note of what Bennet and Arent are doing. Casey got a rebound and a put back and not much else. Bennett was big today. He snagged every rebound that came his way and had mayby 3 blocks. A really nice job by him today.

The redshirts today were Cousins, Hornbeak, Pledger, Osby, M'Baye, and Fitz. Cousins and Hornbeak split the point evenly and the bigs rotated between themselves. For a short while Cousins and Hornbeak were in together with all three bigs.

Pledger had another good shooting day and seemed to be in the right spot on defense most all the time. I counted 2 deflections and 2 slap away steals for him. Buddy caught him asleep once on a back door cut. Other than that he did fine. M'Baye still hasn't found his shot. I'm not worried about it. That is just the news.

Fitz had another workman like day around the basket. He wasn't doing anything of note with his outside shot. Others that watched the practice might want to build a case that Hornbeak had the best looking all around day at the point. Mayby he did. But, Cousins was the court vision & assist winner. Osby was outstanding today. Easily the winner of the best player in the gym award. He scored alot and defended and rebounded as well.

The white shirts have settled into walkons and transfers. No new news there. But, if I had to pick a partner off the team for a street fight, I'm thinking Spangler would be my man.

The black shirts were the rest of them. From that group, Grooms had a really good shooting day. His jumper was falling from several different spots. He is the best point guard in the gym. Both Cousins and Hornbeak may be better someday. But, not today. On defense, the young ones are pretty close to par. Buddy, wasn't a big scorer today. But, he was very good on the boards. He got a put back, a tip in, and I'm thinking another 3/4 more boards. Tyler deserves special mention. Those that have written him out of the rotation might want to pause for awhile. He had a really good all around practice. He has been pretty good a couple of times and none of the guys ticketed for reserve roles have been any better. Cam seemed asleep on defense but he made severl really good moves shooting the ball.

Generally, and as one would expect, they are much further along with teaching than they were last season. A year ago Kruger was literaly having to teach them which foot to put in front while playing defense. Capel left a fine mess. The difference is the returning guys have seen it and they jump right in to help the new guys. Everyone seems to be picking it all up right along. As an example, today they worked some on inbound plays. Last year I'm pretty sure they were at least a week further into practice before they got to that.

The conditioning and layup drills and such as that are looking much sharper. I refered to that stuff as ragged last week. That is over.

Thanks Gary!

I agree with you on Bennett today. Looked more confident than in previous practices. My beef with Neal is still the same old not moving his feet on D (got beat baseline once today in the halfcourt scrimmage and Kruger ripped into him). But you are right, he had a fine day today. I think he is a good kid - just not Oklahoma good as far as regular minutes on the basketball court.

I loved watching Cousins cut it loose on both ends. He definitely has some Newell in him as far as flash and fearlessness but unlike Newell, Isaiah's handles are more than adequate for the Big 12.

Hornbeak looked solid out there. I like to watch him defend.

I thought Cam looked pretty good out there defensively but I may have missed something.

 

[Mr.B!!!]

Thanks for the reports.

 

[BigTime]

And to clarify on Tyler Neal. He COULD be good enough for regular minutes if he applied himself to getting better like Fitz, Cam, Osby, M'Baye etc...

From what I hear the kid doesn't eat, sleep, drink college basketball like the players above.

 

[campbest]

From what I hear the kid doesn't eat, sleep, drink college basketball like the players above.

Party animal.

 

[AdaSooner]

Another great practice report, Gary! You had me hanging on every word.

If you had to pick a top eight rotation right now, who would be in your lineup? No one is going to hold you to it. I'm just interested in your thoughts after watching a full week or so of practices.

And to clarify on Tyler Neal. He COULD be good enough for regular minutes if he applied himself to getting better like Fitz, Cam, Osby, M'Baye etc...

From what I hear the kid doesn't eat, sleep, drink college basketball like the players above.

If what you heard is true, that's not only disappointing, it's contrary to what I expected when Tyler signed with OU.

IMO, the only way he sees the floor, except in spots this season, is to outwork his competition. He's not good enough to sit on his hands and not put in the time necessary to improve considerably over what we saw last year. This is not the same team. M'Baye and the three freshmen guards will push him to work hard, or take a seat on the bench with our coaching staff.

 

[garyeb2]

Another great practice report, Gary! You had me hanging on every word.

If you had to pick a top eight rotation right now, who would be in your lineup? No one is going to hold you to it. I'm just interested in your thoughts after watching a full week or so of practices.




If what you heard is true, that's not only disappointing, it's contrary to what I expected when Tyler signed with OU.

IMO, the only way he sees the floor, except in spots this season, is to outwork his competition. He's not good enough to sit on his hands and not put in the time necessary to improve considerably over what we saw last year. This is not the same team. M'Baye and the three freshmen guards will push him to work hard, or take a seat on the bench with our coaching staff.

What do you mean no one will hold me to it? Eveyone will hold me to it if I'm wrong.

The truth is, I really don't know. And I don't think many of the players know. The fans that think they know, don't know.

Last season by this time everyone knew. The only variable was Calvins minutes. The red shirts were set and it was easy to see who and when players were rotated in off the white shirts into the offensive drills.

Based on what I saw last year concerning the scrimmage last season. Kruger will coach the red shirts and Henson will coach the whites. Make no mistake about this. Kruger will want to win and he picks the teams. The only difference from that day last season was that Kruger had Casey on his team and as the season went along, Casey lost his minutes to CJ. Last year the sqauds didn't stay static all scrimmage. After the first couple of segments the players were mixed around to get everyone some work. But, at the start, Kruger had the players he wanted.

Last season on the friday before the scrimmage, Kruger had his rotation together and they got the most reps with the red shirts. I kind of expect the same thing today. So, we will see.

But, I'm happy to speculate and fade the abuse if I wrong. I'm guessing the redshirts for today's practice will be Grooms,Heild,Cam,Osby, Fitz, and M'Baye.
For tomorrows scrimmage I think the original group of red shirts will be Grooms,Pledger, Cam, Osby. Fitz, M'Baye, Heild, and Cousins.

Based on what I have seen after one week this is what I think. Osby, Fitz, and M'Baye know their roles and how they fit in. Osby and M'Baye will start and typicaly get alittle more min. than Fitz. Just for examples sake, it might be 25 each for Osby and M'Baye. and 20 for Fitz. That will leave alittle for either Arent or Bennet. I still think that Casey is alittle ahead. Fouls, injuries, and the amount of time Kruger has all three of them on the floor could easily blow all of that up.

Cam is a starter and I think Tyler will be his primary backup. Of course I think the consensus is that M'Baye will spend some time out there. So, I don't anticipate Tyler getting alot of min. Mayby 8-10. Grooms is our best point guard. He probably will and should start. But, I don't think for one minute that Kruger will tolerate Grooms shooting so poorly that the defense ignores him. Kruger is in a position that he desn't have to deal with the mess that situation causes. Whatever the cost that come with playing a freshman point is probably better than the worst we saw last season.I do think that even if Grooms is getting by on his shooting, Kruger will give the backup point guard good minutes every chance he gets. I don't expect a freshman point guard to get a bunch of early season crunch time minutes. But, I would expect a 25-15 split everytime it makes sense. I do think that Cousins is ahead. I like Hornbeak and I think Kruger will manufacture some minutes for him at some position everytime he can.

Any part of the Pledger/Heild comparison is probably best reserved for another thread.

 

[Ham]

M'Baye playing the 3 makes so much sense. I had been worried about the depth at the 3, with Neal as the primary back-up.

Now imagining a lineup of:
PG
SG
M'Baye
Osby
Bennett/Arent

on the floor at the same time - is quite intriguing in terms of having some size against bigger teams.

I've tried to read as much as I can - forgive me for potentially asking a question that may have already been addressed - but outside of Cam, Neal and M'Baye - are any of the other freshman guards getting a look at the 3?

 

[BigTime]

M'Baye playing the 3 makes so much sense. I had been worried about the depth at the 3, with Neal as the primary back-up.

Now imagining a lineup of:
PG
SG
M'Baye
Osby
Bennett/Arent

on the floor at the same time - is quite intriguing in terms of having some size against bigger teams.

I've tried to read as much as I can - forgive me for potentially asking a question that may have already been addressed - but outside of Cam, Neal and M'Baye - are any of the other freshman guards getting a look at the 3?

Ham,

I am guessing that Heild will get some time there.

 

[WTSooner]

Ham,

I am guessing that Heild will get some time there.

Exactly. I'm more of a 3 true guard, one hybrid or versatile 4, and a true big man (though not necessarily a true center) kind of guy.

Also, most of the time, your best lineup is going to include your top 5 players, or at least 5 of your top 6. Playing Bennett/Arent over Fitz, Cam, Pledger, or whomever, just to get size on the court, seems silly to me. We are FINE inside with 2 of Osby, Fitz, and M'Baye. Those guys will not lose us games inside, defensively.

 

[Ham]

My mistake there. I should have had Fitz in there instead of Bennett/Arent.
Was typing quickly.

So the BIG lineup would obviously be M'Baye-Osby-Fitz. 3 of our 5 best players.

 

[BigTime]

My mistake there. I should have had Fitz in there instead of Bennett/Arent.
Was typing quickly.

So the BIG lineup would obviously be M'Baye-Osby-Fitz. 3 of our 5 best players.

Based on early practices, I think that lineup will happen some, but not as much as some think due to lack of quality depth in the post. If Spangler was playing this year then we might see it more.

 

[Ham]

Yeah, that makes sense. We've already got some good guard (+ the 3) depth, it seems. All depending on what these 3 freshmen guards can do. Seems like they each can contribute in at least two spots.

Up to 4 guys at each spot betwen the 2 and the 3. (not a depth chart - just a list)
2- Pledger, Hield, Cousins, Hornbeak
3- Cam, Neal, Hield, M'Baye

Our bench almost certainly has to be better than last year.
And of course -
1. Grooms, Hornbeak, Cousins

But you are right about the post depth. We've basically got 5 guys and that's it - right?
Unless we went with Neal at the 4 or something. Though 5 guys should be enough barring injury.

 

[KBaden145]

Pledger is big enough to slide to the 3 to allow Hield or Hornbeak some time at the 2. We'll have more need to go small than to go big against most teams, outside a couple of conference teams.