Video from first practice on SoonerSports.com

[OUHoops]

Click this and scroll down just a tad for the video...

http://www.soonersports.com/sports/m-baskbl/archive/2010-11_blog.html

Practice photo gallery...

http://www.soonersports.com/view.gal?id=78699

 

[Edmond_Sooner]

O love those practice unis...need some

 

[thebigabd]

Thoughts:

Nick Thompson looks very legit... Tall, long, athletic, and can really shoot. He was shooting fade-aways, pull ups, jumpers off the dribble, jumpers from post-up, etc. He was also jumping up and getting the rebounds early in the video. This guy is gonna be a player.

Tyler Neal... very athletic, good handles, skilled.

Fitz... looks like a different person. He didnt do a whole lot in the scrimmage situations but im not too worried about him. I know he can score and shoot from last year.

Those were the 3 things that stuck out to me.

 

[pillmanj]

Nick Thompson has a nice, silky smooth stroke

 

[Sooner23]

Really surprised by Nick Thompson. He looked great. Wondering how he only averaged 8 and 4 in juco?

Nice little post move by Ahmed about halfway through the video. Hadn't seen any footage of him until then.

Neal does have some hops. Liked that fullcourt drill where and he shook Davis and went in for the one-handed flush.

 

[Tony]

I don't have anything to add beyond what has been said in this thread already, but man is it good to have basketball back. That was fun to watch.

 

[qwertyqaz]

I agree--previous posts well sum things up. I'm with abd...Thompson and Neal jumped out to me the most...wasn't all that surprised about Neal from what I've already seen and heard, but Thompson looked excellent.

 

[OUsky]

Thoughts:

Nick Thompson looks very legit... Tall, long, athletic, and can really shoot. He was shooting fade-aways, pull ups, jumpers off the dribble, jumpers from post-up, etc. He was also jumping up and getting the rebounds early in the video. This guy is gonna be a player.

Tyler Neal... very athletic, good handles, skilled.

Fitz... looks like a different person. He didnt do a whole lot in the scrimmage situations but im not too worried about him. I know he can score and shoot from last year.

Those were the 3 things that stuck out to me.

What a homer.

 

[thebigabd]

Really surprised by Nick Thompson. He looked great. Wondering how he only averaged 8 and 4 in juco?

Nice little post move by Ahmed about halfway through the video. Hadn't seen any footage of him until then.

Neal does have some hops. Liked that fullcourt drill where and he shook Davis and went in for the one-handed flush.

I have to believe he averaged 8 and 4 because he played small forward in junior college, and will be playing power forward here. He is out of position on the perimeter....

 

[boksooner]

I have to believe he averaged 8 and 4 because he played small forward in junior college, and will be playing power forward here. He is out of position on the perimeter....

I agree with this. Thompson has the skills to be a solid pick and pop PF.

 

[Seymore Cox]

Really surprised by Nick Thompson. He looked great. Wondering how he only averaged 8 and 4 in juco?

Nice little post move by Ahmed about halfway through the video. Hadn't seen any footage of him until then.

Neal does have some hops. Liked that fullcourt drill where and he shook Davis and went in for the one-handed flush.

Thompson looked very skilled. Man if he were just about 10lbs of more muscle. He reminded me of the late 90 Utah post players. I can't wait to see if it translates.

 

[Sawyer]

I agree that Nick Thompson looked good. It will be interesting to see how assertive he is this year. OU doesn't really have any established scorers, especially in the post. He seems to have the skill to provide 10-12 points per game.

I don't completely buy that his lack of production was due to playing out of position. The rebounds are still there if he wants them. There was no one on his team taller than him. Two 6-6/6-7 forwards outrebounded him. Perhaps they were pure low post guys who couldn't play out on the perimeter, pushing him outside on offense, but that wouldn't keep him from attacking the defensive glass IMO. I suspect Thompson may be one of those players who's a little too content being a role player, the kind of guy who does enough that you can't really ride him too much as a fan, but who never quite does enough that you love his play, either, because you know he could be a lot more. Those guys are fine (even beneficial at times) if they're surrounded by other talented players, but incredibly frustrating if they're not (Mizzou had a guy like that when Quin was here... McDonald's AA Travon Bryant).

 

[Seymore Cox]

I agree that Nick Thompson looked good. It will be interesting to see how assertive he is this year. OU doesn't really have any established scorers, especially in the post. He seems to have the skill to provide 10-12 points per game.

I don't completely buy that his lack of production was due to playing out of position. The rebounds are still there if he wants them. There was no one on his team taller than him. Two 6-6/6-7 forwards outrebounded him. Perhaps they were pure low post guys who couldn't play out on the perimeter, pushing him outside on offense, but that wouldn't keep him from attacking the defensive glass IMO. I suspect Thompson may be one of those players who's a little too content being a role player, the kind of guy who does enough that you can't really ride him too much as a fan, but who never quite does enough that you love his play, either, because you know he could be a lot more. Those guys are fine (even beneficial at times) if they're surrounded by other talented players, but incredibly frustrating if they're not (Mizzou had a guy like that when Quin was here... McDonald's AA Travon Bryant).

You lost a lot of basketball cred with this statement. Especially if you go back in history and look at some of the great rebounders. The Glover "man" on that team is a little older, and a major prospect that received alot of the attention. He's a wide body who generally get's alot of rebounds historically. Thompson's bigger issue and OU's bigger issure overall is that he's a face up post. Fitz is a face up post as well. So when you have him and Fitz in the game, you have two face up guys. If you run a 4 out one in, that means no low post guy and no offensive boards.

 

[Sawyer]

By major prospect, I assume you mean Iona, because that's where he's playing right now. I'm sure Glover is talented, but his 7.3 rebounds per game shouldn't have prevented a player with Thompson's size and athleticism from grabbing a few more boards.

If my basketball cred on ouhoops.com is irreparably damaged because I didn't follow the recruiting saga of a kid who committed to Seton Hall in 2007 over, well, no one, as that was his only offer, only to end up at Iona three years later, I guess it's a good thing I didn't also mention that Thompson was outrebounded the year before by a 6-3 guard.

Really, the fact is Thompson underperformed as a rebounder. You can spin it however you want, but even if he was asked to play out of position at the 3, he still should've had more than he did. Like I said, he's an intriguing prospect who obviously brings a lot of skill to the court, but I suspect he's going to be an occasionally frustrating player for OU fans due to production not quite meeting his perceived skill level.

 

[Seymore Cox]

By major prospect, I assume you mean Iona, because that's where he's playing right now. I'm sure Glover is talented, but his 7.3 rebounds per game shouldn't have prevented a player with Thompson's size and athleticism from grabbing a few more boards.

If my basketball cred on ouhoops.com is irreparably damaged because I didn't follow the recruiting saga of a kid who committed to Seton Hall in 2007 over, well, no one, as that was his only offer, only to end up at Iona three years later, I guess it's a good thing I didn't also mention that Thompson was outrebounded the year before by a 6-3 guard.

Really, the fact is Thompson underperformed as a rebounder. You can spin it however you want, but even if he was asked to play out of position at the 3, he still should've had more than he did. Like I said, he's an intriguing prospect who obviously brings a lot of skill to the court, but I suspect he's going to be an occasionally frustrating player for OU fans due to production not quite meeting his perceived skill level.

Well, if you knew of what you were talking about. Glover could play anywhere if he had his stuff straight. He's a major talent and as talented as anyone around and would start for Missouri. Also, do some research. Eastern Utah ran a 4 out 1 in offense and as most juco teams do in general, they play ten deep.

Yeah, Glover is one of those prospects that didn't get his act together and went an abnormal route to go D1. Probably the same route Tony Mitchell takes. You remember him, right? The kid you swore to everyone that had all his stuff in order.

 

[Max Power]

Neal looked good in the one on one where he crossed Cade up, then showed that white boys got ups too

 

[Sawyer]

I guess we'll see what kind of player Thompson ends up being for OU (and Glover for Iona, as that's for some reason become important to you).

You can throw out whatever excuses you like, but none of it sufficiently explains his lack of rebounding (or his pathetic 4 blocks in 37 games, or his 0.9 fouls per game... seems like he shies away from anything physical on the court).

Since you brought up Mitchell, though, you might be interested to know there has been a lot of positive feelings around the Mizzou program lately regarding his 2nd semester eligibility.

 

[thebigabd]

I guess we'll see what kind of player Thompson ends up being for OU (and Glover for Iona, as that's for some reason become important to you).

You can throw out whatever excuses you like, but none of it sufficiently explains his lack of rebounding (or his pathetic 4 blocks in 37 games, or his 0.9 fouls per game... seems like he shies away from anything physical on the court).

Since you brought up Mitchell, though, you might be interested to know there has been a lot of positive feelings around the Mizzou program lately regarding his 2nd semester eligibility.

Ouch, 4 blocks in 37 games... But, that could also be attributed to playing on the perimeter.

Or he might just like to shoot jumpers and not do much else... maybe he will be a little more aggressive now that he is playing in the post for a D1 school. He weighed about 205 pounds in juco and has gotten a little bigger since coming here.

 

[Sawyer]

Marcus Denmon had 4 blocks in 34 games last year for Mizzou and he's a 6-3 2 guard. English had 3 and he was probably Mizzou's least physical defender (and he's 6-5).

"Playing on the perimeter" is no excuse for a 6-9 guy to average 0.1 blocks per game against junior college competition.

 

[TSDNWT]

4 blocks for the season...maybe he played defense and opponents didn't get shots off against him. As for his 0.9 fouls per game, why does that have to correlate to non-physical play, maybe he plays smart defense and does not commit stupid fouls. None of us know how his coach told him to play, maybe he was told to stay outside and not crash the boards. If the other team had one of their big-guys guarding him and he stayed outside, it opened the lane for his teamates to rebound. Unless we were there watching the games we don't know.

How is it some posters are not on a D-I coaching staff with the knowledge they posses?

Let's try to focus on the positives and support these kids as they work hard.