Basketball - I went to the Junction Jam and Practice
The Junction Jam was a great event, very unique. The weather was great, just a great vibe. Watching basketball in the junction at night was pretty wild. Good crowd too. In fact, Purcell mentioned it was more people than expected. They did a skills challange, 3 point content, dunk contest, etc. It's really just an excuse to introduce the teams and get people excited.
The open practice Saturday though was very interesting. It was a real practice, drills, lots of scrimmaging and condititiong. Getting to sit courside for that was outstanding for anyone that enjoys basketball.
A few things:
- Hubbard is Hubbard, clearly the leader.
- Cam is a beast, I can't imagine what he would look like in football pads.
- Riley Kugel is so smooth...I see why Kansas wanted him. He's a HUGE addition to the team.
- The player that I'm most interested in after watching practice is Claudell Harris Jr (BC transfer). They ran multiple set plays (both in the offense and out of bounds) to get him corner 3's. I think they know Hubbard is going to have defenders draped on him and they need someone to hit open 3's when that happens. From what I saw, Harris will play a role there. I also loved that he stayed by himself after practice to shoot 3's and free throws both. Most everyone else got out of there (granted the football game was only 2 hours away from starting). If he can score 6 or 7 a game, he could be a key player.
- Gai Choi is bigger and stronger. He's put some weight on but I still don't see him playing very much.
- KeShawn Murphy will play a ton. He was very active all practice...they are clearly depending on him.
- Shawn Jones seemed to be dealing with a slight injury. He practiced but he was slow.
- RJ Melendez (Georgia transfer) is a good shooter but very streaky. Miss 5 straight then make 4 straight.
- The team does a lot of 3 point shooting drills. Everyone shoots 3's from the wings (broken into teams) and they compete against each other. I think they called it Bulldog shooting and they ran that drill at least twice if not 3 different times. Basketball is basically positionless at this point and having everyone practice 3's multiple times in the 1 hour we were allowed to watch proves that.
- They have tape everywhere on the floor, from the dunker spot to where guards should penetrate to when running the offense. Lines and X's and squares all over the place. That's a great teaching tool...no guess on where to be...you know exactly where you are supposed to be.
- The scrimmages were never "first team v second team" - for example Hubbard and Matthews never played together. Point being, we have good depth and they really could make two equal teams and the quick scrimmages were always close.
- Conditioning is worked in between scrimmagess and drills. They are always running, not a big surprise but he wants them in shape to play hard defense.
- Oh, a name for the future...Dellquan Warren. I don't see him playing much this year but he's a SMOOTH point guard. Freshman who picked us over Florida St.
We had a great time in Starkville this weekend. The weather was great, restaurants and streets where busy, the Junction Jam was fun and honestly the football game was fun. But the practice was our (my boys and I) favorite part. I hope they do it again next year.
