Open Practice Thoughts

[airowe]

I went to the open practice earlier today and here are some of my observations:

These are basically stream of consciousness:

People keep filing in. Scheyer is definitely the leader of this team. He's running the stretching drills.

Standing ovation for Harrison as he comes into the gym.

K has the guys playing out of posiiton defensively in a lot of the sets. Scheyer on Kelly, Singler on guards. I like this approach and it will definitely play dividends in real game situations.

There are a lot of full court and half court *press* drills being run. Don't go to many practices so this may or may not be done regularly.

Olek looks good. Blocking shots and hitting some jumpers. Seems comfortable.

Curry is almost exclusively running point on the second team, much like in the Blue/White game.

A student just gave a "Harrison Barnes, come to Duke" yell and he smiled and acknowledged it.

A lot of zone D being played and our guys are shooting right over it. Miles and Mason are garbage collectors.

No Lance Thomas unfortunately.

Harrison Barnes' wingspan is LONG.

K talking about Ryan or Kyle as the second big when playing aginst a zone. A lineup like this could really punish a zone. I think this zone D drill is just as much for the offense playing against it as it is for the D itself, maybe more.

Possible Lineup against zone D:

MP1/2
Singler
Dawkins
Nolan
Jon

Here is a twitter update from:

BlueDevilNation: Barnes just opened his Nike jump suit to reveal a Duke T-Shirt. Practice is winding down. After I coach my team tonight, pics will be up.


I thought Scheyer looked really good getting into the lane. At one point he blew by a defender and went up against Miles(?) for a contested layup. I'm not really sure how he did this, but he almost seemed to triple pump it and throw it up over Miles' outstretched hand.

I hope they do this again. It was really fun to see the guys in their element.

[juise]

Airowe, thanks for posting your impressions.

K has the guys playing out of posiiton defensively in a lot of the sets. Scheyer on Kelly, Singler on guards.

I would think that the flexibility in Duke's offensive and defensive systems would be attractive to Harrison. If his college stay is going to be no more than two years, he would likely want to be in an environment where he will have an opportunity to hone a variety of skills (guarding different types of players and playing at different spots in the offense). Come on down...

[BD80]

...I would think that the flexibility in Duke's offensive and defensive systems would be attractive to Harrison. If his college stay is going to be no more than two years, he would likely want to be in an environment where he will have an opportunity to hone a variety of skills (guarding different types of players and playing at different spots in the offense). Come on down...

I like the thought that, while the practice is running, Coach K. or Wojo or Collins can mention to Harrison that the particular zone set the players are working on was developed with Coach Boeheim for Kobe and Lebron, and that it works much better with someone of Harrison's abilities

[jipops]

No Lance Thomas? Injury?

[SilkyJ]

I thought Scheyer looked really good getting into the lane. At one point he blew by a defender and went up against Miles(?) for a contested layup. I'm not really sure how he did this, but he almost seemed to triple pump it and throw it up over Miles' outstretched hand.

Great stuff, airowe.

Not to go too Horvath on everyone, but the word out of the summer league was that Jon was showing off better hops than most knew he had (he had some kind of put back dunk that was supposed to be silly) and so one thing I'll be looking for, particularly early in the year, is for Scheyer to showcase more traditional athleticism from him than we've seen before. I think (and hope) the rumblings that he isn't good enough to be in the NBA and the fact that he hasn't made an all-acc team yet are getting to him, and hopefully that will light a bit of a fire under him.

I remember JJ's senior year he had all kinds of people saying he couldn't do anything but shoot, yada yada, and he showcased a more versatile skill set, getting into the lane (threw done a dunk or two), more mid-range pull ups, etc. I just want Jon to do whatever helps us win, but I bet in the back of his mind people he knows that scouts are knocking his athleticism and he needs to show that he's really been hustling everyone these past 3 years

[Newton_14]

I went as well and it was quite an experience. I had always wanted to see how K ran a practice.

Much like Airowe, I will post a few thoughts..

-One correction Airowe on K's comments during the white team practicing against the zone. I was close enough to hear that.. What he said was that both Kyle and Kelly can really shoot the ball and when Kelly is in as the 2nd big they need to play to the strength's and overload the zone to free either one for the open 3..

-Kudos to momma Scheyer as she was hard on the recruiting trail chatting with Mrs. Barnes

-They worked a lot on breaking the press. A lot A lot. First with 2 guard's against 3 defenders, then add a big and 4 on 3, and then finally 5 on 5 using all the options. Quite a bit of new schemes in breaking presses no doubt with Clemson somewhere in the back of the mind...

-As with CTC, the big 3 (KS/JS/NS) all looked really good and really comfortable. It is amazing watching the difference in Nolan. He has grown up folks.. just wait and see..

-They ran numerous full court drills. One interesting one was a normal 3 man weave going down but on the way back one of the 3 retreats to defense and they go 2 on 1 back the other way...

-During one very taxing drill requiring working on catch and shoot on the break got sloppy. K blew the whistle, chewed butt, then sent them back out..

-On the freshman, Andre looks smooth and is coming along well. Kid can shoot the ball. It will be raining 3's in Cameron the next few years.. Mason scored in a variety of ways but has to learn every shot cannot be blocked.. still believe kid is a stud that will have to work through freshman big mistakes.. Kelly does not look 100% healthy to me, though could be wrong.. He has great skills especially with shooting and passing, but needs strength.

-The last 1.5 hours or so they broke into bigs and smalls with Wojo and Nate leading the bigs through lots of drills and Collins and C-Well with the smalls..

-K spent much of that time sitting with HB talking shop. Let's hope he was closing the deal!!

The one surprise to me was not one defensive drill all day. I guess that infamous Duke D strategy must be kept under wraps I guess!

If any of you have never been to a practice I would highly encourage doing so in the future.. It was definitely worth it!

Go Duke!!

[ChicagoCrazy84]

Yeah, why no Lance tonight? Is he sick or something? I didn't see any reported injuries stemming from the Blue/white game.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

Yeah, why no Lance tonight? Is he sick or something? I didn't see any reported injuries stemming from the Blue/white game.

I watched sitting next to Watzone and down from Wayne Gooch, and niether of them knew why Lance was MIA.

At one point Mrs. Harrison was playing "slap hands" with her daughter. She has VERY quick hands! I now know where Harrison gets his quicks from

[Tappan Zee Devil]

Yeah, why no Lance tonight? Is he sick or something? I didn't see any reported injuries stemming from the Blue/white game.

who knows?
Maybe he had a mid-term. It is that time of year. I gave a mid-term exam yesterday afternoon and would not have accepted "I need to go to basketball practice" as an excuse to miss it (although the attitude toward basketball at Columbia and at Duke is a little different).

Jim

[funkmeister]

Hey guys,
Here are some more thoughts (with pics and video) on Harrison's visit and the open practice.
Hopefully HB is enjoying himself this weekend. Our boys looked great today.

Link: Take the "H" Train

[airowe]

I watched sitting next to Watzone and down from Wayne Gooch, and niether of them knew why Lance was MIA.

At one point Mrs. Harrison was playing "slap hands" with her daughter. She has VERY quick hands! I now know where Harrison gets his quicks from

Ozzie, I thought that was you. I was sitting in the same row as you, about 8 seats down. Shirley Barnes certainly looked like she was enjoying herself.

Thanks for the clarification, Boozer. I'm excited about having Kyle and/or Kelly in to really punish a zone. As long as they can hold their own on defense...

[Edouble]

I remember JJ's senior year he had all kinds of people saying he couldn't do anything but shoot, yada yada, and he showcased a more versatile skill set, getting into the lane (threw done a dunk or two), more mid-range pull ups, etc.

One dunk vs. Maryland in Cameron.

[RainingThrees]

I think he also dunked against Boston College unless mine eyes deceive me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-xksArNMlY

[SilkyJ]

I think he also dunked against Boston College unless mine eyes deceive me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-xksArNMlY

thought I remembered two. like to see JJ throw one down in the pros now. just one.

[NSDukeFan]

Hey guys,
Here are some more thoughts (with pics and video) on Harrison's visit and the open practice.
Hopefully HB is enjoying himself this weekend. Our boys looked great today.

Link: Take the "H" Train

Thank you to everyone who has posted impressions from the practice. I have enjoyed your comments. I like the video here on crazie-talk. I liked seeing Ryan Kelly taking the ball out of bounds here as my impression is that he is a pretty good ball-handler for his size.

[El_Diablo]

Hey guys,
Here are some more thoughts (with pics and video) on Harrison's visit and the open practice.
Hopefully HB is enjoying himself this weekend. Our boys looked great today.

Link: Take the "H" Train

So we go to all the trouble of making signs/posters/banners/etc with the express purpose of not mentioning a recruit by name (so as to try to avoid violating NCAA regulations)...then write an entire article about how the signs are in fact specific to him, explain why, and provide photographic evidence?

Aren't these still secondary violations if they're "directed at" a recruit?

[Edouble]

I think he also dunked against Boston College unless mine eyes deceive me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-xksArNMlY

Wow. Thanks. I really don't remember that, even after watching it. I remember after the Maryland dunk JJ said something in an interview like "My knees hurt the next day, so no more dunking for me".

[Grta]

Who was player wearing number 15 at the open practice? Anyone know?

[Jim3k]

Who was player wearing number 15 at the open practice? Anyone know?

Might have been someone with a secondary jersey -- first one got torn or something.

No 15s on the published roster

[Newton_14]

Who was player wearing number 15 at the open practice? Anyone know?

He is a walkon who is a practice player/student manager only this year. May get put on the official roster next year as a walkon once "Sweaty" Johnson has graduated.