Practice at Ft. Bragg 10/15

[roywhite]

On right now....ESPN 3 and ESPN-U
(1:00 PM to 2:30 PM Eastern time Monday 10/15)

[Native]

Sheed is absolutely moving at light speed around this practice. Game Speed Sheed!

And I really wish we had Hood this year. Kid can really play.

[Edouble]

Thank you for the reminder.

For those that can't watch:

The White Team (starters) are the 5 guys that have been discussed as starters in various threads on this board: Alex, Seth, Mason, Ryan, and Quinn. The day started with some stretching and an interview with Coach K, who said that last year's team didn't have a "bad attitude", but did not have the "right attitude". Some full court offensive drills were run, for about five minutes, with a lot of Mason dunking the ball to finish. The White Team and Blue Team are now on opposite ends of the court, running five on zero, as Coach K put it, offensive drills.

[roywhite]

#12 with the shaggy hair!.....it's like Kyle never left. :)

Go, Alex!

[Edouble]

Thank you for the reminder.

For those that can't watch:

The White Team (starters) are the 5 guys that have been discussed as starters in various threads on this board: Alex, Seth, Mason, Ryan, and Quinn. The day started with some stretching and an interview with Coach K, who said that last year's team didn't have a "bad attitude", but did not have the "right attitude". Some full court offensive drills were run, for about five minutes, with a lot of Mason dunking the ball to finish. The White Team and Blue Team are now on opposite ends of the court, running five on zero, as Coach K put it, offensive drills.

Err, make that Rasheed, not Seth. I got ahead of myself.

[Native]

Err, make that Rasheed, not Seth. I got ahead of myself.

I read on watzone's Twitter that Seth started out practicing but was sidelined by his injury. So you're not entirely wrong! :D

Love how our freshmen look.

[Kedsy]

Err, make that Rasheed, not Seth. I got ahead of myself.

Seth started on the white team in the non-contact drills, but then sat down due to a leg injury and Rasheed took his place (suggesting Rasheed will be first off our bench).

[dcar1985]

Seth started on the white team in the non-contact drills, but then sat down due to a leg injury and Rasheed took his place (suggesting Rasheed will be first off our bench).

Or it could be that he's the only other 2 guard on the team lol...I do think Rasheed will probably be 1st off the bench though

[timmy c]

For those of you who missed it, they are showing a replay on espn3. http://espn.go.com/watchespn/player/_/source/espn3/id/655774/

[subzero02]

Or it could be that he's the only other 2 guard on the team lol...I do think Rasheed will probably be 1st off the bench though

Don't sleep on Tyler.... it'll be nice having him and Rasheed as defensive stoppers/intensity boosters to come off the bench. I think they could cause real trouble in the halfcourt.

[mo.st.dukie]

Don't sleep on Tyler.... it'll be nice having him and Rasheed as defensive stoppers/intensity boosters to come off the bench. I think they could cause real trouble in the halfcourt.

And they are interchangeable, they can both guard either the 1 or the 2 (K mentioned this in his press conference)

[MCFinARL]

#12 with the shaggy hair!.....it's like Kyle never left. :)

Go, Alex!

So does that mean Alex will get a weirder hair cut every year, or isn't he going to channel Kyle that far? ;)

[OZZIE4DUKE]

So does that mean Alex will get a weirder hair cut every year, or isn't he going to channel Kyle that far? ;)

As long as Alex channels Kyle's performance and effort every time out, I don't care what his hair looks like! :cool:

[TruBlu]

First time I've been able to watch a practice after many, many years of attending games. (I'm sure that this was a bit 'tamer' than a normal practice).

Some things that got my attention:

During his interview, Nate said that we do not have a "breakdown" guy this year that we could just hand the ball off to, and expect him to breakdown the defense individually. Instead, we were going to be more active with our motion/passing. Good to hear.

During a water break, Mason was the first player back out on the court . . . shooting free throws.

[BD80]

... During a water break, Mason was the first player back out on the court . . . shooting free throws.

Were our troops ever in harm's way?

[mo.st.dukie]

During his interview, Nate said that we do not have a "breakdown" guy this year that we could just hand the ball off to, and expect him to breakdown the defense individually. Instead, we were going to be more active with our motion/passing. Good to hear.
.


Yep, and Coach K said similar things in his press conference the other day. It's probably going to be a much different look and offensive style than what we are used to seeing.

It's tough to really take too much away from the practice, mainly because of how practices are structured (lots of stoppages to allow for instruction and focus on very specific details of plays) and also because this was a unique practice situation. It looks like it was a great experience for the team though.

[Billy Dat]

I love any kind of all access coverage of the team, and this 90 minute session did not dissapoint.


Sheed is absolutely moving at light speed around this practice. Game Speed Sheed!
And I really wish we had Hood this year. Kid can really play.

-I think Native hits some key points here because I was very interested in watching the new guys for the first time. Let's me first get the "coulda shoulda woulda" out of the way by fully endorsing Native's comments about Rodney Hood. In a very brief sample size, the kid looks like the most offensively dynamic player on the court. When he got the ball, in scrimmage situations, he seemed to get to the rim at will. There was one play where he drove, was well defended, got a shot up over a few long arms, grabbed the rebound and laid it in basically before the defenders had a chance to land. He is long, smooth and aggressive. If he were available, I imagine that he'd be starting.

-Sheed also looks very good. He was hitting a variety of shots, including some smooth looking 3s, and just looks like a guy who should be able to really help us this year. It's too bad Curry is hurt because it would have been nice to see them square off.

-Murphy does look Singler-esque with his flowing locks, but he doesn't figure to be the bruiser that Kyle was. He was active, looks strong, seemed aggressive. In the 5 on 0 drills, he seemed to be playing at the right pace, waiting for screens before making his cuts, helping preserve the timing needed to run effective motion, etc.

-Amile looks like a guy that can be a really disruptive presence, he's got that Stacey Augmon plastic man physique...long limbs, quick and covering a lot of ground. Plus, he seemed comfortable being vocal during practice, something sure to win him points with the staff.

-I am having a hard time viewing Quinn objectively. A great point guard is so important to this year's team that I feel like I keep viewing him as a glass half empty - he's too small, doesn't shoot/defend well enough, etc. These are irrational thoughts that I am attempting to ignore (then don't type them!). He looked good running some of the sets that they were working on, such as "angle" which was the top of the key big man screen that gives the PG freedom to penetrate, lob, hit the wing 3. K was commenting on Quinn's effective hesitation speed dribble in that scenario and that the wings need to be ready, "shooting foot cocked and hands up" ready to catch and shoot.

-Like the Team USA practices they showed this summer, I am constantly entertained by the fact that K starts nearly ever sentence during drills with "Yo!" He must say "Yo!" one hundreds times per practice. He addressed the ~100-200 troops throughout the practice, and at one point said, (paraphrase) "We're going to get some of you involved in our shooting drills, so aside from flapping your gums, we'll see if any of you has the balls to take some shots" Classic boisterous K...I love those kind of peeks into his true sense of humor and bawdiness. Don't get the wrong idea, he was having fun and effusively thanked and praised the troops throughout the practice.

-It is always instructive to watch them run through their sets and quick hitters because it's easy to assume that the motion offense is "just throw out the balls" but K stops practice constantly to instruct on the 5+ options available in any situation. They ran through the aforementioned "angle" and also other sets such as "elbow down" and it was great to see how much depends on not rushing, being in the right place, setting screens in the right place at the right time, and the players having the patience to let all of it develop so that the best opportunity presents itself. It all underscores how important a player like Shane was/is, its guys like that, who understand the timing and spacing, that ensure an offense operates smoothly and guys get open shots. K stops practice, it seems, every minute to instruct, which makes sense because this was just day 3, and he's very direct and blunt.

-Another cool revelation, on out of bounds plays, the inbounder is supposed to look at K before inbounding because we frequently call audibles based on the defense. I guess we all kind of knew that based on the "special" call in the regional final against UConn in '88, but I didn't realize it was institutionalized. The host asked Jimmy Dykes if that was a common practice in college hoops and Dykes' quick answer was, "The best programs do it"

-I know I haven't really talked about defense, but they did do some great defensive drills where Wojo operates as the point guards and the wing defenders need to deny the ball and the big basically zoom around the paint as the ball moves. When the wing makes a steal, the action doesn't stop, it just goes back to Wojo who sometimes penetrates, and sometimes just rolls the ball to the side and the nearest guys need to dive in it. It's pretty intense.

-As for our returning bread and butter, Mase and Ryan, they looked good. It's a real loss that Marshall is out for weeks because Todd Z just doesn't provide that much of a challenge in practice.

[BlueBloodedDevil]

Anyone else catch that put back dunk? Not sure when it was during the practice (maybe midway through) and someone grabbed a rebound and threw it down! I had to rewind it as the camera shot was at a wide angle, and to my surprise, it was #14... Sheed! Playing above the rim. Can't wait :)

[DukieInKansas]

One of my favorite moments of the practice was when the team stopped stretching to stand and applaud the service men and women entering the gym.

The other was the women who made the basket on the inbound play when they ran it the second time - and most of the team came over to give her high fives.

Can't wait for the game in Atlanta!

[NM Duke Fan]

I love any kind of all access coverage of the team, and this 90 minute session did not dissapoint.



-I think Native hits some key points here because I was very interested in watching the new guys for the first time. Let's me first get the "coulda shoulda woulda" out of the way by fully endorsing Native's comments about Rodney Hood. In a very brief sample size, the kid looks like the most offensively dynamic player on the court. When he got the ball, in scrimmage situations, he seemed to get to the rim at will. There was one play where he drove, was well defended, got a shot up over a few long arms, grabbed the rebound and laid it in basically before the defenders had a chance to land. He is long, smooth and aggressive. If he were available, I imagine that he'd be starting.

-Sheed also looks very good. He was hitting a variety of shots, including some smooth looking 3s, and just looks like a guy who should be able to really help us this year. It's too bad Curry is hurt because it would have been nice to see them square off.

-Murphy does look Singler-esque with his flowing locks, but he doesn't figure to be the bruiser that Kyle was. He was active, looks strong, seemed aggressive. In the 5 on 0 drills, he seemed to be playing at the right pace, waiting for screens before making his cuts, helping preserve the timing needed to run effective motion, etc.

-Amile looks like a guy that can be a really disruptive presence, he's got that Stacey Augmon plastic man physique...long limbs, quick and covering a lot of ground. Plus, he seemed comfortable being vocal during practice, something sure to win him points with the staff.

-I am having a hard time viewing Quinn objectively. A great point guard is so important to this year's team that I feel like I keep viewing him as a glass half empty - he's too small, doesn't shoot/defend well enough, etc. These are irrational thoughts that I am attempting to ignore (then don't type them!). He looked good running some of the sets that they were working on, such as "angle" which was the top of the key big man screen that gives the PG freedom to penetrate, lob, hit the wing 3. K was commenting on Quinn's effective hesitation speed dribble in that scenario and that the wings need to be ready, "shooting foot cocked and hands up" ready to catch and shoot.

-Like the Team USA practices they showed this summer, I am constantly entertained by the fact that K starts nearly ever sentence during drills with "Yo!" He must say "Yo!" one hundreds times per practice. He addressed the ~100-200 troops throughout the practice, and at one point said, (paraphrase) "We're going to get some of you involved in our shooting drills, so aside from flapping your gums, we'll see if any of you has the balls to take some shots" Classic boisterous K...I love those kind of peeks into his true sense of humor and bawdiness. Don't get the wrong idea, he was having fun and effusively thanked and praised the troops throughout the practice.

-It is always instructive to watch them run through their sets and quick hitters because it's easy to assume that the motion offense is "just throw out the balls" but K stops practice constantly to instruct on the 5+ options available in any situation. They ran through the aforementioned "angle" and also other sets such as "elbow down" and it was great to see how much depends on not rushing, being in the right place, setting screens in the right place at the right time, and the players having the patience to let all of it develop so that the best opportunity presents itself. It all underscores how important a player like Shane was/is, its guys like that, who understand the timing and spacing, that ensure an offense operates smoothly and guys get open shots. K stops practice, it seems, every minute to instruct, which makes sense because this was just day 3, and he's very direct and blunt.

-Another cool revelation, on out of bounds plays, the inbounder is supposed to look at K before inbounding because we frequently call audibles based on the defense. I guess we all kind of knew that based on the "special" call in the regional final against UConn in '88, but I didn't realize it was institutionalized. The host asked Jimmy Dykes if that was a common practice in college hoops and Dykes' quick answer was, "The best programs do it"

-I know I haven't really talked about defense, but they did do some great defensive drills where Wojo operates as the point guards and the wing defenders need to deny the ball and the big basically zoom around the paint as the ball moves. When the wing makes a steal, the action doesn't stop, it just goes back to Wojo who sometimes penetrates, and sometimes just rolls the ball to the side and the nearest guys need to dive in it. It's pretty intense.

-As for our returning bread and butter, Mase and Ryan, they looked good. It's a real loss that Marshall is out for weeks because Todd Z just doesn't provide that much of a challenge in practice.

Thanks Billy for this great write-up, the details you provided painted a much fuller picture for me, and it was almost like I had been able to be there myself. The report on Rasheed was especially good to hear.