first UCLA exhibition game is tonight!!! granted Cal Baptist should prove to be no match for my Bruins but its always fun to go to a college basketball game. The atmosphere at an average college ball game >>>>>> atmosphere at an average nba game. pumped to go tonight curious to see how the new kids are going to play
UK starts tonight too... against Missouri-St. Louis! Should be fun to finally see a healthy team on the court for UK. Not to mention mostly guys that Billy Clyde recruited. Happiness is basketball season!
Billy Clyde recruits 3 star recruits nobody has ever heard of. Like Deron Williams. He finds Bob Sura reincarnates on the intramural courts, like Chris Walker. He turns guys that nearly quit the basketball team into the best college PG in the nation.
He's already talking about two of the walk ons getting PT. One is from a school here in NKy. The other from Paintsville... the home of John Pelphrey. I am excited to see what they put on the court. Should be a good time.
I am gearing up myself. I am planning on going to as many games as financially possible to scout players. So far, I am booked for UCLA vs. Texas, OU vs. Rice, and Memphis vs. SMU. More games will be added when I have more time. I plan to go to mainly local games (within Texas/surrounding area) since I can drive or hop a short flight. The real deal starts on the 9th or 10th I think with a Duke game. It's coming fast!
Duke begins on the 10th against Presbyterian, but their first good game isn't until December 2nd against Purdue which is supposed to be right up there in the Big East with Louisville and Pitt. Duke usually gets off to a crazy start before conference play brings them back to earth; they should be even faster this year with Nolan Smith starting over Paulus, and better defensively to boot. It could be a surprising year. UNC is the prohibitive favorite, but someone brought up a great point to me: how much NBA talent does UNC really have? Hansborough projects as a good role player, but Lawson's and Ellington's stocks have taken a tumble since last year, and honestly there isn't a person on that squad with a chance to be a star. There are many teams out there imo with higher ceiling NBA players, and usually that bodes well for them come March. Another good thing about this year is that the freshman class isn't as highly touted as usual, so that means the upperclassmen and good freshmen from last year that stayed should have the run of things.
Well, it's not very often recently that I have felt sorry for an exhibition team coming into Rupp. We completely annihilated Missouri St Louis. Those poor kids worked really hard and we were just so much more athletic and taller than they were. 111-51 final score. There was a lot of good to take away from it though. If Patrick Patterson stays healthy all year, he will likely be a top 10 draft pick. Just depends on how far we go this year. The kid is a beast of a player and works hard on every possession. He and his fro should have a great year. Yoyo, how did UCLA do?
pounded up on cal baptist 86-58 but the game wasnt even that close really the most intriguing part of the game was late in the second half when howland went and put in our "fab 5" the crowd got the loudest at that point. old guys: collison looks just as good from last year, shipp still is pretty solid shooting the rock (wish he drove more though), roll was well michael roll (and I cant stand him) aboya still his foul prone self, Keefe has bulked up and was rebounding solidly but his offense is still lacking imo...Dragovic came off the bench and looked more confident and hit a bunch of 3s, he just needs to catch and shoot last year he would hesitate every time he got the ball freshman: Holiday was awesome his game is soo fluid and his court awareness is impressive. there was one play where he caught a rebound, turned in midair and threw an outlet pass to collison just beyond half court all in one jump/motion. his anticipation on defense is great too. I mean he is everything Russell Westbrook was for this team last year in terms of offense and defense plus more. He is quicker than Russell (but not as strong, but he may get stronger as he gets older) but the most important thing is that UCLA finally has a player since Baron Davis who can beat his mean off the dribble and create his own shot in a half court setting. Russell was crazy in a open court set or with a head of steam but once in a half court he wasnt nearly as good. Gordon was impressive too I think Howland will like him a lot, very active on defense, got his hands on a lot of ball out on the perimeter when he was harassing on the traps howland loves to run with his big. had like 2-3 steals too. offensively had some decent moves inside, didnt get too many touches. Morgan our big steal from LSU look, well quite simply..really bad. He had one great play where he blocked a shot by pinning the ball to the backboard with two hands. other than that he was just plodding up and down the court. slow lateral quickness/movement and didnt get up and down the court fast enough. he is a big kid and i am sure howland is going to get on his case to have him lose weight and quick. I am not sure how much work he may have put into the summer with all the transfer issues. Lee still isnt 100% didnt play too much he looked not too bad i cant really pass judgement on him just yet. Anderson was primary backup pg since lee was not 100% he did ok running the show but commited some TOs and his defense is certainly below collison and holiday. he was able to get to the rim pretty consistently which is a good sign. overall the program looks to be in good shape, we are losing shipp, collison, aboya this year but anderson, lee look to be good replacements, holiday great if he remains more than one year. biggest issue will be an inside scoring threat, the vets, keefe and aboya arent threats to score in the post. Morgan and Gordon are but how far they will come along in knowing the defensive scheme howland wants to run will determine their PT. Both are very talented but not as talented as a Kevin Love or Holiday to walk-into a starting role regardless if they know the system or not. if gordon and morgan can shape up by seasons end we may be able to make our fourth straight final four
First game of the college basketball season is Monday at 3 PM when UH takes on Georgia Southern. Tom Penders is a great guy.
I am not down with Penders. UH needs to shell out 3 million and get someone like Van Gundy to coach and concentrate on bringing in some local talent with the promise of prepping them for the NBA. UH could be relevant in basketball so easily.
If it were so easy for UH to be competitive in this way, they would have done it already. Clyde freaking Drexler couldn't even recruit well there. My Dad went to UH. I went to law school at UH. They are my second favorite college team (the Ags being first, of course). UH is going to need to slowly build up the program...get good in the conference...then become dominant in conference...then start winning games in March.
ROFL UCLA struggles to beat Miami (OH) 64-59 I'm not even worried about the Texas/UCLA game. Now it's a matter of how many points UT will win by. Speaking of Texas, our opener is tonight vs Stetson.
Drexler spent 8 minutes tops trying to recruit. I am not sure if Penders is pursuing the local talent like he should. Scared they might get into trouble I assume.
UCLA will struggle this year at times when they play experienced, good teams. Miami (OH) is an example. Unlike the game against Northeaster, UCLA had at least two upperclassmen on the floor at all times. Playing so many freshman will have it's ups and downs. Right now, it's more down. As a result, Collison, Shipp, Roll, Aboya, Keef, etc. will log heavy minutes. Unfortunately, Gordon and Morgan will have to play in certain situations because Aboya is VERY foul prone. UCLA vs. Michigan is going to be a nice match up - especially the player match up of Manny Harris (So./SG/Mich.) vs. either Josh Shipp or the true frosh, Jrue Holiday. Simms for Michigan could be a problem for UCLA, since he will probably go against Keefe or whomever doesn't take Harris. Simms could also end up with Dragovic for UCLA since he returned to the lineup last night after sitting out after his recent arrest. Either way, whomever guards him will either have a height or athleticism disadvantage against Simms.
