MBB report?

[farmcats]

Haven’t read any thing on how the MBB team is doing. Has any one been to a practice? If so how do they look.

[longhorn_22]

I went to part of the practice last Sunday. For being relatively all new players, they looked pretty good. They need to put a lot of work in, but so far so good. I just watched the forwards and their drills and I thought they looked great. Some of the newer guys need to get their footwork down and their positioning (mainly Derochowski). I liked the play of Ted Morris and Adrian Zamora. I think Zamora is going to be a great player here. I thought Danny Piepoli had a very nice stroke and shot, but he, like all the new players, need to get the system down. I thought it was a nice, up-tempo practice and I think we will all be surprised by how well we play this year.

[Swilly3224]

I went to part of the practice last Sunday. For being relatively all new players, they looked pretty good. They need to put a lot of work in, but so far so good. I just watched the forwards and their drills and I thought they looked great. Some of the newer guys need to get their footwork down and their positioning (mainly Derochowski). I liked the play of Ted Morris and Adrian Zamora. I think Zamora is going to be a great player here. I thought Danny Piepoli had a very nice stroke and shot, but he, like all the new players, need to get the system down. I thought it was a nice, up-tempo practice and I think we will all be surprised by how well we play this year.

are you predicting a deep run into the big sky conference tournament?

[mslacat]

*************** Mslacat has gone off the deep end alert ***************

I was at the first practice on Friday Oct. 13th. It started at 7:00 pm and I hung around for about an hour and 45 minutes, I had to get back to Missoula that night. The practice was a very utilitarian practice. They were basically running a wide variety of drills. No scrimmages or any first practice fluff. Now first of all I want to say A LOT is going to change as the players get further into the preseason practices. Also I did not get a chance to watch all the players in detail so most of the observations are based on who/what caught my eye. Please take everything I write with a grain of salt.

Huse: I like his style on the practice court. He can jump on a kid very vocally to get their attention when they are not performing correctly and then once he has the opportunity he switches to teacher mode and work with them to correct the mistake. He is very demanding but not over bearing. It is very interesting to watch him switch gear.

Returnees: There is a lot of leader ship in the four returnees.
Durr showed the most leader ship out there. He looks in great shape, was hustling his but off, and very vocal on the floor especially with the freshman. I was impressed how he would quarter back from the floor, it was really helping the younger kids get to their spots.

Durham was running his butt off. He was most likely the most intense of all the player, He did not like to lose a drill. 3 on 3, or individual drills he did not like coming up on the wrong end.

Dissly is going to do it to me again. I really started out with the intent of watching other players, but you could not help but be drawn to Dissly play. I do not think he said a word the whole practice, but you just noticed his teams won their drills. If they needed a steal, rebound or shot made it just seemed to be Dissly was there. I think I am going to accept that Dissly will not be an 18 point a game guy, but he does so many other things on the floor. He was the best over all players I saw.

Morris, take a little bit of Durr's hustle, Durham’s intercity, and Dissly's ability to get things done and that was him. He really looked like a quiet leader on the court. He also seems to be especially mentoring Derochowski.

Freshmen: When it came to skills they more than held there own against the older players. They need experience though.

Derochowski is one player I cam to watch, and I think we have a good one in him. Offensively he really squares up nicely, ad gets his shot off. I expect him to really draw some fouls through out his career. His shot is also feather soft so it does not clang off the rim if missed. He has good range out to about fifteen. I would though like to see him get his shot off a little quicker, but that should come. He is really solid, you can tell he has been hitting the weights the last. The only player that could not push around under the basket was Morris. He does, though, need to work on his conditioning. He really started to fade a little late in the practice. His conditioning will be the major factor in determining his minutes.

B. Johnson was the opposite of Derochowski in the fact he got better as the night wore on. Johnson looked very unsure of him self early on but after about an hour was hitting his stride. The kid a legitimate 3 point threat, but he also has a nice mid range game, and then just before I left he got the ball behind the back board a he backed his way under the basket and lay it in with Morris and Durr all over his back. The best post move I saw.

Rush Played best of all the freshman, there are others with possible bigger up side but he was solid at the point and wing. Huse really seemed to be taking a strong interest in Rush. Rush made very few mistakes, but Huse really seemed to working at the finer points of his game and not working on the basics. Based on what I saw I see a lot of minutes for rush.

Piepoli was a surprise. For some reason I thought he was afro-American.... He is not . I did not watch him that close but he looks like a gem. Out standing range, very athletic he is going to be a major scorer for us.

Malloy got the short end of the Stick I really did not get to see him much, but I can tell you he is very athletic, and was making shots with Huse grabbing his arm and jersey.

The JC’s a solid group.

Schultz was on the side line with crutches and is out for the year.

Taylor Was also injured but was running riding the bike and participated as a passer at times. I do not think he can cut on his ankle right now.

Mecklen was the other leader on the court. Very vocal, was hustling off his butt has good ball skills and nice shot. Could be our starting point.

Zamora was clearly next to Morris our best big man. He is thin but really moves well with out the ball nice shot out to 3 point land, and looked VERY comfortable with in the system. Could be a decent scorer for us this year. Much like Dissly he is very quite on the floor but he seems to sneak around the corner get the pass and put up the shot real quickly.

Again this was one practice and the very first practice at that. Huse said at one point they were going till mid night and expected to get in 20 hours of practice that week end. I don't know how much he was joking or not but as lot has happened even since then.

In my opinion clearly the front line starters will be Dissly, Zamora, and Morris. I am pretty sure Mecklen will start at one of the Guards spots, and then it is a big fight for the remaining guard spot. 4-5 guys’ could be in contention for that final spot.

Or I could have the whole thing wrong.....

[longhorn_22]

I went to part of the practice last Sunday. For being relatively all new players, they looked pretty good. They need to put a lot of work in, but so far so good. I just watched the forwards and their drills and I thought they looked great. Some of the newer guys need to get their footwork down and their positioning (mainly Derochowski). I liked the play of Ted Morris and Adrian Zamora. I think Zamora is going to be a great player here. I thought Danny Piepoli had a very nice stroke and shot, but he, like all the new players, need to get the system down. I thought it was a nice, up-tempo practice and I think we will all be surprised by how well we play this year.

are you predicting a deep run into the big sky conference tournament?

No.

[longhorn_22]

Thanks mslacat for the info. If I can find the time to get to an entire practice, I'd like to get a better update for everyone. But until then, hats off to you.