I saw an hour and a half of practice today. Most of what was done were quickness and agility drills, and work on half-court offense in terms of ball rotation and shooting the 3 against no defense.
So based on that, know that anything I’m about to say is based on very limited powers of observation. There’s no reason to go crazy, good or bad, based on much of anything here. At these things, I try to spend a lot of my time talking to people who’ve seen a lot of practices to get some sort of background information against which reports can have some meaning.
Anyway, here goes, starting with team stuff:
Hoping to hit Friday’s practice, I’ll add more then.
So based on that, know that anything I’m about to say is based on very limited powers of observation. There’s no reason to go crazy, good or bad, based on much of anything here. At these things, I try to spend a lot of my time talking to people who’ve seen a lot of practices to get some sort of background information against which reports can have some meaning.
Anyway, here goes, starting with team stuff:
- I suspect that if the season started today, they’d line up like this: PG Larry Austin, SG Riley LaChance, SF Matthew Fisher-Davis, and Jeff Roberson at either the 4 or the 5.
- The other post player is the big mystery. I suspect you are going to see a number of combinations in practice and in games until they get a clear idea on what to do. I didn’t get any sense they have a clear idea at the moment, but I hope to be there Friday to ask a little more.
- They spent part of practice working with what Bryce wants to do—four-in, one-out—and maybe a third or a fourth working around a more traditional three-out, two-in look with a high and a low post.
- They had a four-day break before practicing today, and as one observant put it early in practice, when they were missing a ton of unguarded 3s, it looked like it.
- Larry Austin is probably the quickest player on the team, and perhaps the fastest also. He was a horrible 3-point shooter as he left Xavier and while I don’t sense that anyone is expecting him to be one of the team’s better 3-point threats, I was told he’d improved a good bit within the last year. He struggled a good bit to make shots at the first of practice, and his shot looked maybe a tiny bit flat, but it got better as the day wore on. (Again, these are unguarded 3s, so take it FWIW.)
- The most impressive thing I saw today was Max Evans dunking the ball from a standing start. Someone described him to me as “a scorer.” The thing that surprised me the most is how well he’s put together physically. You could have told me he was a safety and I’d have believed you.
- Saben Lee had class today and missed most of practice, I didn’t get to see him do anything other than stretch and warm up. He and Evans have looked so similar in terms of high school film, but Evans is noticeably thicker. Evans is going to be more of a wing, while Saben projects as a point guard.
- I spent some time watching Matthew Fisher-Davis today, not necessarily as a player—I think we know what he is there—but just how dialed in he was at practice. We’ve heard he’s matured a great deal since the end of last year. I spent a lot of time watching his demeanor and body language, and he seemed very dialed in. His eyes were on the coaches at every teaching moment and his body was upright and attentive. We’ll see what happens if or when adversity hits, but it seems to be a good start.
- Riley LaChance is the same as ever. Nothing new here, but I did talk to coach Bryce Drew about him last week, and the plan is to use him as a combo guard. They were very pleased in how he handled the point last year.
- No new observations on Jeff Roberson, either. Ideally, you’d like to see him as the 4 and someone step up at the 5.
- I think Clevon Brown has a chance to start at some point this year. That could be with him at the 5 and Roberson at the 4. He shot the ball fairly well from 3 in the few times I saw it. The biggest thing of note is that I was told he’s added 20 pounds since last season.
- Joe Toye is sort of the wild card here. Again, exactly what is he, and can he find a consistent role? He’s tantalized at times for two years, and just when he seems to make a move, he has one or two of those games where he plays 17 minutes and goes 0-for-3 from the field. For whatever it’s worth, I thought he was the best shooter in today’s practice.
- Peyton Willis is the other wild card. I liked him last year and an insider I talked to at practice today really likes what he brings. But again, he’s a combo guard on a team that already has one of those in Riley LaChance, and probably has a true point guard ahead of him in Larry Austin. I’m anxious to see if he gets some minutes at the point in practices where they actually run offense-defense.
- I wasn’t able to make a lot of meaningful observations on Ejike Obinna, either, except that he’s a physically-imposing kid. I did watch he and D’jery Baptiste run back to back in terms of agility drills, and it’s clear that Obinna is much more fluid and agile. They had hoped to redshirt him but I was told today that probably won’t happen. I did see him come down on a drill today after running the length of the floor, stop, and pop a smooth 17-foot jumper.
- Speaking of D’jery Baptiste, it’s far too premature to say with any degree of certainty, but I can see a scenario where he’s the odd man out. Brown has the flexibility to do more things (a big one, shooting the 3, which Baptiste isn’t going to do) and can play a couple of spots potentially. Obinna already has a better jumper and is more athletic. Reading between the lines, if they want to redshirt Obinna but they’re not going to, that tells me it’s perhaps one of two things: 1) A concern with only having 11 scholarship players due to two redshirts, or 2) It says something about their confidence level in Baptiste. Again, that’s where I want to hit some more practices and see more.
- Transfer forward Matt Ryan was recruited to be a shooter, and that’ll be his role next year. I was told he was very impressive in that regard in their last full practice last week.
- I want to see more of transfer forward Yanni Wetzell to know what they have here. First impressions: he shoots the ball well and he’s got fairly decent lateral movement for a big guy. (The latter shouldn’t be surprising, since he was a world-class tennis player.) They list him at 235 and he’s not a skinny big; he’s got pretty decent bulk to him.
- Freshman walk-on guard Isaiah Rice is on the team, but don’t expect anything meaningful this year. This staff doesn’t involve their walk-ons heavily in practice the way the last staff did—Stallings gave those guys reps and coaching almost as if they were scholarship players, but this staff doesn’t involve them heavily and doesn’t give them a lot of reps in scrimmage conditions. I didn’t see enough of him to know what his attributes might be.
Hoping to hit Friday’s practice, I’ll add more then.
