Open Practice

[94Warrior]

For those that have seen him play recently, who does Sacar compare to?  JJJ?  JFB?  Wes?

Think Trevon Bluiet and Jerel McNeal in a blender.  Junk yard dog.

[fjm]

It was great to be at tonight but I am going to be the minority here. Froiling looked clumsy and almost like he hasn't grown into his body yet. Will he be solid? absolutely, but tonight he just looked out of sorts maybe?

Otherwise everyone looked great.

[tower912]

The scouting report from Dodds is remarkably similar.      Sacar has made great strides.    Excellent.   Sam has filled out and doesn't like scrawny nest to Froling.   Wojo is emphasizing technique and communication on defense.    Apparently, he is simplifying it, too.    Hearing about the ankle rolls from Howard and Rowsey..... shudder....    Elliot is going to have to be ready.    Also, Haanif is going to have to work his way back into the rotation once he is cleared for contackt. 

[warriorchick]

Ur attempt at political satire is embarrassingly poor.
 U should probably move to Illinois where they are much better at running state finances.

432

Ur attempt at political satire is embarrassingly poor.
 U should probably move to Illinois where they are much better at running state finances.

I already live there. And as we speak,  Rahm Emmanuel is putting on a similar dog and pony show for Jeff Bezos.

[YoungMUFan4]

Anyone else on board with Trent Lockett as a comp for Anim?

[mu03eng]

Even Wojo said the same thing, but it is remarkable how much more useful this open practice is versus things like madness. Quite frankly, I love the open practice and if you're on the fence for season tickets, being able to go to the open practice should put you over the top.

Sequence of events(this was the second practice of the day FYI):
-warm-ups with guards at one end and bigs at the other playing one on one and light drills. (Sacar, Cain were with the guards)
-after warm-ups it was time for defensive drills. First was around managing the baseline defense (wing-center-wing responsibility hand-offs) against ball movement, Second drill was PnR defense (Froling struggled here which is....not good)
-All drills start with the defensive team players linking hands in the lane trying to drive home the need to run to the lane then out to your defensive assignments
-After a few more drills, they moved to a scrimmage format for the rest of the practice with positioning or fundemental screw ups resulting in sprints (at one point it started to look like the scene from Miracle where Brooks makes them skate suicides until they turn off the lights and Eruzioni finally realizes it's the name on the front, but I digress)
-At one point during the scrimmage Wojo was so pissed at the team he took them off the court and out of sight/earshot in the tunnel....I was very worried for whiteboards in the area
-Closed out the practice with half court shots from kids and a player of their choice to win Bucks-Cavs tickets. Wowsey went first and rimmed the ball at least twice before falling out. Sam banked it in as part of the second player-kid paring. I was curious how long it was going to take these kids to pick Heldtasauraus Rex, king of the half court shot. Now we'll never know.


Here are my random and not so random thoughts from the practice:
-Sacar will be a top 6 contributor this season. He looked most polished of all of the off ball/swing guards especially on the defensive end.
-Sacar will give us more defense than offense, but that's not a bad thing. Think Duane of last year or junior year JFB.
-Seriously, Sacar is going to be good.
-Haanif is clearly not cleared for contact yet, but I think he'll be better this season. In warm-ups he was doing a lot of driving to the right and looked smooth. Hard to say without the scrimmage but I think he put in good work in the off season.
-Morrow is a dude and I wish he was eligible this season
-Theo John will be a dude, but I'm a little worried about what level he can contribute at this season. Physically he's there but as with all freshmen, especially front court types, the mental part (positioning, focus, little mistakes) will be a concern. Stan was seemingly assigned as Theo's personal coach, don't think I heard 30 seconds go by in the scrimmage without Stan yelling at Theo and/or stopping the scrimmage to make the team run sprints
-Froling is in good shape and can move on the floor/keep up with the break. However, his fundamentals are not great, especially on defense. There is time to clean it up but I don't think he's going to make an immediate impact once he's eligible. Hope I'm wrong.
-Hauser was on the bike during warm-ups so I thought he might be injured, but he played almost the full scrimmage so not sure what that was about.
-Cain is going to get minutes as a rebounder and defender. Very active on the boards and wouldn't be surprised if he was competing for team lead in offensive rebounding.
-At one point, Wojo was talking to the crowd about the need for better defense and said something to the effect of "To be honest, the returning players we have didn't play good defense and the with the new players it's a whole new defensive concept, so we have work to do". But he said it in a positive way for what that's worth.
-Even with the mic turned off, at one point during the scrimmage we got several utterances in rapid succession from Wojo that were audible to everyone in attendance including gems like "man, our frickin point guards are killing us right now" and "GOD DAMNIT". Shortly afterwards, the team was escorted to the tunnel for a "talk".
-Wojo singled out Sacar as one of the most consistent players so far this season and heaped praise on him for all the hard work last season....seriously, he's gonna be good.
-Not sure Elliot is going to contribute early, looks tentative. I think he gets there by the end of the season, but other the Ike seems the least likely new player to contribute at this point.
-Place got super quiet when Markus went down with a knee or ankle injury that took a couple of minutes to get up and had him not putting any weight on the leg (later came back and played so I'm guessing he's good)
-Got almost as quiet when Wowsey turned an ankle as well and took a minute to get back up
-Wojo talked about this type of practice (under the lights and in front of people) good for the guys to figure out how to play in that type of environment. Guards really showed up trying to do more than they should (other than Sacar, who is going to be good, have I mentioned this yet?)

Overall, I'm really excited for this season. The guards/wings are going to be great(exceeded my expectations going in) and the 4s will be fine(met my expectations going in) and the 5 spot is worrisome(came in under my expectations). It's a single snap shot but I think we're in a good place, but the non-conference season will be a bit of a roller coaster.

It's good to have #MUBB back.

*edit: adding shameless plug for Scrambled Eggs podcast that will be rolling out likely Sunday evening. We're going to talk Open Practice, Madness, schedule predictions, odds and ends, and some dude named Drimes or Mimes or Grimes...something like that.

[Hards Alumni]

Even Wojo said the same thing, but it is remarkable how much more useful this open practice is versus things like madness. Quite frankly, I love the open practice and if you're on the fence for season tickets, being able to go to the open practice should put you over the top.

Sequence of events(this was the second practice of the day FYI):
-warm-ups with guards at one end and bigs at the other playing one on one and light drills. (Sacar, Cain were with the guards)
-after warm-ups it was time for defensive drills. First was around managing the baseline defense (wing-center-wing responsibility hand-offs) against ball movement, Second drill was PnR defense (Froling struggled here which is....not good)
-All drills start with the defensive team players linking hands in the lane trying to drive home the need to run to the lane then out to your defensive assignments
-After a few more drills, they moved to a scrimmage format for the rest of the practice with positioning or fundemental screw ups resulting in sprints (at one point it started to look like the scene from Miracle where Brooks makes them skate suicides until they turn off the lights and Eruzioni finally realizes it's the name on the front, but I digress)
-At one point during the scrimmage Wojo was so pissed at the team he took them off the court and out of sight/earshot in the tunnel....I was very worried for whiteboards in the area
-Closed out the practice with half court shots from kids and a player of their choice to win Bucks-Cavs tickets. Wowsey went first and rimmed the ball at least twice before falling out. Sam banked it in as part of the second player-kid paring. I was curious how long it was going to take these kids to pick Heldtasauraus Rex, king of the half court shot. Now we'll never know.


Here are my random and not so random thoughts from the practice:
-Sacar will be a top 6 contributor this season. He looked most polished of all of the off ball/swing guards especially on the defensive end.
-Sacar will give us more defense than offense, but that's not a bad thing. Think Duane of last year or junior year JFB.
-Seriously, Sacar is going to be good.
-Haanif is clearly not cleared for contact yet, but I think he'll be better this season. In warm-ups he was doing a lot of driving to the right and looked smooth. Hard to say without the scrimmage but I think he put in good work in the off season.
-Morrow is a dude and I wish he was eligible this season
-Theo John will be a dude, but I'm a little worried about what level he can contribute at this season. Physically he's there but as with all freshmen, especially front court types, the mental part (positioning, focus, little mistakes) will be a concern. Stan was seemingly assigned as Theo's personal coach, don't think I heard 30 seconds go by in the scrimmage without Stan yelling at Theo and/or stopping the scrimmage to make the team run sprints
-Froling is in good shape and can move on the floor/keep up with the break. However, his fundamentals are not great, especially on defense. There is time to clean it up but I don't think he's going to make an immediate impact once he's eligible. Hope I'm wrong.
-Hauser was on the bike during warm-ups so I thought he might be injured, but he played almost the full scrimmage so not sure what that was about.
-Cain is going to get minutes as a rebounder and defender. Very active on the boards and wouldn't be surprised if he was competing for team lead in offensive rebounding.
-At one point, Wojo was talking to the crowd about the need for better defense and said something to the effect of "To be honest, the returning players we have didn't play good defense and the with the new players it's a whole new defensive concept, so we have work to do". But he said it in a positive way for what that's worth.
-Even with the mic turned off, at one point during the scrimmage we got several utterances in rapid succession from Wojo that were audible to everyone in attendance including gems like "man, our frickin point guards are killing us right now" and "GOD DAMNIT". Shortly afterwards, the team was escorted to the tunnel for a "talk".
-Wojo singled out Sacar as one of the most consistent players so far this season and heaped praise on him for all the hard work last season....seriously, he's gonna be good.
-Not sure Elliot is going to contribute early, looks tentative. I think he gets there by the end of the season, but other the Ike seems the least likely new player to contribute at this point.
-Place got super quiet when Markus went down with a knee or ankle injury that took a couple of minutes to get up and had him not putting any weight on the leg (later came back and played so I'm guessing he's good)
-Got almost as quiet when Wowsey turned an ankle as well and took a minute to get back up
-Wojo talked about this type of practice (under the lights and in front of people) good for the guys to figure out how to play in that type of environment. Guards really showed up trying to do more than they should (other than Sacar, who is going to be good, have I mentioned this yet?)

Overall, I'm really excited for this season. The guards/wings are going to be great(exceeded my expectations going in) and the 4s will be fine(met my expectations going in) and the 5 spot is worrisome(came in under my expectations). It's a single snap shot but I think we're in a good place, but the non-conference season will be a bit of a roller coaster.

It's good to have #MUBB back.

thanks!

[Nukem2]

Anyone else on board with Trent Lockett as a comp for Anim?

Anim is more athletic, but not a bad comparison.

[Vander Blue Man Group]

Great to hear consistent praise about Sacar from all of the attendees. Sounds like he can be an x-factor, which could be huge for a likely bubble team.

Was hoping to hear more positives about Froling so hopefully the next two months of practice are really useful for him before he becomes eligible.

[mu03eng]

One point of emphasis that may get lost in my novel. For those thinking Greg Elliot will be a contributor at PG this year, I would think something else. There is no doubting he has talent and will contribute at some point this season, but I don't think it will be as a PG and I think he'll have the 2nd fewest minutes of all the newcomers (behind Ike, who will struggle for minutes I think).

If you were going to ask who gets the most, I think it's Cain initially but by the end of the season, assuming he "gets" it I think Theo John will have the most including more than Froling.

[Mr. Nielsen]

Also, if you are a basketball fan the Open Practice format is way more entertaining than Marquette Madness.

I'm far more interested in hearing Wojo explain their emphasis on defensive fundamentals/sing the praises of Sacar's hard work/tearing into the team for not communicating vs. attending a dance/light/fog/dunk/ATV/karate/stunt show.

I'm glad you enjoyed it! Myself and others at the school came up with the idea.

[mu03eng]

I'm glad you enjoyed it! Myself and others at the school came up with the idea.

It's a great thing, please have it every year! Only problem was my two year old was pissed he couldn't go down and shoot hoops (dude is obsessed with basketball, shoots on his Fischer Price hoop for at least 15 minutes after he wakes up and at least 15 minutes after he gets home from daycare)

[Galway Eagle]

It's a great thing, please have it every year! Only problem was my two year old was pissed he couldn't go down and shoot hoops (dude is obsessed with basketball, shoots on his Fischer Price hoop for at least 15 minutes after he wakes up and at least 15 minutes after he gets home from daycare)

Get him doing defensive drills now basketball isn’t all offense!

[warriorchick]

It's a great thing, please have it every year! Only problem was my two year old was pissed he couldn't go down and shoot hoops (dude is obsessed with basketball, shoots on his Fischer Price hoop for at least 15 minutes after he wakes up and at least 15 minutes after he gets home from daycare)

glow jr. used to take a flying leap off his Fisher Price picnic table so he could dunk on his Fisher Price basketball hoop, complete with rim hang.

[LloydsLegs]

Thanks all, esp moomoo and MU03--I am so pleasantly surprised to hear about Sacar.

[mu03eng]

glow jr. used to take a flying leap off his Fisher Price picnic table so he could dunk on his Fisher Price basketball hoop, complete with rim hang.

Where'd he play D1 ball? I mean clear at this age this is a sign of scholarships rolling in. #NoredforOwen was even wearing his Recruit Me shirt last night, so Wojo is on alert. 

He's fired up for the season, after we got home last night I got a "Dada, put the phone down and shoot" chastisement.

[Smokin' Jae]

Great to hear consistent praise about Sacar from all of the attendees. Sounds like he can be an x-factor, which could be huge for a likely bubble team.

Was hoping to hear more positives about Froling so hopefully the next two months of practice are really useful for him before he becomes eligible.

On the positive end regarding Froling he did stroke a three with a man in his face, at the least he will be able to draw bigs away from the rim and create some more opportunities for our little guards to get to the rim. But agree with what everyone else said that he looks a touch slow and lost on D.

[warriorchick]

Where'd he play D1 ball? I mean clear at this age this is a sign of scholarships rolling in. #NoredforOwen was even wearing his Recruit Me shirt last night, so Wojo is on alert. 

He's fired up for the season, after we got home last night I got a "Dada, put the phone down and shoot" chastisement.

Unfortunately, the hoop went up to ten feet, and glow jr. stalled out at five feet and a half.

[jsglow]

Spot on analysis eng.

Let me add that simply adding big man depth is going to help.  More fouls to give.  More contested at the rim.  Way more bodies for practice which will help develop our lead guys like Matty.

Right now Sacar feels like the 6th man and a very solid contributor.  Cheatham will need to work his way into the rotation as he gets stronger and healthier.  Not his fault that he's behind.

Frohling has a ways to go, especially on defense.  But I no longer discount the possibility of seeing him at the #4.  The dude has a very nice stroke from 3.  I believe he hit 2 last night, completely in rhythm.

One thing I thought curious.  Why have Markus cover Marotta?  I would have thought Wojo would want to stress him more by putting him on Rowsey.  No disrespect to Cam who actually looked pretty darn good in the flow.  All that said, both Rowsey and Howard tried 'too' hard. Rowsey caught hell a few times and Wojo specifically talked about our experienced players needing to lead.

And I loved how the colorful metaphors started to fly as Wojo was clearly seriously pissed.  I think some of the guys might have thought that this was Madness Light but Coach was having none of it and the 'up and backs' reflected that.  Wojo even double ran them a couple times.  When he pulled the team to the tunnel I'm 100% sure he let loose with the full arsenal as I sensed he realized that he might have stepped over the line with little kids in attendance.  I was thinking Joe True was about to wheel out a cooking demonstration to keep us entertained as we all tried to figure out what to do! 

[mu03eng]

  I was thinking Joe True was about to wheel out a cooking demonstration to keep us entertained as we all tried to figure out what to do!

I'm sure the concession provider was just fine with the increased beer sales as there was a near stampede. 

[jsglow]

One more quick point.  The family that won the Bucks/Cavs tickets were sitting right behind us.  Two dads with probably 6-8 young kids under 8 years old.  The little guy that won them from his group had to be about 4.  It was nice to see because corralling that many kids meant those guys really didn't watch practice but made sure kids didn't dump sodas on each other or those around them.  Hopefully they get to go enjoy the game tonight.

[warriorchick]

One more quick point.  The family that won the Bucks/Cavs tickets were sitting right behind us.  Two dads with probably 6-8 young kids under 8 years old.  The little guy that won them from his group had to be about 4.  It was nice to see because corralling that many kids meant those guys really didn't watch practice but made sure kids didn't dump sodas on each other or those around them.  Hopefully they get to go enjoy the game tonight.

Biggest laugh of the night as Wojo was handing the courtside tickets to the little kid:

Wojo:  Are you a Bucks fan?

Kid:  No.

Wojo: Are you a Cavaliers fan?

Kid:  No.

Dad, waving wildly: I am!

Also, the dad was apparently a podiatrist.  When Marcus went down, he said, "If that's a sprained ankle, that's two weeks he'll be out".  One of his kids said, "But aren't you a foot doctor, Dad? Go down and help him!"

[94Warrior]

Biggest laugh of the night as Wojo was handing the courtside tickets to the little kid:

Wojo:  Are you a Bucks fan?

Kid:  No.

Wojo: Are you a Cavaliers fan?

Kid:  No.

Dad, waving wildly: I am!

Also, the dad was apparently a podiatrist.  When Marcus went down, he said, "If that's a sprained ankle, that's two weeks he'll be out".  One of his kids said, "But aren't you a foot doctor, Dad? Go down and help him!"

So, what did the fine Dr. say when Markus returned in less than 10 minutes? 

[We R Final Four]

On the positive end regarding Froling he did stroke a three with a man in his face, at the least he will be able to draw bigs away from the rim and create some more opportunities for our little guards to get to the rim. But agree with what everyone else said that he looks a touch slow and lost on D.

From what I have seen and read Harry seems more in the mold of a creighton or wisky big. But, if he can hit the open three, draw his defender out, and be serviceable on D we will be ok.

[wadesworld]

From what I have seen and read Harry seems more in the mold of a creighton or wisky big. But, if he can hit the open three, draw his defender out, and be serviceable on D we will be ok.

With Heldt, Hank, Joey, etc., I think MU under Wojo is going to have at least 1 of the Creighton/Wisconsin bigs on the roster most seasons.