Open practice observations

[bilsu]

All reasonable, DCH, and I obviously hope you (and Wojo) are right about McEwen.

Totally agree about Joey. I've never seen him play, but if he is as good as most folks seem to think, I would expect him to get many looks at 5 in a small lineup, which is a major basketball trend now.

Thank you for taking my previous comment in the manner in which it was intended.

Unless you are referring to muscle, I do not see why playing Joey at center is a small lineup. He is as tall as John.

[Nukem2]

Unless you are referring to muscle, I do not see why playing Joey at center is a small lineup. He is as tall as John.

Joey has a perimeter game.  Theo is a 5. 

[Newsdreams]

Which is interesting that Wojo and co. continue to recruit PGs.

It's a guards game, hey?

[GGGG]

Yeah I don’t know why recruiting PGs is so interesting. They’ll need one in 2020-21.

[GooooMarquette]

Is Dodds paid by the ellipsis?

I laughed.

[We R Final Four]

Yeah I don’t know why recruiting PGs is so interesting. They’ll need one in 2020-21.

Yeah.....they will need big/5 in 2020-21 as well, and until recently we haven’t been mentioned with a 5.
However, we have been mentioned with multiple pgs over the last year.
Interesting to me.

[Slim]

I believe Theo and Ed are essentially the same player. They can both play the 4 or 5 and can blend with any of the other bigs. But I Think they will rarely(if ever) be on the court at the same time.

It will be very hard to only go 8 deep.

We need to lower the expectations of McEwen a little.

[MU82]

Which is interesting that Wojo and co. continue to recruit PGs.

Always be recruiting. Especially guys with PG skills.

[JamilJaeJamailJrJuan]

I believe Theo and Ed are essentially the same player. They can both play the 4 or 5 and can blend with any of the other bigs. But I Think they will rarely(if ever) be on the court at the same time.

It will be very hard to only go 8 deep.

We need to lower the expectations of McEwen a little.

I think Ed is vastly under-appreciated / under-valued around here.  The dude is a legit player.  He averaged closed to a double doubled in the B10 when healthy.  This isn't some raw player that is going to struggle to find PT on this team.  He is going to play, likely start, play a ton of minutes, and be one of the best players on this team. 

[Daniel]

Thought Morrow did not want to play the 5. 

[MuMark]

Wojo said in an article that he discussed it with Morrow before he transferred here and that Ed will play wherever the team needs him to play(paraphrasing).

[Marcus92]

Thoughts on the second open practice:

Down to business
No mic today for Wojo, didn't talk to the crowd before, during or after. Just a couple 5-on-0 offensive drills at the start emphasizing movement and passing, then a full game scrimmage. With Greg and Ike sitting out, everybody got a lot of court time.

Team defense
Judging from the play today, this team is going to be tougher to score against inside. Lots of deflections and steals, good movement for the most part and strong post defense. On the other hand, the offensive play was often sloppy. Something like 8 turnovers in the first 8-1/2 minutes of the first half. Quite a few forced shots with the shot clock about to run out.

Big Smooth
If Sam says he isn't at 100% yet, look out for when he gets back to full health. He was active on defense with some nice positioning, guarded Joey quite a bit, moved and passed well and hit at least 6 three-pointers.

The wings
Sacar was probably the most aggressive player in practice. He played tight defense on Brendan much of the first half. Brendan had a large bandage over his right eye and got banged around a bit. But he doesn't back down from physical play. Hit a big three from the corner and had an impressive breakaway dunk. Of all the players, he looked the most winded to me (along with Sam and Joey); I'm sure overall team conditioning will improve leading up to the regular season. Jamal looked strong on both ends of the court, including a nice cut to receive a bullet pass in stride from Joseph for a layup.

Big guys
Aside from a monster running dunk from Theo, not much for offense inside. While Ed got good position several times, it looked like he was just throwing up shots. Matt took and missed 3 threes; he was open, but I don't think that's what we want on offense. Theo had 2 fouls in the first 13 minutes (one on an ill-advised strip attempt), then picked up a third before the end of the first half. Encouraged by the effort and tough, physical play, but lots of room for improvement here.

Point play
Joseph and Markus played together in the same lineup quite a bit, with Kobe running the other team. Joseph looked confident running the offense and had several nice passes. Markus played some good man-to-man defense against both Joseph and Kobe, moving his feet to stay in front and hustling to get back when he got beat. Joseph in particular made it tough for Markus to get open looks from outside when they were playing on opposite teams.

Team focus
After a missed 1-and-1 free throw attempt late in the 2nd half, it appeared that everyone thought it was a 2-shot foul situation and nobody crashed the boards. Wojo exploded, ripping the players for not being situationally aware. He clearly wants to use scrimmages to prepare the team for real-game situations (including refs, running the scoreboard and calling timeouts). Hopefully a teaching moment for everyone.

[Loose Cannon]

Thoughts on the second open practice:

Down to business
No mic today for Wojo, didn't talk to the crowd before, during or after. Just a couple 5-on-0 offensive drills at the start emphasizing movement and passing, then a full game scrimmage. With Greg and Ike sitting out, everybody got a lot of court time.

Team defense
Judging from the play today, this team is going to be tougher to score against inside. Lots of deflections and steals, good movement for the most part and strong post defense. On the other hand, the offensive play was often sloppy. Something like 8 turnovers in the first 8-1/2 minutes of the first half. Quite a few forced shots with the shot clock about to run out.

Big Smooth
If Sam says he isn't at 100% yet, look out for when he gets back to full health. He was active on defense with some nice positioning, guarded Joey quite a bit, moved and passed well and hit at least 6 three-pointers.

The wings
Sacar was probably the most aggressive player in practice. He played tight defense on Brendan much of the first half. Brendan had a large bandage over his right eye and got banged around a bit. But he doesn't back down from physical play. Hit a big three from the corner and had an impressive breakaway dunk. Of all the players, he looked the most winded to me (along with Sam and Joey); I'm sure overall team conditioning will improve leading up to the regular season. Jamal looked strong on both ends of the court, including a nice cut to receive a bullet pass in stride from Joseph for a layup.

Big guys
Aside from a monster running dunk from Theo, not much for offense inside. While Ed got good position several times, it looked like he was just throwing up shots. Matt took and missed 3 threes; he was open, but I don't think that's what we want on offense. Theo had 2 fouls in the first 13 minutes (one on an ill-advised strip attempt), then picked up a third before the end of the first half. Encouraged by the effort and tough, physical play, but lots of room for improvement here.

Point play
Joseph and Markus played together in the same lineup quite a bit, with Kobe running the other team. Joseph looked confident running the offense and had several nice passes. Markus played some good man-to-man defense against both Joseph and Kobe, moving his feet to stay in front and hustling to get back when he got beat. Joseph in particular made it tough for Markus to get open looks from outside when they were playing on opposite teams.

Team focus
After a missed 1-and-1 free throw attempt late in the 2nd half, it appeared that everyone thought it was a 2-shot foul situation and nobody crashed the boards. Wojo exploded, ripping the players for not being situationally aware. He clearly wants to use scrimmages to prepare the team for real-game situations (including refs, running the scoreboard and calling timeouts). Hopefully a teaching moment for everyone.

Thanks for this.

[Herman Cain]

Thoughts on the second open practice:

Down to business
No mic today for Wojo, didn't talk to the crowd before, during or after. Just a couple 5-on-0 offensive drills at the start emphasizing movement and passing, then a full game scrimmage. With Greg and Ike sitting out, everybody got a lot of court time.

Team defense
Judging from the play today, this team is going to be tougher to score against inside. Lots of deflections and steals, good movement for the most part and strong post defense. On the other hand, the offensive play was often sloppy. Something like 8 turnovers in the first 8-1/2 minutes of the first half. Quite a few forced shots with the shot clock about to run out.

Big Smooth
If Sam says he isn't at 100% yet, look out for when he gets back to full health. He was active on defense with some nice positioning, guarded Joey quite a bit, moved and passed well and hit at least 6 three-pointers.

The wings
Sacar was probably the most aggressive player in practice. He played tight defense on Brendan much of the first half. Brendan had a large bandage over his right eye and got banged around a bit. But he doesn't back down from physical play. Hit a big three from the corner and had an impressive breakaway dunk. Of all the players, he looked the most winded to me (along with Sam and Joey); I'm sure overall team conditioning will improve leading up to the regular season. Jamal looked strong on both ends of the court, including a nice cut to receive a bullet pass in stride from Joseph for a layup.

Big guys
Aside from a monster running dunk from Theo, not much for offense inside. While Ed got good position several times, it looked like he was just throwing up shots. Matt took and missed 3 threes; he was open, but I don't think that's what we want on offense. Theo had 2 fouls in the first 13 minutes (one on an ill-advised strip attempt), then picked up a third before the end of the first half. Encouraged by the effort and tough, physical play, but lots of room for improvement here.

Point play
Joseph and Markus played together in the same lineup quite a bit, with Kobe running the other team. Joseph looked confident running the offense and had several nice passes. Markus played some good man-to-man defense against both Joseph and Kobe, moving his feet to stay in front and hustling to get back when he got beat. Joseph in particular made it tough for Markus to get open looks from outside when they were playing on opposite teams.

Team focus
After a missed 1-and-1 free throw attempt late in the 2nd half, it appeared that everyone thought it was a 2-shot foul situation and nobody crashed the boards. Wojo exploded, ripping the players for not being situationally aware. He clearly wants to use scrimmages to prepare the team for real-game situations (including refs, running the scoreboard and calling timeouts). Hopefully a teaching moment for everyone.

Great Research Report