Quote :

"I didnt not realize Fergie transferred from Pitt. He could have flamed out of the tourney 3 years in a row."

I thought he's from Auburn.

3/30/2009 12:00:05 PM

Quote :

"As a Freshman (2005-06) Redshirted the season due to NCAA_ ransfer rules, he enrolled at NC State for the spring semester ... Signed with the University of Pittsburgh in the spring of 2005, but never enrolled for fall classes after attending summer school classes ... Attended New Creation (Ind.) Prep after he left Pittsburgh before enrolling at NC State."

3/30/2009 12:04:58 PM

3/30/2009 12:21:05 PM

How long until Wall's silent verbal to UK?

3/30/2009 1:53:15 PM

Wall has already silent verbaled to every school in the country at least once, so I'd say 5 months ago most likely.

3/30/2009 2:25:17 PM

So what are your expectations of our incoming class this next year? What do you think they will provide the team? From what I've seen and read here are mine.

Zo Brown - immediate contributor and starter from Day 1 at the 2. I expect him to score ~11-12 ppg and be able to be able to handle the ball enough to allow Wood to slide in to the SG position at times.

Richard Howell - It's hard for me to get a read on him. He seems a bit undersized to play PF and reminds me of Tracy Smith. From what I've read on here, he is an ACC ready defensive player but nearly every scouting report I've read says he that is defense needs work. His body and scouting report reminds me a lot of Jeff Adrien from UConn. Is that a good comparison? 7-8 ppg and 6-7 rpg? Is that fair?

Scott Wood - will certainly get some minutes this year as a role player. I think he can hit ~40% from the outside and make 2 threes a game in limited minutes. We haven't really had a kid like this, but I think his body will take a year or two to adjust to the rigors of ACC play.

Josh Davis - role player at best. Solid team guy who will hopefully develop in to a bench contributor over his time here.

[Edited on March 30, 2009 at 3:53 PM. Reason : x]

3/30/2009 3:51:38 PM

^you think brown will start over williams (or maybe williams to play the 3 more)?

howell is listed around 6'9" 6'8", 220. that's a decent size for a power forward, right?

[Edited on March 30, 2009 at 4:56 PM. Reason : oops, i meant to type 6'8"]

3/30/2009 4:41:09 PM

lineup will probably be

javi
brown
williams
horner or howell
smith

3/30/2009 4:42:51 PM

Rivals reported Cal is going to UK, I hope we can steal Cousins.

3/30/2009 4:43:56 PM

since they already have that other center committed, if he goes we'll have a shot at Cousins, at least.

3/30/2009 4:46:27 PM

I see Howell as 6'7" some places and 6'8" others...

If Brown is as good as his hype he SHOULD start right away...

3/30/2009 4:52:14 PM

i'll just go ahead and say it; if brown doesn't start right away, we're fucked. tracy smith is the only player on this team that is good enough to not be replaced by a stud recruit.

javi and cj really played well for spurts last season, and i hope that they can continue to improve b/c they will be crucial this season, but if brown isn't better than both of them... yeap, we're in trouble.

3/30/2009 4:57:29 PM

forgive me, i haven't followed kentucky. do they have PF/Cs returing? What about PF?C commits?

3/30/2009 4:59:15 PM

because there is no chance CJ or Javi will improve, since you know that's impossible.

^They have a top center recruit coming in

http://basketballrecruiting.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?pr_key=51353&sport=2



[Edited on March 30, 2009 at 5:02 PM. Reason : ]

3/30/2009 4:59:46 PM

Quote :

"because there is no chance CJ or Javi will improve, since you know that's impossible."

don't be an idiot, please.

3/30/2009 5:04:46 PM

you're the one saying if brown doesn't start we're fucked.

3/30/2009 5:06:04 PM

we're probably fucked either way

3/30/2009 5:10:19 PM

^^ i'm sorry, did we field some sort of successful team this year? what makes you think that our current players are going to win games after losing most of our scoring?

3/30/2009 5:15:24 PM

oh sweet, the circular arguments are about to start back up!!!!!

3/30/2009 5:16:29 PM

i think we need a point guard.

3/30/2009 5:17:40 PM

Quote :

"^^ i'm sorry, did we field some sort of successful team this year? what makes you think that our current players are going to win games after losing most of our scoring?"

And our lazy seniors......

3/30/2009 5:24:58 PM

So lazy they were 49% of the offense

3/30/2009 5:26:17 PM

hey man what's up, i'm simonn. do you watch basketball?

3/30/2009 5:29:28 PM

I just won a free vacation to Lexington!

3/30/2009 5:32:21 PM

i was wondering when you'd troll back here

3/30/2009 5:38:44 PM

I think CJ and Brown will play some together. I really think we'll have either Degand or Javi on the floor with a combination of Brown/Mays/wood at the 2 with CJ/Thomas playing 3, And Horner/Smith/Howell at the 4 and 5....so we'll have either 3 guards and 2 forwards on the floor or 2 guards and 3 forwards. I think some combination of that will work against most teams. Clearly that won't work against teams who have taller and more athletic bigs, but we don't really have much of a choice.


Hopefully, Brown contributes right away and just does what he's been doing his whole career...which is play smart basketball and take over when he's needed. He's a great teammate and he won't try to steal the show. Howell will have to contribute, but I expect him to come in and play 10-15 minutes a game and get some rebounds and make his freethrows. Anything more than that will be gravy.

The other 2 recruits....anything productive is fine. I think wood could be deadly but I highly doubt he's ready to play defense in this league. I see him contributing a lot his sophmore year.

Overall, I just expect us to play solid basketball and hopefully win the game we're supposed to win...which means basically play as well as we did this year but hopefully pull out some of the close ones. I think we're getting a dose of addition by subtraction with the 3 seniors leaving...if for nothing else but a fresh start where everyone is on the same page. It should be fun to watch if we can just get better as the season moves on and have some hope going into the 2010-11 season

3/30/2009 5:53:37 PM

being real here, i just want this team to look like they know what they're doing.

lowe has said he wants to run, and he's got a small, athletic team. if they can't come out and run and look at least half decent doing it, i think that says a lot about lowe.

3/30/2009 6:12:29 PM

They don't even have to know what they are doing. They just have to play hard. We would improve automatically if that happened.

If you have to pick and choose what skill you want our players to improve this summer, shooting would be #1. With an undersized, guard-heavy lineup, that's where we will see our biggest return on investment. Guys will have to hit open shots about 80% of the time.

Mays, CJ showed encouraging shooting ability last year.

3/30/2009 6:32:57 PM

^i'd say defense needs to improve more than shooting.

3/30/2009 6:39:41 PM

Quote :

" If you have to pick and choose what skill you want our players to improve this summer, shooting would be #1. "

Quote :

"Effective FG%: 53.8 [23] (that's the best in the acc) "

NO.

our defense and ballhandling are both in FAR FAR FAR worse states than our shooting.

[Edited on March 30, 2009 at 6:41 PM. Reason : .]

[Edited on March 30, 2009 at 6:44 PM. Reason : .]

3/30/2009 6:40:06 PM

#1 limiting turnovers
#2 limiting turnovers
#3 limiting turnovers
#4 transition defense
#5 causing turnovers

3/30/2009 6:42:18 PM

^that too

3/30/2009 6:47:24 PM

How tall is Josh Davis, really?

I've seen anywhere from 6'5" to 6'7" listed...those two inches could make a big difference on where he fits in.

3/30/2009 6:52:35 PM

6'6, possibly still growing

3/30/2009 6:53:20 PM

#6 Limiting turnovers

3/30/2009 7:00:28 PM

#7 Intense turnover limitation

3/30/2009 7:34:01 PM

Quote :

""It's not true," Cousins said when asked about the recent rumor linking Memphis head coach John Calipari to the vacant coaching position at the University of Kentucky, and apparently that emphatic statement comes straight from the head coach's mouth. "I called Coach (Calipari) right after I first heard the rumor, and he told me it wasn't true," Cousins said on Monday. "It's not true at all.""

3/30/2009 7:47:06 PM

Shit just got real

3/30/2009 7:49:14 PM

^funny quote.

3/30/2009 7:49:15 PM

me thinks cousins is about to be played by the squid

3/30/2009 7:51:15 PM

Quote :

"So lazy they were 49% of the offense"

They were 3 senior (counting Costner in there too) starters. They should have been at least 49% of the offense if not more. If Costner wouldn't have faded down the stretch and Fells had bothered to show up to even half the games, they would have been 60%.

Towards the end of the season we were already learning how to score without them/in spite of them. Horner's stat line was better than Costner's for the last 10 games or so. Smith straight up owned the paint with very little help from McCauley. And Fells was beginning to be replaced by C.J. Williams.

The only thing I will miss about them is their size and considering how lackadaisical their play was at times, it didn't usually make a difference anyway.

Lazy may not be the perfect description but it's close. Ineffective is probably even better.

[Edited on March 30, 2009 at 7:56 PM. Reason : asdf]

3/30/2009 7:55:47 PM

Describe each senior in two words

Ben: Unfortunately unathletic
Fells: Perpetually confused
Costner: Double Cheeseburger

3/30/2009 8:01:48 PM

I think when it came out that the Mays practice team with Kendall Smith and Horner as bigs had beaten the "starters" the last couple weeks said all I really needed to know about our seniors

3/30/2009 8:09:12 PM

Wow is anyone watching the McD's AA Powerade Jamfest skills competition? Ryan Kelly is a dead eye shooter. He just won the 3 point shot competition and made 20 points out of a possible 30. He fits the typical goofy white guy mold for Duke, but man if he can shoot like that regularly, then he'll definitely be able to do a lot for Duke. He'll be able to draw the opposing big man out and possibly set up his wings for open drives to the basket.

3/30/2009 8:27:32 PM

3/30/2009 8:32:09 PM

Cowher, you let your daughter date that guy? WTF

3/30/2009 8:48:06 PM

Quote :

""It's not true," Cousins said when asked about the recent rumor linking Memphis head coach John Calipari to the vacant coaching position at the University of Kentucky, and apparently that emphatic statement comes straight from the head coach's mouth. "I called Coach (Calipari) right after I first heard the rumor, and he told me it wasn't true," Cousins said on Monday. "It's not true at all.""

Source?

3/30/2009 9:04:27 PM

^ Boy, does Calipari have Cousins snowed.

3/30/2009 9:12:28 PM

rivals via pp premium

3/30/2009 9:13:27 PM

fwiw i wasn't impressed with Favors at all tonight.. seemed like he could have attitude problems as well

3/30/2009 9:38:50 PM