10/19 Open Practice
- Thread starter Pittnerski
- Start date
I did not attend but based off the reviews and the interviews both today and recently.
Brandin Cummings continues to impress, daily. Zach Austin said in his interview that Cummings is the best scorer he has ever played with on any team. That comes after an interview with Dunn previously that said Cummings was a future star in the making. A big time shot maker and bucket getter with an ability to make extremely difficult shots off the bounce. My player comparison is a cross between Cam Thomas and Acie Law.
A lot of the players like what Damian Dunn brings to the table between his experience and his overall play. This echo's what Capel has said previously about him. I just hope he is more efficient this year than in years past and choose his shot selection more wisely this year. His physical play is a welcome addition.
A lot of the players and coaches really like Cam Corhen. Recent interviews would suggest he is going to be an absolute load in the block this year for opposing teams to handle. This was my prediction all a long based off his previous stats and efficiency. All interviews, including from the coaches, is that he is a workhorse that puts in a ton of extra practice time to get better.
I really like the leadership from both Jaland Lowe and Ish Leggett. We are going to have a powerhouse backcourt between the starters and from the bench.
Papa Kante brings a ton of energy and cannot wait to play.
The team chemistry is peaking and something we may not have seen since 2011. This team is together.
That all sounds positive, in fact,really positive. But I think this team is extremely hungry, extremely pissed off from how it got snubbed from last year, and is going to take it out on opposing teams really, really, soon. The narrative of "leave no doubt" is the chip on the shoulder this team is going to carry into every game on the entire schedule. I expect this team to blow out a lot of teams this year.
Here's what I just posted on the other board.
** I suppose an “open practice” is not an event that inspires much enthusiasm among the hoops faithful. Accordingly, perhaps only 100 or so Panther fans were in attendance this day.
** But for us diehards, it was still a pleasure to get a peek at the players and a bit of an overall glance at the team.
** Neither the peek nor the glance offered any significant insights, but like the rest of those in the seats, we did get a few
"impressions."
** The largest impression for me is that it might be possible that this team will shoot even more threes than either of the last two years.
** From the drills and the scrimmages, it was clear how the three is built into the offense. Additionally, it might even appear that every single Panther, from Jaland and Ish, to Cam and Papa, will have a green light to let the open three fly.
** In fact, the only player who didn’t let the three fly today was Amsal as he was mostly sidelined with his hand injury. I was a bit encouraged though that he sported a relatively small looking cast, and he even used his casted hand in an early warm up dribbling drill, albeit very sparingly. Other than that, he only did some conditioning work behind the basket. Nonetheless, knowing he used the hand even a little makes me feel like he can’t be too far away.
** Otherwise, the practice did little to quell the "raging" debate as to whether this is Jaland’s team or Ish’s team. To end the practice Coach Capel called on Ish first then Jaland next to sink free throws to end the affair.
** But to my eye, it really looked today as if Jaland was all over the court, nearly always in an impressive way. He shot the three well, and drove fearlessly into the paint which included a finish that made me say “Wow!” And we has really getting after it on defense too.
** @JimHammett started a nice thread during the event, and I’ll reshare something I added there earlier today. (Jaland) has that “ready to be special” look about him.
** It’s wiser not to get too far ahead of ourselves with Jaland, but it’s also hard not to think he’s ready to make strides beyond his fine freshman year.
** This isn’t to say that Ish won’t be there with him. He looked solid today. But he wasn’t the most noticeable player on the court like Jaland.
** The backcourt minutes were rounded out by Dunn and Cummings. From the lineups used in the scrimmage, it’s an early bet that Damien will be backup at the point, along with spending a few minutes at the two and three as well.
** Damien looks like a strong, seasoned vet with his presence on the court. He also appears nicely physical and has a decent shot. The only reason he won’t play something like 20 minutes per game is because Jaland and Ish could be too good to open up that many.
** As for Brandon Cummings, there’s a lot to like. He has some clear skills that this team will be able to use this year. In fact, early on in the practice, I may have been more impressed with him than anyone. But as the minutes passed, he came to earth a bit, and offered a couple of pesky turnovers.
** At this point, he also seems to play more with a one on one style as opposed to a greater orchestrator role that was more evident in Jaland and Damian.
** Still, it does seem possible that he could be our best three point shooter, making me wonder if a spot up corner role like Greg Elliott two years ago might be a good way to use him.
** I wonder if Capel has some new plans for Zach Austin, as he worked with the guards in one of the early drills, and actually played alongside Jaland at the two in the first half of the scrimmage. Zach showed his usual athleticism, but not necessarily greater production during the day, except showing a nifty post up baby hook. Does Jeff want to use him to post up smaller guards this year?
** If Jaland was one stand out, then I could say Cam Corhen was the other. He has offensive talent that we just didn’t possess in the post last year. This includes a night face up jumper from the foul line, and perhaps even range out to the three.
** A welcome sight was watching Cam often clear the defensive glass too.
** My only concern with Cam is a slight fear that he might look to force his offense a little too much.
** During the scrimmages, most often when Cam was on one side at the five, Papa was on the other. It should be noted that Papa drained a top of the key three, but he did also have some struggles finishing down low, getting blocked by both Jorge and Zach.
** Still, at the moment, it looks like Jeff’s plans for Guillermo this campaign are much more as a four than a five. In fact, the only time G looked like he was playing the five was during a stint when he was playing alongside his twin brother.
** We can only see how the rotation could be impacted when Amsal joins the fray.
** Speaking of twin brothers, it might be true to say that Jorge was the better of the two today. Most times when I saw a three fall during the scrimmage, it was from Twin 31 instead of Twin 25 And since Twin 25 has proven to be a 40% three point shooter, that could make things interesting.
** Marlon Barnes and Amdy Ndiaye didn’t leave me with many impressions,. other that Amdy looked much more like a perimeter big than a post up.
** Finally, I did want to note the presence of 6-10, 250 freshman local product Liam Mignogna among the walk ons. His role this year is clear and not unimportant – which is to beat on the other bigs down low in practice. Or in other words. do his best Ian Schieffelin impression. He looks a little like Ian actually.
** As for lineups, beyond some of the items already covered, in the second half of the scrimmage Capel called for a team with Jaland, Ish, Zach, GDiaz and Cam. At the moment, I’d guess this is the starting five.
** In my lifetime, I’ve had the pleasure of watching practices, both open and closed, at least once during the tenures of six Panther Hoops Head Coaches. I won’t attempt to proclaim that this practice under Capel was remarkably greater. But Capel’s culture is clearly evident.
** To that end, one thing I noticed was anytime a player hit the floor, as many as a half dozen or more teammates would swarm to help him up.
** Beyond that, our guys looked focused, spirited and determined. More importantly, they are talented. And everything I watched today continued my personal enthusiasm thinking this team has the chance to be really good.
This is our potential bench 2nd unit with the Amsal injury....
2nd unit
Pg-Cummings
Sg-Dunn
Sf-Delalic
Pf-Jorge or flip with Delalic
C-Kante
Watch out... Our schedule better watch out....
That is real depth in the bench with an arsenal of 3 point firepower.
As this season moves forward, the 2 biggest moving pieces are going to be Cummings and Delalic. The midrange and outside firepower from these 2 with injuries aside could be massive from the bench.
Although I had a good time yesterday (and at the women's practice that they had beforehand as well), I don't know how much you can really make of what happens watching one practice like that.
But having said that, I agree with pretty much everything you said. We are going to be in really good hands with Lowe and Leggett. Cummings, Corhen, Dunn and Austin all had some stretches where they looked good. We are going to shoot a ton of threes.
BTW, random, meaningless question. We are retiring Sam Clancy's number 15 this year. Does that mean we are making Jaland Lowe change his number? I assume not, but these are the sorts of important questions we need answers to!
Can’t blame coaches for not liking the current environment, especially when they built real programs with players who stuck around for 4 years. College bball is worse than pro sports right now. It’s the Wild West. And I’m not sure there’s a way out if the morass. At least when Major League Baseball players earned the right to unlimited free agency after Curt Flood, the players union understood it couldn’t be a free-for-all every year. They agreed to terms such that teams had a certain period of years where they controlled the player. I don’t know how that works with 4-year players, some of which are starting in lesser conferences and then working their way up. So, again, can’t really blame coaches for not wanting to have to navigate this mess every year and not being able to have the pride that comes with bringing players along for their entire collegiate career.
I believe that the release for the Clancy retirement said something about how Lowe will keep the #15 for the rest of his Pitt career, and then it won’t be assigned again after Lowe leaves.
I wasn't able to attend the open practice (both too far away and no invite) --so, thanks to all on here who attended for giving their impressions. I did, however, get to watch the post-practice interviews of Jayland, Papa Kante and Zach Austin -- plus MIchalski's impressions article --all on PSN earlier today.
They basically gave the same overall impression that you guys have.
It appears that for now that Capel has G D-G as a starter at the 4 and Jayland mentioned being extremely impressed with G's shooting ability. The only real open question in my mind now is Delalic. if/when he returns 100% healthy what will happen? Will he take G D-G's spot as the starting 4? Or, will he replace Zach Austin as the starting 3? How will his return effect team Chemistry?
For what its worth--an NBA scout I know personally was at last season's Virginia game. As much as he was impressed by Carrington, he really liked Jayland's potential as a future NBAer--especially as a lefty. That suggests Jayland being better this season than last should not be a surprise.
As to J D-G looking better than G D-G yesterday---wasn't he at one time regarded as the better player of the two? His being injured may have been holding his development back?
Looking forward to an exciting season!!!
After they did a bunch of drills they actually played essentially three quarters of a scrimmage game, but not against each other. They played the team of men that they use for practice partners. The men "won" the first quarter and then the women played much better in the second so they were ahead at "half time". Then they reset the scoreboard back to zero and played another quarter, which the men also won. I think the men ended up slightly ahead if you added them all up.
Of the newcomers, Brooklynn Miles looks like she is going to be a real pest as an on ball defender. I would be very surprised if she is not your starting one. They actually were playing her at the one and Washenitz at the two a good bit. Among the returners, I also thought that Lauren Rust did some good things. She certainly looked better than last year. Bella Perkins took part in the drills, but she did not play in the scrimmage part of it. I assume recovering from some injury, but there was nothing that you could see.
Of the new players, Faye looked OK. She's surely going to be the starter at the five. Johnson seemed to get herself a lot of open looks, but her shot wasn't falling. Hopefully that's just a bad shooting practice thing. I liked some of what Biggs did, she looks like she can play, but as a freshman we will see how much. Jenkins did some good things too.
FWIW, IIRC (two anacronyms in a row!) the starters for the scrimmage part of the practice were Miles, Washenitz, Jenkins, Rust and Faye. That may or may not mean anything.
After the practice, Coach Verdi talked to the attendees (he noted that they were going to get him a microphone but wasn't going to wait because he didn't think he needs one) and said this was the first time they had scrimmaged like that in practice this year. Said they have a scrimmage against James Madison this week, before their exhibition game next week. Then he had all the players introduce themselves and give a fun fact about themselves. Fun fact, many Pitt women's basketball players have pets!
Delalic is going to play a lot if his hand is 100% and his shooting is back to normal. I dont think it really matters whether he starts or not, he is going to get significant playing time if healthy and likely at multiple positions.
I think our team chemistry is fantastic.
I HOPE our team chemistry will be fantastic. And I believe our culture will contribute to it. But we can’t say it IS fantastic until we start seeing it in action.
