Open Practice Saturday October 5th 2024
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Official Tweet about the Open Practice:
View: https://twitter.com/MasonMBB/status/1834616912036135305
Saturday October 5th 10AM-11:30AM at EBA with Autograph signing afterwards
View: https://twitter.com/MasonMBB/status/1834616912036135305
Saturday October 5th 10AM-11:30AM at EBA with Autograph signing afterwards
Mason2006Patriot
Specialist
Just saw this, thanks for posting! I will try to make it on Saturday.
I'm thinking Haynes scores most of his points closer to the basket during the year, but it's nice to know he shoots 100% from half-court in this video!x.com
x.com
Scrimmage --KD at pg vs O'Connor.
Many thoughts after attending the practice today. Take EVERYTHING with a grain of salt because it was ONE practice, VERY early in the year, that I was fortunate enough to attend. My thoughts and observations are/were:
1. First half of the practice was offensively oriented in nature. Shooting, various fast break drills, out of bounds plays, etc.
2. 2nd part was focused more on defense, shell drill, etc.
3. Scrimmaged at the end.
4. Green Team (Possible Starters?). Johnson, Maddox, Anderson, Ball, Emejuru.
5. Gold Team - Billups, Newton, Cokley, O'Connor, Haynes, Quigley.
6. Interesting that Freshmen Sivka and Begg did not participate in anything. No drills, no scrimmage. Injured? I don't know. In the doghouse? I don't know. I was really hoping to see both in action and was disappointed not to see them in ANY capacity.
7. Giovanni Emejuru is a freaking BEAST. He should start. He is HUGE, strong, athletic, runs the floor well, has great hands, and once he established position could not be handled. He has the potential to dominate the low post. He was better than I expected. My WAY TOO early take is Emejuru starts and plays 25 - 30 minutes with Haynes as a back up. IF Haynes, who had his moments today, is our backup post player the rest of the A10 is in trouble down low.
8. Zach Anderson was LIGHTS out from downtown. He was left open 3 times and nailed an open three 3 straight times. HUGE get for us.
9. Brayden O'Connor is a player! He does everything well, defends, passes, shoots, and hustles. Don't sleep on this young man. 6th man of the year?
10. Maddox, Billups, and Newton all had their moments. We have depth we've never had before.
11. Austin Ball looks so much more confident on the floor on both ends. Great things ahead?
12. We get after it on the defensive end.
I left the practice encouraged by what I saw. Nice seeing @tblack33 and @gmubrian at EBA today. Took several videos and many pictures but can't figure out how to post them because I'm an older fart who didn't grow up with a computer in the womb. "Files are too large to post?" If I can figure it out I'll post. Go Mason!!!!
1. First half of the practice was offensively oriented in nature. Shooting, various fast break drills, out of bounds plays, etc.
2. 2nd part was focused more on defense, shell drill, etc.
3. Scrimmaged at the end.
4. Green Team (Possible Starters?). Johnson, Maddox, Anderson, Ball, Emejuru.
5. Gold Team - Billups, Newton, Cokley, O'Connor, Haynes, Quigley.
6. Interesting that Freshmen Sivka and Begg did not participate in anything. No drills, no scrimmage. Injured? I don't know. In the doghouse? I don't know. I was really hoping to see both in action and was disappointed not to see them in ANY capacity.
7. Giovanni Emejuru is a freaking BEAST. He should start. He is HUGE, strong, athletic, runs the floor well, has great hands, and once he established position could not be handled. He has the potential to dominate the low post. He was better than I expected. My WAY TOO early take is Emejuru starts and plays 25 - 30 minutes with Haynes as a back up. IF Haynes, who had his moments today, is our backup post player the rest of the A10 is in trouble down low.
8. Zach Anderson was LIGHTS out from downtown. He was left open 3 times and nailed an open three 3 straight times. HUGE get for us.
9. Brayden O'Connor is a player! He does everything well, defends, passes, shoots, and hustles. Don't sleep on this young man. 6th man of the year?
10. Maddox, Billups, and Newton all had their moments. We have depth we've never had before.
11. Austin Ball looks so much more confident on the floor on both ends. Great things ahead?
12. We get after it on the defensive end.
I left the practice encouraged by what I saw. Nice seeing @tblack33 and @gmubrian at EBA today. Took several videos and many pictures but can't figure out how to post them because I'm an older fart who didn't grow up with a computer in the womb. "Files are too large to post?" If I can figure it out I'll post. Go Mason!!!!
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Great seeing @Patriotsince81 today as well. Thought it was a good practice, I got the chance to watch a practice back in August as well before the trip that never happened and thought things looked much more crisp today which was to be expected. A few thoughts:
Gio impresses me more every time I watch him. I was expecting spot minutes out of him, but could see him pushing for 20+ a game this season now. He’s athletic as hell, solid defensively down low, and has surprisingly decent touch with the ball in the post. Sneaky great pickup.
We will go as far as our guard play takes us. We are stronger than we’ve ever been at the 3/4/5 slots. I think KD was the clear best PG on the court the few times I’ve seen him play. He’s will hit the three if he’s open, strong enough to go to the rim and finish in traffic, and seemed comfortable initiating the offense and made some good passes. Great defensively as well. One small concern today, our guards were struggling to break our press. Need to tighten that up in the next month. Quigley will be a great backup guard as he gets ready to take the reigns next season, should get good minutes and experience this season.
We are going to get solid scoring off the bench. I think our shooters off the bench will be streaky scorers (Woody, Brayden, Ball), but if we can find the hot hands we should get solid production out of those two. We should bring in fresh legs with a ton of energy at a minimum, wouldn’t be surprised to see nice spurts of scoring in the first half when our first subs come in.
Maddox is the real deal, if we finish top 4 he will be a first team A10 guy.
My starting 5 today would be:
KD
Billups
Maddox
Anderson
Haynes — he looks great with the ball down low today. I still do not think he will be able to guard on the perimeter so I don’t see how you play him and Gio at the same time without gumming up our flow on both ends. Small thing and might be a nothing burger— might need to improve his conditioning a bit.
Hard to tell in a practice setting if he just wasn’t going 100% or what, but he was a bit slower than the rest getting up and down the court.
Quigley and Gio with 20ish minutes a game, woody/ball/brayden with 10-15 depending on game flow.
Bring on November, I am so ready.
ON THE PRESS, KD QUICKLY GOT THE BALL TO DARIUS WHO DRIBLLED UNDER PRESSURE JUST PAST MID-COURT, BUT WITH SOME DIFFICULTY. NO PASSING. NO PG INVOLVEMENT ONCE KD PASSED IT TO DM. DIDN'T APPEAR TO HAVE A PLAN TO DEAL WITH THE PRESS. NOT SURE HOW O'CONNOR OR QUIGLEY WOULD HAVE DONE IF THEY HAD BEEN SUBJECT TO THE PRESS.
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GiantKiller.co
ByGeorge
Expat Hoops
Fourth Estate
Doc Nix and the Green Machine
Bill Bride - DMV Sports Shots
Patriot Brew Blog/Newsletter