Open Practice Today

[RuffRuff]

Looks like a good report. Anyone here go and can expand?

 

[TMB4405]

I went to this. It was very interesting as my last experience with a basketball practice was 35 years ago when I was playing high school hoops.

It was high energy throughout and all the guys were really engaged. They spend equal time running offense and defensive schemes. As someone who thinks they know basketball, I was basically clueless about why coaches were getting aggravated when they did. High level precision I guess is what they are working towards because I saw nothing wrong half the time they were annoyed. The “first” team was definitely a little more fluid and crisp. Was also impressed by the coordination of all the support staff (seemed like 10 or so managers) and the “practice” players also work very hard and are probably very talented in their own regard.

The atleticism up and down the roster is incredible. Hurley and the coaches definitely ride them hard. I had to laugh as when one of the teams (gray team) had to run steps right by me one of the guys let out a common expletive (which coaches were consistemtly doing) as he ran by some kids and then quickly apologized.

Really interesting experience overall.

 

[Son of Robert]

Way to go @aburks41 , any insights?

 

[HooperScooper]

One of my friends went. Who was invited? My friend isn't a high roller donor but has very good seats that I'm sure cost a lot.

He was very impressed with Abraham. Said he thinks Abraham is the best athlete on the team.

Similar comments on the intensity and pace of practice. Said they went for a little over 2 hours and it was nonstop.

Didn't look like Hurley is changing the starting lineup but Ross was on the blue team (starters) as the 6th player.

One time Hurley collapsed and laid down on the court in exasperation when the players did something wrong.

We pretty much saw all this in that video that went with an interview with that guy (Graham something?) a month or two ago.

 

[Hamms30]

Was there an email that went out for this? Had no idea it was happening.

 

[jibsey]

One of my friends went. Who was invited? My friend isn't a high roller donor but has very good seats that I'm sure cost a lot.

He was very impressed with Abraham. Said he thinks Abraham is the best athlete on the team.

Similar comments on the intensity and pace of practice. Said they went for a little over 2 hours and it was nonstop.

Didn't look like Hurley is changing the starting lineup but Ross was on the blue team (starters) as the 6th player.

One time Hurley collapsed and laid down on the court in exasperation when the players did something wrong.

We pretty much saw all this in that video that went with an interview with that guy (Graham something?) a month or two ago.

In the couple minutes we’ve seen him he looked impressive. There’s just no PT for him though.

 

[Lambeau]

I think it was an invitation-only practice open only to donors.

 

[my2cents]

In the past they did Blue/White open scrimmages before the season, that was open to the public .Not sure about this year.

 

[Hamms30]

I think it was an invitation-only practice open only to donors.

Like excluding the season ticket donations?

 

[Mr. French]

I went to this. It was very interesting as my last experience with a basketball practice was 35 years ago when I was playing high school hoops.

It was high energy throughout and all the guys were really engaged. They spend equal time running offense and defensive schemes. As someone who thinks they know basketball, I was basically clueless about why coaches were getting aggravated when they did. High level precision I guess is what they are working towards because I saw nothing wrong half the time they were annoyed. The “first” team was definitely a little more fluid and crisp. Was also impressed by the coordination of all the support staff (seemed like 10 or so managers) and the “practice” players also work very hard and are probably very talented in their own regard.

The atleticism up and down the roster is incredible. Hurley and the coaches definitely ride them hard. I had to laugh as when one of the teams (gray team) had to run steps right by me one of the guys let out a common expletive (which coaches were consistemtly doing) as he ran by some kids and then quickly apologized.

Really interesting experience overall.

The bolded portion is a great point and important to realize sometimes as fans.

Even a high level basketball person doesn’t necessarily know the detailed nuance the staff is coaching, so when we see a player doing “well” or even not well, it actually is more an educated guess than a fact.

This level of ball is so detailed with movements, rotations, cuts and reads and especially defensive schemes. Especially x2 because Hurley is so detailed.

 

[aburks41]

Was there an email that went out for this? Had no idea it was happening.

It was for donors only. Not sure what the cutoff was, but it was likely at the $10k/yr mark because there were only about 100-150ish people there if I had to guess. I have 4 lower bowl tix to Gampel which run me about $8k a year (plus XL tix on top of that) so I was invited.

Way to go @aburks41 , any insights?

Honestly it was super interesting because the defense was so good that it was hard for our guys to score haha. Agree with the poster above who said Abraham looked impressive. He was definitely a standout today.

Also, a decent portion of the practice was played without any defense at all, so they just simulate the offensive movement without any defenders. Practice is broken down in 5-10 minute segments. Hurley has a sheet printed out with the entire practice scripted. They only did ~30 minutes of 5v5 in the entire 3 hours, but it wasn't like a normal game flow. They call out a play, if the offense doesn't execute it then they have to run stairs. The 2nd unit ran a lot of stairs hahah.

The practices are definitely way more intense than games. That's why they are always so well conditioned and don't get tired while the other team is completely worn out. It's non stop action for 3 straight hours. It's insane.

 

[RuffRuff]

Great stuff and thanks for sharing. The Abraham deets align with what I saw up close in August. He has NBA written all over him. If anything hard to understand why he was ranked so low by the recruiting houses (in the 70-80 range). Wonder if it’s inevitable that he finds his way into PT this year as the season progresses as I would imaging if he looks this good in practice regularly, Hurley is noticing.

 

[eos91]

One of my friends went. Who was invited? My friend isn't a high roller donor but has very good seats that I'm sure cost a lot.

He was very impressed with Abraham. Said he thinks Abraham is the best athlete on the team.

Similar comments on the intensity and pace of practice. Said they went for a little over 2 hours and it was nonstop.

Didn't look like Hurley is changing the starting lineup but Ross was on the blue team (starters) as the 6th player.

One time Hurley collapsed and laid down on the court in exasperation when the players did something wrong.

We pretty much saw all this in that video that went with an interview with that guy (Graham something?) a month or two ago.

Based on the summer open practice, I would 100% agree that Abraham is the best athlete.

 

[aburks41]

Great stuff and thanks for sharing. The Abraham deets align with what I saw up close in August. He has NBA written all over him. If anything hard to understand why he was ranked so low by the recruiting houses (in the 70-80 range). Wonder if it’s inevitable that he finds his way into PT this year as the season progresses as I would imaging if he looks this good in practice regularly, Hurley is noticing.

Abraham had a pretty good shooting day too. And he is Andre Jackson level athletic. Some of the dunks he had (not in scrimmage simulation, but some other drills) were just absurd. I'm not sure if he'll be able to crack the rotation this year given how deep we are, but he is going to be on draft boards next year. He has all the tools to be a 1st round pick. I don't want to call him a diamond in the rough because he was still a top 75 recruit, but I think the recruiting sites missed big time on him. If you told me he was a top 30-35 guy I wouldn't second guess it. He has serious talent.

 

[aburks41]

Also, there is a grad assistant on this team who was giving our guards fits at times. I asked Kimani afterwards who he was, he said his name is Rich Kelly. Played 5 years of D1 ball (Quinnipiac, BC, and UMass). Was a double digit scorer for his entire career and a career 40% 3pt shooter on over 5 3PA/game. Local kid from CT too. He has some serious talent, he looked like he could step right into our roster and compete for a spot. Granted, he's a bit older than our guys so it's not exactly surprising that he was giving some of the younger guys trouble. Great player to have at practice on the scout team. He was like another coach out there too when he was observing drills that he wasn't participating in.

 

[Waquoit]

The GA has that old man strength.

 

[superjohn]

Also, there is a grad assistant on this team who was giving our guards fits at times. I asked Kimani afterwards who he was, he said his name is Rich Kelly. Played 5 years of D1 ball (Quinnipiac, BC, and UMass). Was a double digit scorer for his entire career and a career 40% 3pt shooter on over 5 3PA/game. Local kid from CT too. He has some serious talent, he looked like he could step right into our roster and compete for a spot. Granted, he's a bit older than our guys so it's not exactly surprising that he was giving some of the younger guys trouble. Great player to have at practice on the scout team. He was like another coach out there too when he was observing drills that he wasn't participating in.

Rich Kelly was at UConn last season too.

He shot 45% from three his last season at UMass. Good player.

 

[aburks41]

Rich Kelly was at UConn last season too.

He shot 45% from three his last season at UMass. Good player.

Ah, didn't know that. He was impressive

 

[DogMania]

Abraham had a pretty good shooting day too. And he is Andre Jackson level athletic. Some of the dunks he had (not in scrimmage simulation, but some other drills) were just absurd. I'm not sure if he'll be able to crack the rotation this year given how deep we are, but he is going to be on draft boards next year. He has all the tools to be a 1st round pick. I don't want to call him a diamond in the rough because he was still a top 75 recruit, but I think the recruiting sites missed big time on him. If you told me he was a top 30-35 guy I wouldn't second guess it. He has serious talent.

Some recruits are late bloomers and/or just don't get as much exposure. Sometimes they play on a stacked team and don't get the touches to show what they can do. Lastly, many of the events where exposure is at its greatest they tend to favor the players who can handle and create their own shot, elite shot makers and the bigger and stronger bigs who dominate at the rim and/or step out and knock down Js and 3s.

Granted there seems to be a lot more opportunities to view players within their High School or Elite pre-college teams where coaches cans see recruits execute within some sort of offense and defensive schemes. I think coaches now have a little bit better idea what a player might be than it was a number of years ago.

Props to the staff that has been able to identify players like Abraham and Ross. My guess Abraham was one of those athletes that they noticed could shoot, good feel for the game but probably needed time to develop his handle and other parts his game. Ross was one that showed a lot of game, good shooter and very good handle (was a PG or CG that had huge growth spurt from what I've heard) but needed to fill out, get stronger and refine his game.

Every year you see some very talented players throughout the country that were not ranked very high and wondered where the heck they came from. The problem with the ranking system is that some players just don't get the exposure while others simply need more time to develop their game and body. Props to the programs that spot talented kids that others didn't.

 

[mauconnfan]

Also, there is a grad assistant on this team who was giving our guards fits at times. I asked Kimani afterwards who he was, he said his name is Rich Kelly. Played 5 years of D1 ball (Quinnipiac, BC, and UMass). Was a double digit scorer for his entire career and a career 40% 3pt shooter on over 5 3PA/game. Local kid from CT too. He has some serious talent, he looked like he could step right into our roster and compete for a spot. Granted, he's a bit older than our guys so it's not exactly surprising that he was giving some of the younger guys trouble. Great player to have at practice on the scout team. He was like another coach out there too when he was observing drills that he wasn't participating in.

Kelly is a CT kid and was a solid player at all his stops. Nice addition to the program, kind of played like Cam but level down.

 

[aburks41]

Kelly is a CT kid and was a solid player at all his stops. Nice addition to the program, kind of played like Cam but level down.

I would have loved to have seen him and Cam go up against each other in practice last year. Must have been some epic battles

 

[cellocgg]

anybody have pics from the practice?

 

[jibsey]

The game play I remember was Abraham just exploding to the hoop with insane hops from the sideline, and he did it with ease. It’s just one play but can they put him in for 5 straight minutes?

 

[Fan1978]

Great stuff and thanks for sharing. The Abraham deets align with what I saw up close in August. He has NBA written all over him. If anything hard to understand why he was ranked so low by the recruiting houses (in the 70-80 range). Wonder if it’s inevitable that he finds his way into PT this year as the season progresses as I would imaging if he looks this good in practice regularly, Hurley is noticing.

Any word on how abraham’s cousin pat N prep year is going at Duke

 

[ctchamps]

It was for donors only. Not sure what the cutoff was, but it was likely at the $10k/yr mark because there were only about 100-150ish people there if I had to guess. I have 4 lower bowl tix to Gampel which run me about $8k a year (plus XL tix on top of that) so I was invited.

Honestly it was super interesting because the defense was so good that it was hard for our guys to score haha. Agree with the poster above who said Abraham looked impressive. He was definitely a standout today.

Also, a decent portion of the practice was played without any defense at all, so they just simulate the offensive movement without any defenders. Practice is broken down in 5-10 minute segments. Hurley has a sheet printed out with the entire practice scripted. They only did ~30 minutes of 5v5 in the entire 3 hours, but it wasn't like a normal game flow. They call out a play, if the offense doesn't execute it then they have to run stairs. The 2nd unit ran a lot of stairs hahah.

The practices are definitely way more intense than games. That's why they are always so well conditioned and don't get tired while the other team is completely worn out. It's non stop action for 3 straight hours. It's insane.

Who was playing on the first and second units?