SCHOLARSHIP PLAYERS NOT ATTENDING: G Zep Jasper (still at Charleston), G KD Johnson (still at Georgia)
SCHOLARSHIP PLAYERS IN ATTENDANCE: PG Wen Green, G/F Devan Cambridge, G/F Al Flanigan, G/F Chris Moore, F Dylan Cardwell, F Jaylin Williams, F Jabari Smith, C Stretch Akingbola, C Walker Kessler
NO CAMERAS ARE ALLOWED. NOT MY RULE.
SCHOLARSHIP PLAYERS IN ATTENDANCE: PG Wen Green, G/F Devan Cambridge, G/F Al Flanigan, G/F Chris Moore, F Dylan Cardwell, F Jaylin Williams, F Jabari Smith, C Stretch Akingbola, C Walker Kessler
NO CAMERAS ARE ALLOWED. NOT MY RULE.
- Team was dragging after a long day of camps inside the Arena. Shooting was off, passing was off, team looked lethargic compared to what I saw last week.
- They spent most of the afternoon on individual drills and free-throw shooting. Wes Flanigan works with bigs and Ira Bowman works with guards and wings.
- Kessler participated in individual drills, but was held out of sprints due to tendinitis in both knees. He told Bruce Pearl very clearly that he wanted to do sprints with his teammates, but was overruled. He spent the sprint "period" on the exercise bike instead — and he was pushing while on it. Wasn't lazy about it at all.
- They run a three-point drill where teams of three scholarship players and one walk-on have 60 seconds (sometimes 90) to hit as many threes as possible. They get three points for each bucket. The top group Monday was Flanigan/Kessler/Moore with a combined score of 120. Typical scores for this drill are in the 85-105 range.
- KT Harrell is a graduate assistant and part of his job is to play the TOUGH GUY in a post drill. In this drill, big guys work to get position and then finish against Harrell, who is armed with a big foam shield. Harrell tries to give these guys proper resistance, but he's just not big enough. Pearl half-jokingly got on Harrell for giving up the baseline too easily against both Kessler and Akingbola. Harrell had this mystified look, but continued doing his best. Kessler really moves guys around in the post. He's not at all fat, but he's a huge human being — and he knows how to use his butt to knock people around.
- I heard several players address Akingbola as "Tundé," so I'm going to start doing that myself.
- Speaking of Kessler, he's really something. He is remarkably explosive despite not being a guy who makes your jaw drop the way Issac did, you know? Yesterday, Kessler needed just two steps to dunk from just inside the three-point line.
- Flanigan was terrific in a free-throw drill late. He was hitting at least 80% from the line and hit 12 in a row at one point. Remember when he was a terrible three-throw shooter? It was only a couple years ago!
- They're planning to run some full-team drills today. It's basically a situational scrimmage, often 4-on-4. Kessler is expected to participate.
- Spoke with Marquis Daniels after practice. He's doing great after that gnarly automobile accident last year! I'd forgotten that Quis was a freshman on that weird 2000 team. He played only one game until the tournament that year. Crazy!
