Impressions...

Posted on: September 23, 2017 at 11:33:13 CT

Teams need Talent, Culture, and Coaching to win. After seeing them in practice they clearly are much improved in the first two categories. We all knew the talent piece was going to be dramatically better and its obvious that MPJ is the real deal. I hadn't seen him play in person since his sophomore year but he does some jaw dropping things on the court. As a coach its not dunks that stand out its the combination of Talent, Athleticism, Skill, and Fundamentals that leave you shaking your head. I don't think I have seen someone at the college level possess of all those things in person before. My question is can he be the alpha dog to lead this team.

I, like everyone else, was really surprised but just how good Tilmon was. Not just his physical presence but also his motor and skill level. In the brief scrimmage he caught the ball on the left block, made a sort of dream shake and hit a turn around from 8-10 feet. I don't know the last time I saw a Mizzou big do that beyond Bowers and Bowers was a 4 not a true 5 like Tilmon.

Those two guys really stood out, beyond that it was just interesting to look at all the guys who played a ton of minutes last year and try to figure out which of them would see the floor and and wonder who was really willing to buy into a reduced roll. It will also be interesting to see which guards step because to me that is the definitive weakness on this team. I don't know who will be the lead guard and who will be a consistent out side shooter beyond Robertson. It's clear in watching him that he can and will stroke it and that his 3 point % is legit. He has great feet and a beautiful high and quick release. Kid's got a burner.

The other thing that was evident is the culture change. I always tell my kids that you tell a good team from a bad team just by listening to them. The gym was loud, the energy was good, the body language was great. Now it was also a packed gym which the last few years wasn't the case as we along with many other coaches would get up after a few minutes of the previous **** show and use that time to get lunch or check into our hotels so we could get back to the good speakers and marque names at the clinic.

As for the coaching aspect its hard to tell from a clinic whether a guy can x and o it. I saw Coach Martin a week ago in KC at another clinic and honestly clinics like that aren't his strength. His deep voice makes for a garbled message on the mic and in KC he wasn't working with his guys. I liked his points of emphasis on the defensive end and you can see that is where he is most comfortable. In KC he talked about his values and the what he believes in as he builds a program. You can tell he is genuine and why he kills it on the recruiting trail. Its not a show, its real. Having been around it for a while you can spot the difference. As far as offense all we saw was individual skill development and it was all good stuff. All players developing all skills. In the brief scrimmage they pushed the ball hard in transition ran the trail or stretch 4 to top of the key ran two different entries from the Fred Hoiberg Iowa State playbook. So at least in transition they are spreading the floor.

That's what I got but its obvious in the two most important areas of talent acquisition and culture building we are definitely headed in the right direction.

Edited by supafly at 11:38:40 on 09/23/17