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Yeah, Monk got drafted in the 7th round.
He's getting his Reggie Love on.
He's getting his Reggie Love on.
The College Basketball Post
- Thread in 'Sports & Training' Thread starter Started by allen3xis,
- Start date
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He's in grad school
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interesting.
ball game. Two players won't get it done every night.
..
Varnado is averaging an even 6 blocks?
ball game. Two players won't get it done every night.
..
Varnado is averaging an even 6 blocks?
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- 1,984
Drafted in the seventh round by the Bears...he didn't make the team, then was signed by the Giants and later released again...
He's back at Arkansas as a graduate student, and just joined the team on the 18th
I don't really know how he's eligible to play, but here's what I found:
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Give me Arkansas over Oklahoma tonight.
good call
...
Varnado also with 20+ in 4 outa past 5...hmmphhh..
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For some reason I really like Oklahoma
They gotta get more from guy besides Warren/Griffin
But Willie is
They gotta get more from guy besides Warren/Griffin
But Willie is
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| Willie Warren, G | 37 | 12-22 | 7-11 | 4-7 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 35 |
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This chick has turned into the best journalist on ESPN for hoops.
Marathon tomorrow on ESPN2
Penn State/NW - 12
Wisconsin/Michigan - 2
Loyola MD/Duke - 4
UNLV/L'Ville - 6
ND/Depaul - 8
UNC/Nevada - 10
Wink, Dar, Manny, Sims
[h1]Loyalty paying off for Harris and his tourney-starved Wolverines[/h1]
By Dana O'Neil
ESPN.com
(Archive)
Updated: December 30, 2008
John Beilein had been on the job just a handful of days when he sat down for his most important meeting.
Across from the newly minted Michigan coach sat a teenager who had no idea who this earnest man was. Manny Harris was a fan of playing the game, not watching the game. He spent his time on theDetroit playgrounds or in the gym, not parked in front of the television. Never really paid much attention to Kevin Pittsnogle, not real savvy about MikeGansey, didn't know the history lesson on resurgent West Virginia hoops under Beilein.
All Harris knew was that Tommy Amaker recruited him to Michigan, had him sign a letter of intent to play for the Wolverines, and now Amaker was gone andthis guy he'd never met was supposed to be his coach.
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James Lang/US Presswire
Second-year coach John Beilein has Michigan on a fast track to its first NCAA tourney trip in 11 years.
In those early whirlwind days, Beilein's to-do list was lengthy, but instead of wooing alums, meeting with the media or glad-handing fans, he madeHarris his priority.
Saddled with a program that still fancied itself a Cadillac but more resembled a Pinto, Beilein had watched film of the talented shooting guard, saw the waythe Michigan Mr. Basketball could score, and knew Harris was the kind of player who could be used as a cornerstone in an epic rebuilding project.
He also knew that Harris wasn't sure he was still coming to Michigan.
"You get so close with a recruit because of how early it starts now, so I tried to let him know I understood," Beilein said. "But I also toldhim no matter where you go, you're going to be in a similar situation -- that it won't be the coach you wanted to play for. So I told him, why not giveit a try? If it doesn't work, it doesn't work. I knew he wanted to turn around Michigan basketball and I wanted to turn around Michigan basketball, soI said let's see if we can do that."
The ribbon-tied trite sentence begs to be written here. The Wolverines (10-2) have knocked out UCLA and Duke, beating two top-five teams in one season forthe first time in 21 years, are ranked 24th in the latest ESPN/USA Today poll and head into Wednesday's Big Ten opener against Wisconsin (2 p.m., ESPN2) asone of the early surprises of the college basketball season.
Go ahead. Try to be trite. Try to say that the turnaround Harris and Beilein craved has happened, that the Wolverines have crested the mountain and order isrestored in Ann Arbor.
Fans will agree wholeheartedly. Desperate for something in maize and blue worth celebrating after a football season for the record books of ignominy, theyare no longer asking whether Michigan will make the NCAA tournament. They want to know how deep the Wolverines, who haven't been dancing in a decade, cango.
They clogged players' Facebook and MySpace pages after the UCLA win, stormed the court after the 81-73 win over the Blue Devils, and have bull-rusheddrinking the Kool-Aid in favor of an all-out kegger on the stuff.
But just try to run that hackneyed nonsense by Beilein and his Merry Band of Realists.
Beilein is so underwhelmed that he likens sophomore coaching seasons to the bout of vertigo that sidelined him against Eastern Michigan earlier thismonth.
"It's that same dizziness," he said. "Second years are a roller coaster. Just when you think you're getting better and you'vemade it, watch out, and when you think you're never going to get better, you play great.
"We haven't turned the corner yet. We can see the corner up there, but we haven't turned it."
Beilein's temperance is the drink of choice for his players.
Says Harris: "To me, it feels like we're just getting started. We're only beginning to become what a good program is."
Says DeShawn Sims: "I think we're still climbing the hill. We'vedeveloped so much in terms of our team chemistry, so we're steadily moving up the hill, but we're not there yet."
They can poor-mouth it all they want, but the Wolverines are a lot closer to the summit a lot faster than anyone could have dreamed -- already matching lastseason's win total.
If football coach Rich Rodriguez is looking for hope, he needs only to check in with his former West Virginia co-worker. A year ago, Beilein was Rodriguez,his hoops team matching this year's pigskin crew in futility. The Wolverines finished 10-22, setting a record for losses in a single season -- and, mostembarrassing, took an 11-point loss on the chin from Harvard, with Amaker leading the Crimson.
Beilein insisted he was encouraged, saying after the regular season-ending loss to Purdue, "I've seen great progress and I hope you have."
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Michael Sackett/US Presswire
DeShawn Sims has blossomed from a role player to a star for the surprising Wolverines.
What he viewed through the prism of his rose-colored glasses was clear to him if no one else: Sims, a little-used rookie under Amaker, started every gameand earned honorable mention All-Big Ten honors as he nearly quadrupled his productivity, going from 3.4 points to 12.3 per game; and Harris, a rookie who alsostarted every game, scored in double figures in 28 of 32 games and became only the fourth Michigan freshman to score more than 500 points.
The losses were hard to swallow, but to Beilein, the experience was worth the pain. The pair, along with guard Kelvin Grady and forward Zack Gibson, learned the rigors of college ball as well as the demands of Beilein ball.
Beilein dislikes the word system, saying he merely teaches players things high school coaches don't have the time to teach. Things liketransition defense. Whatever he wants to call it, the way he coaches involves a learning curve. Players aren't used to reading defenses as he demands theydo, nor frankly are they used to the steady green light he offers. The Wolverines take around 26 3-pointers per game, despite making only 8.8 of them onaverage.
"It's almost like a football playbook, there are so many plays," Harris said. "He has his own vocabulary and it's hard to get down.The other thing is, it's not that you step outside of the system, but you have to be able to create. The system puts you in the position to be open.It's up to you to create and finish."
While outsiders cringed at the hefty buyout to West Virginia required to bring Beilein to town and wondered if athletic director Bill Martin was getting hismoney's worth that first year, the Wolverines became instant converts. They liked the way Beilein demanded excellence that had nothing to do with winningbut everything to do with how they played. They liked the confidence he had in them, even when -- or especially when -- their shots didn't fall.
And they liked him.
"There is zero tolerance for negativity with him. Zero," Sims said. "There's a standard for everything you do, and you gain so muchconfidence through him. You feel like you can do anything."
With Beilein's help, Sims has blossomed from a role player under Amaker into the Wolverines' version of Pittsnogle. The 6-foot-8 forward isaveraging 17.2 points and 9.2 rebounds per game and has become the sort of outside shooter required of a big man in Beilein's system, er, style. As arookie, Sims took seven 3-pointers and missed them all. As a sophomore he took 142 and hit 43. This year, he's 10-for-29.
As for Harris, he is averaging a Big Ten-leading 19.8 points per game, but made his coach smile widest when he wasn't the leading scorer. AgainstOakland, Harris had 15 points to Sims' 20 but dished out 13 assists to zero turnovers in 36 minutes.
It's the sort of game, the kind of stat line, that brings Harris back to his April 2007 meeting with Beilein. He admits at the time he was teetering onthe fence, not sure if he should stay with Michigan or go elsewhere.
Two things, Harris said, convinced him to stay.
"Definitely, one was my love for Michigan," he said, "but the other was the way coach kept everything so real. He didn't come in and lieto me and say that this would be my team. He told me we were going to have a lot of work to do and have to work hard. But he also promised he would make me abetter player and we could make Michigan better."
Meeting adjourned.
Dana O'Neil covers college basketball for ESPN.com and can be reached at [email protected]
Marathon tomorrow on ESPN2
Penn State/NW - 12
Wisconsin/Michigan - 2
Loyola MD/Duke - 4
UNLV/L'Ville - 6
ND/Depaul - 8
UNC/Nevada - 10
Wink, Dar, Manny, Sims
[h1]Loyalty paying off for Harris and his tourney-starved Wolverines[/h1]
By Dana O'Neil
ESPN.com
(Archive)
Updated: December 30, 2008
- Comment
- http://sendtofriend.espn....mp;id=3799411&title=O\'Neil:%20Loyalty%20paying%20off%20for%20Wolverines&id=3799411','sendtofriend','noresizable,noscrollbars,width=400,height=500');return false;">Email
John Beilein had been on the job just a handful of days when he sat down for his most important meeting.
Across from the newly minted Michigan coach sat a teenager who had no idea who this earnest man was. Manny Harris was a fan of playing the game, not watching the game. He spent his time on theDetroit playgrounds or in the gym, not parked in front of the television. Never really paid much attention to Kevin Pittsnogle, not real savvy about MikeGansey, didn't know the history lesson on resurgent West Virginia hoops under Beilein.
All Harris knew was that Tommy Amaker recruited him to Michigan, had him sign a letter of intent to play for the Wolverines, and now Amaker was gone andthis guy he'd never met was supposed to be his coach.
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James Lang/US Presswire
Second-year coach John Beilein has Michigan on a fast track to its first NCAA tourney trip in 11 years.
In those early whirlwind days, Beilein's to-do list was lengthy, but instead of wooing alums, meeting with the media or glad-handing fans, he madeHarris his priority.
Saddled with a program that still fancied itself a Cadillac but more resembled a Pinto, Beilein had watched film of the talented shooting guard, saw the waythe Michigan Mr. Basketball could score, and knew Harris was the kind of player who could be used as a cornerstone in an epic rebuilding project.
He also knew that Harris wasn't sure he was still coming to Michigan.
"You get so close with a recruit because of how early it starts now, so I tried to let him know I understood," Beilein said. "But I also toldhim no matter where you go, you're going to be in a similar situation -- that it won't be the coach you wanted to play for. So I told him, why not giveit a try? If it doesn't work, it doesn't work. I knew he wanted to turn around Michigan basketball and I wanted to turn around Michigan basketball, soI said let's see if we can do that."
The ribbon-tied trite sentence begs to be written here. The Wolverines (10-2) have knocked out UCLA and Duke, beating two top-five teams in one season forthe first time in 21 years, are ranked 24th in the latest ESPN/USA Today poll and head into Wednesday's Big Ten opener against Wisconsin (2 p.m., ESPN2) asone of the early surprises of the college basketball season.
Go ahead. Try to be trite. Try to say that the turnaround Harris and Beilein craved has happened, that the Wolverines have crested the mountain and order isrestored in Ann Arbor.
Fans will agree wholeheartedly. Desperate for something in maize and blue worth celebrating after a football season for the record books of ignominy, theyare no longer asking whether Michigan will make the NCAA tournament. They want to know how deep the Wolverines, who haven't been dancing in a decade, cango.
They clogged players' Facebook and MySpace pages after the UCLA win, stormed the court after the 81-73 win over the Blue Devils, and have bull-rusheddrinking the Kool-Aid in favor of an all-out kegger on the stuff.
But just try to run that hackneyed nonsense by Beilein and his Merry Band of Realists.
Beilein is so underwhelmed that he likens sophomore coaching seasons to the bout of vertigo that sidelined him against Eastern Michigan earlier thismonth.
"It's that same dizziness," he said. "Second years are a roller coaster. Just when you think you're getting better and you'vemade it, watch out, and when you think you're never going to get better, you play great.
"We haven't turned the corner yet. We can see the corner up there, but we haven't turned it."
Beilein's temperance is the drink of choice for his players.
Says Harris: "To me, it feels like we're just getting started. We're only beginning to become what a good program is."
Says DeShawn Sims: "I think we're still climbing the hill. We'vedeveloped so much in terms of our team chemistry, so we're steadily moving up the hill, but we're not there yet."
They can poor-mouth it all they want, but the Wolverines are a lot closer to the summit a lot faster than anyone could have dreamed -- already matching lastseason's win total.
If football coach Rich Rodriguez is looking for hope, he needs only to check in with his former West Virginia co-worker. A year ago, Beilein was Rodriguez,his hoops team matching this year's pigskin crew in futility. The Wolverines finished 10-22, setting a record for losses in a single season -- and, mostembarrassing, took an 11-point loss on the chin from Harvard, with Amaker leading the Crimson.
Beilein insisted he was encouraged, saying after the regular season-ending loss to Purdue, "I've seen great progress and I hope you have."
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Michael Sackett/US Presswire
DeShawn Sims has blossomed from a role player to a star for the surprising Wolverines.
What he viewed through the prism of his rose-colored glasses was clear to him if no one else: Sims, a little-used rookie under Amaker, started every gameand earned honorable mention All-Big Ten honors as he nearly quadrupled his productivity, going from 3.4 points to 12.3 per game; and Harris, a rookie who alsostarted every game, scored in double figures in 28 of 32 games and became only the fourth Michigan freshman to score more than 500 points.
The losses were hard to swallow, but to Beilein, the experience was worth the pain. The pair, along with guard Kelvin Grady and forward Zack Gibson, learned the rigors of college ball as well as the demands of Beilein ball.
Beilein dislikes the word system, saying he merely teaches players things high school coaches don't have the time to teach. Things liketransition defense. Whatever he wants to call it, the way he coaches involves a learning curve. Players aren't used to reading defenses as he demands theydo, nor frankly are they used to the steady green light he offers. The Wolverines take around 26 3-pointers per game, despite making only 8.8 of them onaverage.
"It's almost like a football playbook, there are so many plays," Harris said. "He has his own vocabulary and it's hard to get down.The other thing is, it's not that you step outside of the system, but you have to be able to create. The system puts you in the position to be open.It's up to you to create and finish."
While outsiders cringed at the hefty buyout to West Virginia required to bring Beilein to town and wondered if athletic director Bill Martin was getting hismoney's worth that first year, the Wolverines became instant converts. They liked the way Beilein demanded excellence that had nothing to do with winningbut everything to do with how they played. They liked the confidence he had in them, even when -- or especially when -- their shots didn't fall.
And they liked him.
"There is zero tolerance for negativity with him. Zero," Sims said. "There's a standard for everything you do, and you gain so muchconfidence through him. You feel like you can do anything."
With Beilein's help, Sims has blossomed from a role player under Amaker into the Wolverines' version of Pittsnogle. The 6-foot-8 forward isaveraging 17.2 points and 9.2 rebounds per game and has become the sort of outside shooter required of a big man in Beilein's system, er, style. As arookie, Sims took seven 3-pointers and missed them all. As a sophomore he took 142 and hit 43. This year, he's 10-for-29.
As for Harris, he is averaging a Big Ten-leading 19.8 points per game, but made his coach smile widest when he wasn't the leading scorer. AgainstOakland, Harris had 15 points to Sims' 20 but dished out 13 assists to zero turnovers in 36 minutes.
It's the sort of game, the kind of stat line, that brings Harris back to his April 2007 meeting with Beilein. He admits at the time he was teetering onthe fence, not sure if he should stay with Michigan or go elsewhere.
Two things, Harris said, convinced him to stay.
"Definitely, one was my love for Michigan," he said, "but the other was the way coach kept everything so real. He didn't come in and lieto me and say that this would be my team. He told me we were going to have a lot of work to do and have to work hard. But he also promised he would make me abetter player and we could make Michigan better."
Meeting adjourned.
Dana O'Neil covers college basketball for ESPN.com and can be reached at [email protected]
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She's always been my favorite.
jordanxi2001
Banned
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Bonnies update: 8-4. just won a double OT barn burner @ mighty Bucknell.
Andrew Nicholson set a school record for blocks with 9 along with 22 points and 8 boards. get familiar with this freshman, he's going to be a FORCE for thenext 4 years, then he's NBA bound.
one more non-conference game @ Central Arkansas before conference play begins...i'm itching for A-10 play to start.
Andrew Nicholson set a school record for blocks with 9 along with 22 points and 8 boards. get familiar with this freshman, he's going to be a FORCE for thenext 4 years, then he's NBA bound.
one more non-conference game @ Central Arkansas before conference play begins...i'm itching for A-10 play to start.
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Apparently...Hollis Thompson has graduated HS early and is enrolled in Georgetown for next semester but will not play until next season.
truthgetsbusy
Banned
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You guys wanted legit comp right?
�
�
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12,10,8,2.....Not bad.Originally Posted by dreClark
- Courtney Fortson. You better get familiar. Sherron Collins lite. Really wanna see how he plays against OU tonight.
First bigtime college game
5 TO's and 3-14 shooting though
Sonny Corinthos
formerly joeclear
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That's great to hear , I really wish him well
- 715
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Truth
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yeah, good business.
that'll def help him. I guess He technically could play this season, but won't. Which is the right thing. He can live in the weight room and getaccommodated to the system.
Interesting now...III seems to want to fill the combo guard spot in the spring with the 09 class instead of trying for a big man who's transferring or ajuco kid.
...
Carolina is showing interest now in another '10 Casey Prather..he's big time too.
And Duke showing interest in Jason Morris '10..2 guard...big time as well.
hopefully they just think Roscoe is in the bag for someone else
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Stefon Jackson..44 last night
Gary Parrish
[font=Arial, Helvetica]FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- The final buzzer sounded, the place grew louder, John Pelphrey and Jeff Capel shook hands, andthen out of the corner of my eye, I saw it -- Stefan Welsh at midcourt, face down on the hardwood kissing a Razorback.[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]"I can't explain the kiss," Razorback freshman Rotnei Clarke said.[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]Also unexplainable: Arkansas 96, No. 4 Oklahoma 88.[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]Pig Sooie, indeed.[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]Roughly 24 hours after fourth-ranked Connecticut lost to 11th-ranked Georgetown, ninth-ranked Purdue lost to unrankedIllinois and fourth-ranked Oklahoma lost to unranked Arkansas, which means the college basketball landscape is as unstable as our economy. The only thing wecan safely count on is North Carolina kicking the poo out of people. But beyond that, things are unpredictable and chaotic and a helluva lot of fun towatch.[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]"North Carolina has separated itself," Capel said. "But after that, I think you can take 30 or 40teams and mix them up, and it doesn't really matter."[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]I fundamentally agree.[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]And one more thing: Make sure Arkansas is one of those 30 or 40![/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]Which is not to suggest these Hogs won't have problems, because they will. They are tiny in the backcourt, moreinexperienced than Sarah Palin's grandson and destined to hit some bumps in the road, like the bump they hit last month at Missouri State. That's whathappens when you have five new starters, and it's bound to happen again. But 10-1 is 10-1, and 10-1 with a victory against Oklahoma is pretty darnimpressive.[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]So let's forget about all those preseason predictions that had Arkansas finishing sixth in the SEC West, becausethough I'm not ready to hand the Hogs a division title just yet, I'm pretty sure they aren't finishing sixth.[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]Why?[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]For three reasons, actually:[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]1. Auburn and Mississippi State aren't very good.[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]2. Ole Miss is more banged up than Tom Brady and Brett Favre combined.[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]3. No team with Courtney Fortson in charge is finishing last in a division.[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]Swear to God, I love that kid. Might be my favorite freshman in the country after seeing him up close. Andso if you're one of the Arkansas fans who e-mailed after the game to ask if I remain skeptical of Fortson, the answer is a resounding "No."He's 71 inches of smiles and hair and, well, I'll just let Willie Warren tell you about the Alabama native who is averaging 15.5 points, 7.1 assistsand 5.5 rebounds through 11 games.[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]"He gets into the lane and makes things happen," said Warren, the OU freshman who scored 35 points and wasa big reason why the Sooners cut a 25-point deficit to four late in the second half before faltering. "He does what good point guards do."[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]And your thoughts, Coach Capel?[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]"There's no question who the leader of their team is, and I think that speaks volumes for a freshman to beable to grab a team by the horns like he has, and not just with his play, but with his heart," Capel said. "Everything you want a point guard to do,he does. He's instructing guys. He's encouraging guys. He's getting on guys. He understands pace. He's just tremendous."[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]How tremendous?[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]Consider that less than three weeks after recording the Hogs' first triple-double in 25 years, Fortson damn nearmessed around and notched another against OU. He finished with 12 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds in 39 minutes, meaning this 5-11, 180-pound joy towatch outrebounded everybody on OU's roster not named Blake Griffin -- who, by the way, produced 21 points and 13 rebounds in what amounted to a so-soeffort for the likely top pick in the 2009 NBA Draft.[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]And that's all you need to know about what happened here Tuesday night -- that Griffin was worth only aby-the-way comment because the real story was the further development of Fortson, an Oklahoma kid (Clarke) getting 15 points against Oklahoma, aformer football star (Marcus Monk) recording 12 points and six rebounds in only his third game, Arkansas notching the upset of the week in front of 19,064fans, and a kinesiology major (Welsh) kissing a Razorback when it was all over and done.[/font]
Gary Parrish
[font=Arial, Helvetica]FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- The final buzzer sounded, the place grew louder, John Pelphrey and Jeff Capel shook hands, andthen out of the corner of my eye, I saw it -- Stefan Welsh at midcourt, face down on the hardwood kissing a Razorback.[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]"I can't explain the kiss," Razorback freshman Rotnei Clarke said.[/font]
| |
| Arkansas big man Michael Washington also makes an impression with 24 points and 11 rebounds. (AP) |
[font=Arial, Helvetica]Pig Sooie, indeed.[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]Roughly 24 hours after fourth-ranked Connecticut lost to 11th-ranked Georgetown, ninth-ranked Purdue lost to unrankedIllinois and fourth-ranked Oklahoma lost to unranked Arkansas, which means the college basketball landscape is as unstable as our economy. The only thing wecan safely count on is North Carolina kicking the poo out of people. But beyond that, things are unpredictable and chaotic and a helluva lot of fun towatch.[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]"North Carolina has separated itself," Capel said. "But after that, I think you can take 30 or 40teams and mix them up, and it doesn't really matter."[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]I fundamentally agree.[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]And one more thing: Make sure Arkansas is one of those 30 or 40![/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]Which is not to suggest these Hogs won't have problems, because they will. They are tiny in the backcourt, moreinexperienced than Sarah Palin's grandson and destined to hit some bumps in the road, like the bump they hit last month at Missouri State. That's whathappens when you have five new starters, and it's bound to happen again. But 10-1 is 10-1, and 10-1 with a victory against Oklahoma is pretty darnimpressive.[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]So let's forget about all those preseason predictions that had Arkansas finishing sixth in the SEC West, becausethough I'm not ready to hand the Hogs a division title just yet, I'm pretty sure they aren't finishing sixth.[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]Why?[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]For three reasons, actually:[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]1. Auburn and Mississippi State aren't very good.[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]2. Ole Miss is more banged up than Tom Brady and Brett Favre combined.[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]3. No team with Courtney Fortson in charge is finishing last in a division.[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]Swear to God, I love that kid. Might be my favorite freshman in the country after seeing him up close. Andso if you're one of the Arkansas fans who e-mailed after the game to ask if I remain skeptical of Fortson, the answer is a resounding "No."He's 71 inches of smiles and hair and, well, I'll just let Willie Warren tell you about the Alabama native who is averaging 15.5 points, 7.1 assistsand 5.5 rebounds through 11 games.[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]"He gets into the lane and makes things happen," said Warren, the OU freshman who scored 35 points and wasa big reason why the Sooners cut a 25-point deficit to four late in the second half before faltering. "He does what good point guards do."[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]And your thoughts, Coach Capel?[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]"There's no question who the leader of their team is, and I think that speaks volumes for a freshman to beable to grab a team by the horns like he has, and not just with his play, but with his heart," Capel said. "Everything you want a point guard to do,he does. He's instructing guys. He's encouraging guys. He's getting on guys. He understands pace. He's just tremendous."[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]How tremendous?[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]Consider that less than three weeks after recording the Hogs' first triple-double in 25 years, Fortson damn nearmessed around and notched another against OU. He finished with 12 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds in 39 minutes, meaning this 5-11, 180-pound joy towatch outrebounded everybody on OU's roster not named Blake Griffin -- who, by the way, produced 21 points and 13 rebounds in what amounted to a so-soeffort for the likely top pick in the 2009 NBA Draft.[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]And that's all you need to know about what happened here Tuesday night -- that Griffin was worth only aby-the-way comment because the real story was the further development of Fortson, an Oklahoma kid (Clarke) getting 15 points against Oklahoma, aformer football star (Marcus Monk) recording 12 points and six rebounds in only his third game, Arkansas notching the upset of the week in front of 19,064fans, and a kinesiology major (Welsh) kissing a Razorback when it was all over and done.[/font]
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How good is this kid?
hopefully they just think Roscoe is in the bag for someone else
[font=Arial, Helvetica]3. No team with Courtney Fortson in charge is finishing last in a division.[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]Swear to God, I love that kid. Might be my favorite freshman in the country after seeing him up close. And so if you're one of the Arkansas fans who e-mailed after the game to ask if I remain skeptical of Fortson, the answer is a resounding "No." He's 71 inches of smiles and hair and, well, I'll just let Willie Warren tell you about the Alabama native who is averaging 15.5 points, 7.1 assists and 5.5 rebounds through 11 games.[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]"He gets into the lane and makes things happen," said Warren, the OU freshman who scored 35 points and was a big reason why the Sooners cut a 25-point deficit to four late in the second half before faltering. "He does what good point guards do."[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]And your thoughts, Coach Capel?[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]"There's no question who the leader of their team is, and I think that speaks volumes for a freshman to be able to grab a team by the horns like he has, and not just with his play, but with his heart," Capel said. "Everything you want a point guard to do, he does. He's instructing guys. He's encouraging guys. He's getting on guys. He understands pace. He's just tremendous."[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]How tremendous?[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]Consider that less than three weeks after recording the Hogs' first triple-double in 25 years, Fortson damn near messed around and notched another against OU. He finished with 12 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds in 39 minutes, meaning this 5-11, 180-pound joy to watch outrebounded everybody on OU's roster not named Blake Griffin -- who, by the way, produced 21 points and 13 rebounds in what amounted to a so-so effort for the likely top pick in the 2009 NBA Draft.[/font]
[font=Arial, Helvetica]And that's all you need to know about what happened here Tuesday night -- that Griffin was worth only a by-the-way comment because the real story was the further development of Fortson, an Oklahoma kid (Clarke) getting 15 points against Oklahoma, a former football star (Marcus Monk) recording 12 points and six rebounds in only his third game, Arkansas notching the upset of the week in front of 19,064 fans, and a kinesiology major (Welsh) kissing a Razorback when it was all over and done.[/font]
My son.
Y'all better get familiar.
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Dre, how many "sons" you got now a days?
Nice lil marathon today
..
Nice lil marathon today
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I got 'bout 11 or so....Originally Posted by JamesOnNT
Dre, how many "sons" you got now a days?
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very good Dre. Great athlete with a nice skill set so far. I think rivals has him in the Top 25..Scout somewhere in the Top 50.
I know G'Town and Syracuse have been on him. I believe schools like Texas and Nova as well.
...
Big 10 basketball is still so boring.
I know G'Town and Syracuse have been on him. I believe schools like Texas and Nova as well.
...
Big 10 basketball is still so boring.
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fix
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Last night was entertaining..
these 2 games right now, tho....
these 2 games right now, tho....
