OPEN PRACTICE 7.12.01

We arrive at Conseco early, around 4 p.m.. The doors don't open until

4:30, so my 11 year old son and I go to the Home Court Gift Shop to look

around. In the gift shop I find a Bender "signiture" hat, 60% off and buy it

for $10.00. As we are looking around there is a 5'11" or so athletic looking

woman in Fever gear; I assume a player, maybe not. As we walk out of the

gift shop into the main concourse area, I hold the door open for my son, but,

to my suprise, a 7'1" Slovenian walks in through the door with his 5'1"

hottie of a girlfriend (or I assume). I said "good luck this year, Primoz".

He replies "Tank qu" translated as "Thank you" without the accent. Then as

we are in the main concourse thinking, thats pretty cool, Primoz comes back

out of the door and my son has a Pacer minature basketball, already signed by

Smits a couple of years ago. Primoz signs it. Primoz signs

a couple of more autographs and heads up the elavators. In walks Lari

Ketner, another autograph. In walks Edwin Daniels of TCU. The only eason I

figured that out, is that he had a #2 TCU jersey and shorts on.

We go in at 4:30, get a free 00-01 year book and get seats directly

behind one of the benches, front row. Let me set the scene. Here we are

front row, behind the usual visitors bench, with only about 500 people in the

whole place. Directly 8 feet in front of us is Zeke and JB sitting on the

bench. Ten feet to our left, on press row is, DW. Boyle, C. Brunner, Q.

Buckner, Montieth are down farther. All of the local Sports anchors were

there. Adrian Dantley was assisting, all of the asst. coaches are present and Herb

Williams who sat on the sidelines, but didn't actively help. I was surprised

to see J.O.. Also, Foster was there and JB, not dressed in practice stuff.

I find out, later, JB has a sprained ankle. Anyway, it was J.O. and he hardly

missed from 17 feet and in. Foster was getting gatorade and signing a few

autographs, including my sons.

Then JB leaves to the locker room, as he does, he is stopped for an

autograph by a couple of kids. He signs them and my son is walking up to him

as he starts to walk away. He looks back and reaches out and grabs the ball

and pen to sign the ball, but keeps walking down the hallway, so my son

follows. I stay behind the designated area where the ushers semi guard the

walkway. At this point, I still see them, but they are 25 feet away, out of

ear shot. JB stops, finishes signing, and gives him the ball back. As we make

our way back to our seats, My son says "he was talking to me". I said

"What'd he say?". My son said "I'm not sure". I said "What?" My son

explains that JB said in his usual soft spoken manner "murmurmurmur, murmur,

murmurmurmur". My son, being of.good genes and upbringing, replied to JB "Excuse me?".

Then JB said, again. "murmurmurmur, murmur, murmurmurmur" to which my son, trying not to be rude

responds "I don't know". I bust out laughin. I kidded my son that he

probably asked him "What is your name?" or "How old are you?" or "Do you know

who I am?"

Now on to the practice. They started with some dribble/ shoot drills. It

amazes me how D1 players lack simple fundamental skills. Many struggled with

a dribble in, out, in drill with using the correct hand to shield the ball

from the defender. Then they lined up and did walking/streching exercises

that looked goofy. Somone behind us, yelled "Looking good, J.O." He looked

over and gave the thumbs up sign and a wink. Next, we had the guards and

small forwards at our end. Norman Richardson, G, Hofstra, can shoot and has

nice 2 guard size. Miles Simon is solid all around, but has a hitch in his

shot, very similar to Jamison Brewer, but not as dramatic, more on Brewer later.

Simon looked okay, not spectacular at anything. He shot well in practice, he

has good handles, showed some leadership, but again, he does nothing

excellent or special. The big player were on our end next. J.O., as

expected, dominated. One of the highlights was J.O. guarding Ketner. Ketner

is strong, very strong, but not very skilled. Ketner banged J.O. twice so

hard that I thought his chest would cave in. J.O. had to foul him on the

shot to stop him on one set.

On the offensive end J.O. was unguardable by Foster and Primoz, although they

both battled, but no one else was even close to even bothering him. Will

Cunningham has all of size we are looking for, but none of the ability.

Foster looked exactly like he did during the season with maybe a little more

consistent shot. I did hear some fan say that they overheard him saying that

the coaching staff is trying to help him change his shooting style. The

biggest ups of the group other than J.O. was Vincent Thomas, 6'7", 210 lbs

from Wisconsin-Superior. He isn't good, all around, and is funny to watch

because he opens his eyes really wide, but he had some monster jams in the

practice portion.

Now for the scrimmage, which consisted of 3-8 minute periods. Blue team

starters were Brewer, Adrian Griffin, Foster, Bruno, and Primoz. Yellow was

Cota, Ketner, and J.O., but other than that I don't remember. Let me start

with Jamison Brewer. He did not take jumper during the entire scrimmage, not

one, and he was clearly the best PG on the floor. He pushes the ball up the

court like no guard I've seen play for the Pacers, not named Best. Brewer

pushes it and finds the open guy, at the perfect time and creates the

opportunity, if it isn't evident immediately. He is strong and quick. An

outstanding ball handler. He plays, IN YOUR SHORTS, defense. He was

guarding Simon 94 feet. At one point, he stripped Simon at about the half

court line as Simon was bringing the ball up and Brewer screamed "GIMME THE

BALL!!!!!!" He had several steal and fast break dimes for lay ups that were

both tricky and sound. He ran the half court great. It was kinda unfair

because he had the better squad and was playing lesser talent, except J.O. on

the Yellow, but he was fun to watch. On one break, he hit an extra gear and

exploded to the basket and was hammered by J.O.. He looked really good,

except for the hitch at the top of his jumper. It is almost like he gets

ready to release it and then rotates his wrist. If he can develop a decent

shot, he has a lot of tools. The other standout was Primoz. He plays hard

and has a semblance of a low post game. He plays a physical style that isn't

Euro. He scraps. He hit a couple of nice back down moves, a jumper, a

couple of offensive put backs. He isn't the shooter that Bruno is, but he

looks better than Bruno, right now. He is a legit center and as he gets

stronger and bigger he will be very effective. He will struggle with foul

trouble, but I was very surprised by him. He was the best real Center on

the floor. Other things of note were J.O. and Foster killing each other in

the post. Foster clobbered J.O. and J.O. had to leave the game holding his

shoulder, but he went back in the game and had ice on it after the game.

Adrian Griffen looked solid, strong, and effective. Again, Norman Richardson

a 2 guard from Hofstra, shot very well. Ed Cota looked not good. There was

alot of other okay players, nothing of huge note.

Bruno

As we left, JB was in the practice gym shooting. I watched, with hope and

disappointment, as he drained jumper after jumper after jumper, wondering, if he would

ever be able to realize all that potential. BTW, no one won $100,000.