Report?

Standing by not very patiently.

Kids scrimmaged some. Didn't get to see a lot. I think the freshman point guards will be fine. Gillen won the three point shooting contest.
Dillard looked good. Not a lot of shots made in the scrimmage. Big men didn't score much. James White blew everyone away in the slam dunk competition. He jumped over Taggart to make one of them. Very impressive. Will and Gus were both playing in the scrimmage, which is a good sign. Taggart isn't wearing a brace this year, and moves much better. Only negative I saw was that Javes tends to hang on to the ball when they throw it in, and waits too long to either do something with it or kick it back out. That's something that can easily be corrected by the coaches. When he waits too long, someone either strips the ball or takes it away from him. He has to learn to either immediately make a move offensively, or if he doesn't have a shot, kick it back out to the perimeter. Keep in mind I only got to watch them scrimmage for around ten minutes, so my report is rather sketchy. But I like the way they were running the floor and moving the ball around. There wasn't a lot of continuity since they were running players in and out frequently. Wish I had more, but that's about it.

Thank you for that, though. Any information is golden information.

Interesting. As I recall, both the men and women assigned three players to shoot the three point shots. And someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the men were WN, Gillen, and Osse. And since they were shooting at the same time, I'm not sure who represented the women. I believe it was Jeanette Merriex, Taylor Gault and Kierra Clark. Since one was shooting at one end of the court and the other at the other end, it was impossible to watch both at the same time, so I focused on the men. But I know Osse lost to whomever he was competing against. I believe Will and Gillen both won, and Gillen won the overall. Gillen looked like he can really shoot the three ball. But I think Hagins is a good shooter also. He is very athletic and was in the slam dunk contest at 6'1". Other two were James White, who won, and I think the other one was 6'8" Mike Evans. He didn't fare too well. But I'll guarantee you if they can get the ball inside to James, he'll slam it down or get fouled. I hope he's a good free throw shooter. Overall we are bigger and more athletic than we've ever been. I think Javes is at least a year away from being the force he could become. If he can become more consistent in his inside scoring, he'll be hard to stop. He's stronger, and can run and jump. Gus will do a good job. He's a blue collar type player who will give you everything he's got.
Although White is not quite as tall as Javes, he has very long arms and can jump out of the gym. I would try him some at the five on offense. He will stuff it in somebody's face from time to time if given the opportunity. Unfortunately I haven't seen anyone with Joe Kleine's back to the basket type ability yet. Poulter might have some of that in time. At 282 pounds, he should be able to pound inside. I don't know what his role will be this year, but I have the feeling they might not redshirt him. With the injuries we've had in the past and present, I'd go ahead and get him some experience just in case he's needed. I think a few minutes a game this year could really help him develop for the future. Of course he's got to learn to play defense, and I have no idea how he's doing in that area. Obviously coaches will have to make those decisions.

I guess since I wasn't going, I didn't think about the 5pm starting time for Meet the Trojans until I read BTH today. That was another situation where the people out there don't think or care about the fans. Many people don't get off until 5 o'clock, and by the time they go home and get their families and get to the Jack, it's at least 6 o'clock. And they wonder why they don't have better support. Since they don't let you attend practices, I guess they feel they have to have something for the fans to see before the season begins. Start it at 5 o'clock and get it over with as soon as possible.

He mentioned the three point shooting contests, and I understood him to say that they held both the men's and women's at the same time, on opposite ends of the court. Is that correct? Why wouldn't they separate the men's and women's events, where you could watch both? They're sure as held not fan friendly. I guess the ghosts don't give a big **** what time they start, or even if they don't have the event at all.

UALR Athletic Program- Always Fan Friendly