Practice Thoughts
Off the top…
Out: Josh Oduro (didn’t get word of why, but he looked fine…don’t worry), Ticket (slight ankle injury, no visible problem just had brace), Justyn Fernandez (class).
Stretching
I’m not breaking this down…unless you hit the tip jar on the By George Twitter handle. Which, honestly? You should do anyway. The GK guys shot the practice, let me tag along to provide notes, and have since sat down with Kim English to do a pod. Show them a little $omething and allow them to keep providing great content.
4 on 4’s
Dinkins hit a couple of 3’s out of maybe 3 or 4 attempts. Clearly doesn’t have a problem letting it go and the shot looks great. (KE after practice told us how that’s normal for him and how he’s excited for people to see just how good he is).
Photo Credit to Liem Le
5 on 5 scrimmage
Devin Dinkins had a slight ankle injury and could be overheard telling some that it wasn’t anything serious. However, that meant that KE had to join the green team.
If you’ve followed any of Kenner this summer, you might have heard how Cooper has been looking great. That translated here for sure. The matchup of VBJ and Cooper had some pretty great highlights.
VBJ is definitely someone I’m going to want to see more of, particularly with the group. There was a sequence where he hit a 3 on one possession and on the next had a fantastic cut towards the basket where the defender had no shot. Definitely an athlete who warrants your attention.
Now, back to Coop. He looked great and was as reliable in *ahem* big moments of…a scrimmage. That’s not shade thrown at him to be clear. He looked great and the VBJ/Coop matchup was fun to watch.
Saquan Singleton. In the GK group chat, I announced myself as the president of the Saquan fan club. Vocal. Competitive. Versatile. In the 5 on 5 he’d bring the ball up for the gold team most of the time. On defense, he turns around and guards the 6’10 Blake Jones. I mean…the versatility of that is just not something we’re used to. As a result of this matchup, I can’t say as I got a good read on where Blake is this year. Saquan just kind of took him out offensively.
Ginika. There was a stretch where gold fell down a possession or two and Saquon and Ginika…uh…made sure the score was evened up. Like, took over. Mason has simply not had a big like Ginika since Shevon Thompson. To be clear, they aren’t carbon copies…but someone with that size you can put around the basket? Just haven’t had it since Shevon. Like Saquan and Blake, I had a hard time evaluating Malik here.
Photo Credit to Liem Le
And just park on that for a second…Malik is a big dude who does not shy away from physical matchups.
This is not an indictment of Malik at all, just Ginika is 6’10 and 240.
Saquon and Ginika weren’t the only gold players of note. Ronny was paired with Saquon and didn’t seem to be the primary. Not sure I can say I can read anything into this as Polite looked like he might be nursing some sort of injury. Nothing serious enough to keep him out, but couldn’t quite tell if there was a grimace or two. If he was indeed injured, it certainly didn’t impact his defense. Was able to keep Dinkins in front of him for the most part, and recovered with a nice block when Dinkins did get around
him. In the 5 on 5, had a couple of steals and otherwise bothered passers.
Elvis Nnaji. Keeping this for last because it’s a pretty interesting moment of reflection of where this program is now versus just two seasons ago. Elvis – who we had the pleasure of meeting – is clearly a great athlete with a good knowledge of basketball…but maybe not for the college level yet. Coach English called him out for his shot selection, which will have to get better. But, Elvis wasn’t afraid to shoot from 3 and was certainly not timid with the ball. In short, you may not see a lot of Elvis this year as minutes will be hard to come by as the rotation solidifies. However, he’s yet another high-level player Coach English has brought in.
Final talk
Sat in a circle, team told one another how much they cared for one another and mentioned a thing or two that they were determined to work on to get better. Fernandez joined right about here as he was getting out of class.
Post practice
Good discussion with KE regarding the team’s depth. Feels like they’ll be able to be better conditioned this year. While can’t discuss any specifics, clear the staff is still of the mindset to play anyone. Also not shying away from trying to schedule teams of note that are close by. (Note: Since we talked, Hofstra has been officially announced). It became very, very difficult not to notice Justyn Fernandez doing one on one work. Caveat here is that
it isn’t game work. With that out of the way, for those of us who have seen the dunking videos and gone “ok, he is definitely a freak athlete who can dunk…what about his shooting?” Well, he was knocking down shot after shot.
In short, it was difficult not to come away from this practice with a very positive attitude.
