March 2011 Basketball Wiretap

Hardaway Jr. Embracing Bigger Role For Michigan

Oct 31, 2011 3:32 PM

John Beilein said Tim Hardaway Jr. has embraced his role as being a lead player for Michigan. 

Hardaway Jr. is beginning his sophomore season.

Andy Katz/ESPN

Tags: Tim Hardaway Jr., Michigan Wolverines, NCAA, NCAA B-Ball IQ

Discuss
Freshman Trey Burke Improving Quickly, Could Start For Michigan At Point Guard

Oct 31, 2011 3:30 PM

Trey Burke has been rapidly improving and the freshman may end up starting at point guard for Michigan.

The other choice at the position is senior Stu Douglass.

Darius Morris was Michigan's starter at point guard last season.

Andy Katz/ESPN

Tags: Stu Douglass, Michigan Wolverines, NCAA, NCAA B-Ball IQ, NCAA Misc Rumor

Discuss
Scout Calls Anthony Davis 'Most Talented, Most Complete' Freshman Big In A Decade

Oct 29, 2011 11:48 AM

Anthony Davis will continue Kentucky's run of successful freshmen during the tenure of John Calipari.

One NBA scout who has seen multiple Kentucky practices said Davis is the "most talented, most complete" freshman big man he has seen in a decade.

Adrian Wojnarowski/Yahoo! Sports (via Twitter)

Tags: Anthony Davis, Kentucky Wildcats, NCAA, NBA, NBA NBA Draft, NBA Draft General, NCAA B-Ball IQ

Discuss
Kabongo Described As Cross Between UT Point Guards Ford, Augustin

Oct 21, 2011 11:41 AM

Rick Barnes said Myck Kabongo has all the tools to become the next great point guard for a program that has produced standouts such as T.J. Ford and D.J. Augustin. 

"He's somewhere in between those two," Barnes said of Kabongo. "He's extremely fast like T.J., but T.J. would pace his game. Myck is a more full throttle. Forget the cruise control. He'd be great this weekend at Talledega. He can beat everyone down the floor with the ball, but he's going to learn to change his pace from time to time so our team can get into a flow." 

Kabongo played high school ball for hard-nosed coach Dan Hurley at St. Benedict's Prep. 

"He got me ready, mentally," Kabongo said of Hurley. "Some of these [freshmen] have never been at schools where coaches are going to get after them every day. That's what Coach Barnes does. I just let the young guys know, ‘You can't take it personal. It's part of the game. You've got to be coachable. You can't let what he says on the court affect you off the court.'" 

Barnes couldn't say enough good things about Kabongo's attitude -- "I've never seen him in a bad mood."

Jason King/ESPN

Tags: Myck Kabongo Lukusa, Texas Longhorns, High School, NCAA, NBA, NBA NBA Draft, NBA Draft General, NCAA B-Ball IQ

Discuss
Nevada Sophomores Calling Themselves 'Fab Four'

Oct 18, 2011 6:41 PM

Nevada is a popular pick to knock off Utah State for supremacy of the WAC this season.

Deonte Burton was selected as the preseason player of the year. Burton was the WAC freshman of the year.

Burton, along with his fellow sophomores Jordan Burris, Jordan Finn and Kevin Panzer have begun calling themselves the Fab Four.

"I watched the (ESPN 30 for 30) documentary of the Fab Five over summer … it reminded me a lot of us, and so now we call ourselves the Fab Four," Burton said. "The Fab Five had an awesome record, and we just try to look at that as motivation." 

With the Wolf Pack's 13-19 record last season (the first losing season for the team since 2000-01), the team has a lot of ground to gain if it wants to be remembered similar to the Fab Five. 

Nevada basketball head coach David Carter found the comparison somewhat humorous. 

"Those four are very close on and off the court," Carter said with a giggle. "That's a unique thing and they'll be friends for life. But shoot, compared to the Fab Five -- we're not even close [in terms of performance]."

Nevada Sagebrush (Via Diamond Leung)

Tags: Deonte Burton, Jordan Burris, Jordan Finn, Kevin Panzer, Nevada Wolf Pack, NCAA, NCAA B-Ball IQ

Discuss
UCLA Hopes To Continue With Inside-Out Offense

Oct 17, 2011 11:49 AM

UCLA lost Tyler Honeycutt and Malcolm Lee to the NBA, which will force Ben Howland to find new offensive weapons.

"Those were two of our top three returning scorers, so at the two and three spot there’s going to be a lot of opportunity. Tyler Lamb is going to have a great opportunity this year, he’ll be a sophomore. Norman Powell, a freshman two guard. We have a JC player coming in who will play this year, De’End Parker. We’re going to definitely play one of the Wear twins at the three for significant minutes. Off the top of my head I’d say Dave. It could be Travis, too."

Howland hopes to keep the same offense in place despite the turnover of personnel.

"We still hope to be able to play inside-out, with the luxury of Josh Smith inside and Reeves Nelson, who’s a returning all Pac-12 player now," said Howland. "I think there’s only two or three returning. One of the players who’s had the best summer along with Josh and Reeves is Lazeric Jones, our senior point guard. He’s really had a great summer, and I expect he’ll be one of our top scorers and a real key to our team. The key for him is to stay healthy. Last year he hurt his wrist and prior to that he had another injury, I’m trying to remember what the heck it was. He had kind of an injury-plagued year but he was the only player to start every game on our team last year."

Storming The Floor

Tags: UCLA Bruins, NCAA, NCAA B-Ball IQ

Discuss
Terrence Ross Expected To Have Breakout Season

Oct 16, 2011 10:36 PM

Terrence Ross is projected to have an excellent sophomore season at Washington.

Despite starting just four games and averaging 8.0 points as a freshman, Ross has been projected as a Pac-12 MVP candidate and a lottery pick in next year's NBA draft.

"What makes him special is his ability to go out and just get you a bucket and the fashion that he does it," coach Lorenzo Romar said. "You can count on one or two hands guys around the country that can really shoot the ball from the perimeter, but yet have the type of athleticism that they can go in the middle and finish on anyone.

"There's not a lot of guys like that, and Terrence is one of those guys. It's just eye-popping."

While Ross is a gifted scorer, he needs to improve his defense.

"I'm working on what the coaches are trying to teach me," he said. "I'm trying to become a complete player and not just somebody who can score.

"So I think you'll see a different type of game from me. I learned how to be more consistent and what that means. It means playing hard every possession, which isn't easy. But it's something I'm ready to do."

Seattle Times

Tags: Terrence Ross, Washington Huskies, NCAA, NBA, NBA NBA Draft, NBA Draft General, NCAA B-Ball IQ

Discuss
Kentucky Hopes To Improve Transition For Freshmen

Oct 15, 2011 5:39 PM

As has become the norm for the John Calipari-era of Kentucky, the team is loaded with highly talented freshmen.

Kentucky hopes to have more success during the early part of the season with the likes of Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Marquis Teague than they did last year with Brandon Knight and Terrence Jones.

“We have to take more time and help them along from the beginning," senior Darius Miller said. “We didn’t do a good job of that last year and I think that’s why we struggled. I think a lot of times, we found ourselves standing back and watching them. We thought they had all this talent and hype, so we should be able to just them go. We can’t do that. We have to help them and lead them."

Dana O'Neil

Tags: Kentucky Wildcats, NCAA, NCAA B-Ball IQ

Discuss
Sullinger Drops Body-Fat From 16.1 To 12.1

Oct 14, 2011 1:57 AM

Jared Sullinger has dropped 20 pounds and lowered his body-fat percentage from 16.7 to 12.1 during the offseason.

Thad Matta is eager for Sullinger to be more versatile and mobile.

"It's just the simple fact of what type of moves I'm going to use," Sullinger said. "It's not always going to be body-type stuff. It's going to be more finesse moves, sometimes. I'm going to switch it up this year."

Plain-Dealer

Tags: Jared Sullinger, Ohio State Buckeyes, NCAA, NBA, NBA NBA Draft, NBA Draft General, NCAA B-Ball IQ

Discuss
Drummond Staying Late, Working On Shooting Mechanics

Oct 8, 2011 3:56 PM

Andre Drummond has impressed his new Connecticut teammates, as well as alumni.

"He's very athletic," Alex Oriaki said. "The way he can move, the sky's the limit for that kid."

"He's a monster," said Kemba Walker. "He doesn't even know what he has yet."

Drummond has been staying late after the pickup games, working on new shooting mechanics at the free-throw line.

Walker was one of the first to congratulate Drummond when news broke of his decision to attend Connecticut.

"I was very surprised," Walker said, "I didn't realize [he was considering it], but I think he made the right decision. I wouldn't want to see anyone pass up on the chance to go to college, especially a school like UConn."

Hartford Courant

Tags: Andre Drummond, UConn Huskies, NCAA, NBA, NBA NBA Draft, NBA Draft General, NCAA B-Ball IQ

Discuss