All we were able to see today was shooting drills and conditioning drills.
So, unfortunately, all you get are these brief random notes:
Martell
-- Martell showed up! First time I've seen him since the injury. Marty was wearing a protective boot that went up about 3/4 of the way to his knee, and which was secured with 4 big straps. He was on crutches, obviously.
-- I was very impressed with how upbeat Martell was. As we've talked about, this was a tough injury for him at a tough point in his career. He was taking it in stride and saying the right things. He did not appear to be too down about it. He said that he "wasn't surprised at all" when he received the diagnosis because he knew he had injured it right when it happened. He played through the pain and told Jay Jensen after the game.
-- He says the injury feels like "wearing shoes too tight."
-- Martell's current goal is to be ready to play in January, and ready to practice in mid-December.
-- After practice was over, he was taking shots while sitting in a chair about 8 feet from the hoop. Silly Marty.
-- He said he is concerned about putting on weight so he will be sticking to salads.
Lamarcus
-- I never noticed this before but Lamarcus has "TXBOY12" stitched on the back of his sneakers, sort of like a personalized license plate. I can't think of a better thing to have stitched on his shoes, as: he hails from Texas, he is a male, and his jersey number is 12. Just a winning combination. Bravo.
Greg
-- Twisted his ankle. Radio reports said he slipped on a wet spot. Nate said that he stepped on someone's foot. He came back at the end of practice and nailed 2 free throws to close out a conditioning drill. He should be fine.
Coach Lucas
-- Nate texted Coach Lucas because, according to Nate, "he responds to emails and texts, he doesn't respond to phone calls." LOL Apparently Coach Lucas is resting and "he should be ok."
Nate
-- Had Nic working with the first team again.
-- His main concern with Nic is that Nic learns to "pick up the sets" on both offense and defense. "Getting to the right spot" is also a high priority for Nic in Nate's eyes.
-- Nate said today's practice (the closed portion) was spent working on the team's sets, which had been introduced on Monday. Nate said he thought his sets were "pretty effective last year" and was looking to build off that.
-- I'll leave you with this final thought from Nate. He wouldn't bite when asked whether he would use Brandon at the 3. He said he sees Brandon and Rudy as "wings, not as a 2 or a 3." This seems to imply that he might use them at the same time and/or interchangably. He supported this idea by saying that "the best defensive player will always guard Brandon" so it doesn't matter too much what spot Brandon plays because he will be the focus of attention no matter where he is. Did Nate tip his hand here regarding his thoughts for the starting line-up? Speculate away.
-- Ben (benjamin.golliver@gmail.com)