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December 12, 2006

Luke Winn at SI.com has a Q&A with Aaron Gray. A little about the Buffalo game, breaking a backboard and ankle in highschool, and getting ready for Wisconsin.

LW: You’re shooting a pretty stellar 64 percent this year from the field, as opposed to 52.6 percent last season. Where are you picking up that 12 percent? New moves? Easier baskets?

AG: I think I’ve always had good touch around the basket, and always been able to shoot it a little bit. The reason the percentage was down last year was due to me not being in as good a shape as I am this year. I’ve continued to work a lot on my strength and conditioning in the offseason. It’s funny, because I took easier shots last year — far more of them right inside, near the basket, and I’d rarely ever fade out to 10 or 15 feet. This year I’m out to 10, 15, even 17 feet and my percentage has risen.

LW: Did you have some kind of specific training regiment that resulted in the new, fitter Aaron Gray?

AG: Ronald Ramon‘s pops actually came out and put us through a boot camp for the last six weeks of the summer, to get us ready for the season. We’d wake up at around 7 a.m., and start doing a bunch of conditioning and agility work, running hills, running on the track, and doing cone drills for lateral movement. Then we’d work the basketball camps here for the little kids, which ran from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. — and we’d lift weights during the lunch break. After camp, we’d do all of our on-the-court stuff, with everyone working together on their ballhandling, shooting and everything else.

That “boot camp” is going to take legend status at this rate.

Big East Blog Honors

Filed under: Bloggers,Football,Honors,Polls — Chas @ 1:26 pm

Over at the Fanhouse, I have the results of a small voting bloc of Big East bloggers on Big East football awards. It’s a small bloc, because not many responses were received.

Here’s my ballot.

Coaching performance from Best to Worst:

  1. Jim Leavitt, USF
  2. Greg Schiano, Rutgers
  3. Bob Petrino, Louisville
  4. Mark Dantonio, Cinci
  5. Rich Rodriguez, WVU
  6. Randy Edsall, UConn
  7. Dave Wannstedt, Pitt
  8. Greg Robinson, Syracuse

I was stunned by how well USF did. At the start of the season, I figured them for last. What with all the injuries, arrests, and drug suspensions. Yet, they kept winning. They got better during the season. For just the 2006 season, I think Leavitt edges Schiano who would get this award if it was for evaluating the job over his whole tenure.
Greg Robinson does not have the talent, and the team did not quitting. I have some real questions about his decisionmaking and coaching . Dave Wannstedt and Pitt’s secon-half nose-dive keeps all the questions and doubts about Wannstedt being a head coach answered for many and unanswered for poor Pitt fans.

Offensive Player of the Year:

Pat White, QB, WVU. He makes the offense go. His decisionmaking in the spread option has been excellent all year. The threat of him taking off, frees up Steve Slaton. He doesn’t pass much, but is quite accurate when he does.
Defensive Player of the Year:

H.B. Blades, MLB, Pitt.
It’s hard to pick Blades, considering how bad the defense around him was. I think to some degree that this is a reflection on how down the defense was overall in the Big East. Rutgers had probably the best team defense, but who was the actual difference maker on the squad? Rameel Meekins? Courtney Greene? That was a squad where the sum exceeded the parts.
Defense, on the other hand, was lacking in major star power. Rutgers had the best defense this year, but it was a unit outperforming the individuals. Is Courtney Greene better or more important to Rutgers than Rameel Meekins?

That made Blades the only standout in the Big East, despite being on a defense that was torched by any team with a competent O-line and running back who could go north-south.

Special Teams Player of the Year:

Art Carmody, K, Louisville.

Some good return guys in JuJuan Spillman (L-ville), Lowell Robinson (Pitt) and Ean Randolph (USF); but Carmody was reliable and extremely valuable to Louisville. Especially during the games when Brohm was out and then just trying to get back into form.

Newcomer of the Year:

Matt Grothe, QB, USF.

A no-brainer. He was the reason that USF did much better than expected. Stepped in when Julmiste went down to start the season, and just won with his arm and legs. He was the entire USF offense for many games, and still couldn’t be stopped by defenses keying on him. Could very well be better than Pat White next year.
Most Overrated Player:

Brendan Carney, P, Syracuse.

Ray Guy hopeful, the only thing working for Syracuse last year. Just fell to middle of the pack in Big East punting.

Most Surprising Team:

Cinci

I thought they would be 6th or 7th in the Big East this year. Instead, they improved all season despite lesser talent than nearly every team in the conference. The lack of depth caught up to them in many games as they faded in the second half. They gave every team they faced at least one half where they scared the crap out of them including: VT, OSU, Pitt, WVU and L-ville.

USF was a close second in this category for me.
Most Disappointing Team:

Pitt

The way Pitt collapsed in the second half of the season was pathetic. They folded as they faced better competition. The team failed to improve throughout the season like good teams or teams with promise do. Very frustrating to see them skid off the tracks in the final five games.

Way too early prediction for best team in 2007:

USF.

I think USF might be able to challenge next year — assuming their players can avoid arrests and drug suspensions. They’ve got the coach, and the talent is starting to fit into place. It’s going out on a limb, but if you really want to make predictions about the 2007 season in December, then why not go on the crazy side. Why take the easy call with Louisville?

Making Adjustments

Filed under: Basketball,Coaches,Dixon,Tactics — Chas @ 8:10 am

It’s unfair. It isn’t right. Two very different games, differing amounts of personnel and everything else. Having typed that… Geez you would hope the football team would get the memo as well.
The article about the team making adjustments at halftime to how to defend Buffalo.

“They kind of have a unique offense,” Dixon said. “We don’t see it a lot. They have big guys who play out on the perimeter and pass the ball and handle the ball so well.”

The combination caused problems for Pitt’s defense, which is predicated on hedging, or faking a trap.

Assistant coach Mike Rice Jr., based on his film study, suggested a slight change. The adjustment worked.

“Instead of hedging all the way out, we just hedged flat on ball screens and handoffs,” Cook said. “That made it easier for the guards to recover.”

The Panthers allowed only 25 points in the second half. They held Buffalo to 33.3 percent from the field, including 1 of 11 from 3-point range, and forced seven of Buffalo’s eight turnovers in the final 20 minutes.

“Coach Rice did a great job on scouting,” Dixon said, “and our guys made a great adjustment.”

No one is going to accuse Coach Dixon of being a master tactician, but he has shown greater flexibility in how to adjust to things as he has gotten more comfortable as the head coach. There is a style of play that he prefers to use, but he adapts it to better use the players and their strengths and weaknesses. He has understood that certain teams have to be played in different ways and the same approach every game is not going to work.

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