Observations from the Open Basketball Practice

The men’s basketball team held an open practice last night for students in hopes of stirring up some interest and getting more people to buy season tickets. Most of the people there already had purchased season tickets, but it was still a nice event nonetheless.

Director of basketball operations Brian Townsend greeted students as they entered the Junge Family Champions Center, where the pre-practice festivities were being held. Once inside the building, there was plenty of free pizza to eat while Michigan’s win over Ohio State in basketball from last season was shown on all of the televisions.

Around 6 p.m., everyone headed over to Crisler Arena to watch the team practice. Upon entering Crisler, I first noticed the court’s new design. The bigger block “M” looks very nice, as does the different shading inside the women’s three point arc. Another big improvement is the set of brand new basketball hoops. They feature the new type of shot clock, giving Crisler Arena a more modern look in that sense. The other notable change is the new speaker system. It was a lot easier to hear the speakers now, and they don’t hang down from the scoreboard, which is nice

While the team was shooting around, John Beilein came over to the students in attendance and talked about how important it is to get support from the crowd. He basically talked about his hopes of filling the student section in the future and other goals he has for making this program better. There really wasn’t anything worth noting from what he said other than that 450 people have purchased season tickets. Hopefully that number will go up before the season begins, but even if it does the Maize Rage will be much emptier than usual, and that’s saying something.

After running a couple drills, the team began a scrimmage. Beilein was mic’ed up before and during the scrimmage, allowing the fans to hear exactly what he was saying to the team and the crowd. He shared with us that Zack Novak sprained his ankle, though the injury doesn’t appear to be too serious. He also mentioned that Ben Cronin hasn’t been medically cleared to participate in practice yet, lending some credence to the rumor I posted yesterday. It didn’t exactly look like he had a torn hip labrum, but he is injured somehow.

During the scrimmage itself, you could tell that the offense was running smoother than it did last year. There were quite a few open looks on a consistent basis, but they resulted in missed shots most of the time. Either way, it’s still nice to see the offense have some flow to it. I should mention that this was only the team’s 6th practice this fall, so they are still getting rid of some offseason rust.

As far as how each player performed during the scrimmage, here is a rundown of my thoughts on each of them:

Stu Douglass - He only made one of his three-point attempts and looked off during the entire scrimmage. I believe he shot the ball 5 or 6 times from behind the arc and never went inside. His specialty is hitting threes, so hopefully it was just a case of not being in rhythm today.

C.J. Lee - Although he has graduated, Lee is back for one more season and is now on scholarship. He is sort of like a coach out on the court, as he was constantly yelling out instructions to his teammates.

Manny Harris - Manny didn’t stand out a whole lot during the scrimmage, but that is only really because he didn’t try to. By that I mean that he did what he needed to do and made a few plays every once in a while. His best strength is still taking the ball to the basket, as he usually makes the shot or draws a foul. I can’t wait to see him play in an actual game.

Anthony Wright - Ant still likes to shoot lots and lots of three-pointers. He probably took over 10 during the scrimmage and did knock down around half of them. It would be nice if he could choose his shots more wisely and not be a chucker, but he will be a contributor to this team no matter what.

David Merritt - He is in the same situation as C.J. Lee and has a similar role on the team. There were a couple turnovers at the very end of the scrimmage made by Merritt that resulted in easy points for the opposition, but aside from that he managed the team well when he was on the floor.

Jevohn Shepherd - With Ekpe Udoh gone, Shepherd switched from #15 to #22. (Merritt took Shepherd’s old number.) Shepherd didn’t do anything to stand out, so I expect him to be in the same role as last year where he didn’t necessarily score a whole lot of points.

Corey Person - He is a freshman walk-on from Kalamazoo.

Eric Puls - He is a freshman walk-on from Alpena. He will probably get into games despite being a walk-on since Michigan has very few big men.

Laval Lucas-Perry - LLP, as the coaches call him, looked pretty good during the scrimmage. He is probably going to be a big contributor to this team when he becomes eligible in late December.

Zack Gibson - He seemed to have more confidence in the post compared to last year. Gibson still stepped back to nail a couple three-pointers, showing me that he isn’t afraid to go outside. It seems he has improved a bit since last season and will likely be the team’s starting center.

DeShawn Sims - Peedi (that’s his nickname) played better than everyone else during the scrimmage. He was all over the court. He can post you up inside or go outside and drain a three. Sims did both of those things yesterday and looked good in the process.

Kelvin Grady – He is another player that seems to have improved since last season. The most memorable play Grady made yesterday was when he tipped in a missed shot. Somehow he managed to get a finger on the ball, even though there were big men all around him. That was pretty good for someone of Grady’s size (no matter what MGoBlue says, there is no way he is 5-11).

All in all, I am looking forward to basketball season. I am partly because of how bad the football team is, but mainly I just want to see if things are getting better. From all that I have seen, improvement is happening. I obviously don’t think this team will be going to the tournament or anything like that, but they should be able to get to .500 this season. Anything more than that would really be gravy. By year three, though, hopefully we’ll be talking about the Big Dance and not the NIT.