Maroon Madness thoughts..

Mullenation

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Dec 14, 2008
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For those wondering what the post John Lucas Renardo Sidney looks and acts like, weell..... He's the same. I was really trying to find some physical improvements and was convincing myself he maybe lost 10 pounds but that might be wishful thinking. His face might look a little skinnier and looks slightly more muscular as a whole, but as far as weight goes the program has him listed at 285.

Mannerisms and attitude are the same. He just looks, acts, and plays lazy and tired. I swear during warm-up drills Stansbury patted him on the *** and gave a slight "Hustle Up" gesture. I can say this for sure, Renardo is the best player on the court at sweating and jogging. You always get the glimmers of talent and always feel the frustration of him not taking full advantage of it.

Dee is Dee.. plays hard, always competitive, and wants to make the play.

Brian Bryant has a weird, ugly shooting motion but has some mad hops I didn't know he had.

Every time I looked at Moultrie I just kept thinking, "man he is an athlete" He had dribble moves, some cool dunks, and hustled. He shot a couple threes and has a good shot, but I don't think that's what we need his role to be. It appears like if we can keep him in the paint he can be really good. (dare I say next Lawrence Roberts?)

The foreign guy looks and acts like a pretty good athlete, watching him tonight I think we can go ahead and label him the best athlete we've had out of the whole foreign player category we've had. He definitely hasn't played much American ball though, looked kinda lost with all the ballers running around him. Dee threw up an ally oop at him once and he acted like he had never seen that before.

I forgot about Shaun Smith, and probably will continue to not remember him.

Those are about the only notable things I took away from tonight in terms of the players. It was just a warm-up/dunk session and a 20 min casual scrimmage, not a lot of defense. If I had to guess the starting 5 it would be Dee, Bryant, Hood, Moultrie, and Sidney.

As far as Maroon Madness.. great potential, but it was definitely the first time we have done this. Started off with 15 min Women's basketball scrimmage where I caught up on my Twitter feed. Then we had this weird dance off for an Ipad2. it was actually kinda entertaining. I don't know if this was improvised by Stansbury or pre-planned ,but Stans decided to give out a free scholarship to a student. They had some loooonng, drawn out terribly easy trivia session followed by a free throw contest which in 2 minutes of combined shooting time between 4 students (30 secs each player) only 1 free throw was made. My two cents would be to cut out the women's game, do the little contests and crowd games before the team comes out, and then get all the energy up and going when the players come out,maybe a dunk contest or something like that, and then conclude with the scrimmage.

Again, first practice, casual scrimmage, obviously can't take much away. Great idea in Maroon Madness and I hope the execution improves in the future.

Also want to add the student section is now back together and the official name is now The Dawg Pound (who saw that one coming..)
 

Mullenation

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Dec 14, 2008
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Never really had a chance to shine or stand himself out. He was guarding Dee and Dee made him look like a junior high guard one time, but it was just a sick nasty move and three point drain by Dee. He does look quick and has some good hops.
 

thf24

Redshirt
Jan 28, 2011
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He played 18 of 20 minutes, got up and down the court ok (at least better than last year), was on the boards on both ends (scored the winning points on a put-back dunk), and led both sides in points and rebounds. He looked lazy, but so did everyone else when they didn't have the ball in their hands; it was an exhibition scrimmage after all. He still has a ways to go to reach his potential shape, but he's going to be far more effective than last year even if he stays where he is.
 

trob115

Junior
Jul 5, 2011
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I thought Deville Smith looked really good. He made several nice assist under heavy defensive pressure from Dee. He also did a good job of slashing and creating his own shot. He definitely has the best ball skills on the team. As far as Shaun smith goes, I really think he finally looks healthy. Last year he seemed to be in slow motion to me. I wouldn't be surprised to see him take a big step in improvement. Sidney has probably lost ~20lbs and looks a little more in shape. He actually made it through 90% of the scrimmage without taking a break. He has a ways to go , but is miles ahead of last year. Moultrie and Hood will be just fine they are athletes.
 
Nov 16, 2005
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from his story on the blog.....

Sidney, criticized for his fluctuating weight last season, was
impressive on the move and played roughly 18 minutes of the 20-minute
scrimmage.
I don't see Marcello as one to sugar coat anything so he must be in better shape or at least better than last year.
 

weblow

Redshirt
Mar 3, 2008
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Here is one example:

"And that dunk gives White the win. First impressions: Moultrie will be special; Sidney tiring easily; Bost quick slashing to basket."