[WWJFD]

Just checking for any observations on the team in workouts. I am excited for the season to start. Any feedback?

[TDDance234]

They say it takes two years for big guys to find their groove.

I think Russell has found his. Has been nasty in every game I've seen him in. Armon Jones couldn't stop him to save his life.

[LUconn]

where and when do they play?

[LU'sbestmanager]

Just checking for any observations on the team in workouts. I am excited for the season to start. Any feedback?

wow! finally someone who feels the same way i do.

they look pretty good. everyone is working hard. if you thought the football team was night and day, then wait until you see the bball team. they are so excited to get this year started because they realize the talent that they have. i really think our big man woes are answered with ALEX MCLEAN. you guys have to come to an open gym (M-F 3 or 4 in schilling or vines) and see how much better his body and skills have developed. he is an extremely hard worker and is so good. Dwight looks amazing as usual, and he's such a vocal person and leads the team really good, Smitty has gotten alot better, and seems alot more confident, russel also has more confidence and is showing improvement, LB..... well, he's just the man, damien hubburd is looking really good, throwing some really good passed and he i dont think he has missed a shot since he has been back. lol. Justin holland looks like he is learning the pg better, and his medium range jump shot, or open 3 pointer is money. rell is doing a great job at leading this team, his jump shot has gotten alot better, he's shooting 3's with alot of confidence.Teejay is such a good pg. the passed that he makes are jaw dropping,everytime down the court all you hear is,"good pass teejay"lol. you guys have to come watch these guys play, they are really fun to watch. so come watch BJ Jenkins and smitty have an alley-hoop fest .lol(they do that often.. really good connection between those two).

[WWJFD]

Bring on Oklahoma, then we'll go to Florida, then Winthrop, then Coastal, win the Big South, and go to the NCAA's..wooooooooooaaaaaaaaa Ok just a little impersonation of Howard Dean. But that sounds cool. How about Armon. I see the earlier post that he is having trouble on D. any truth to that.

[PAmedic]

better question: has big Russ acquiesced to my request that he start sporting that goatee?

[LU'sbestmanager]

no goatee lol... but i like armon's game alot. he has really long arms and that body is huge. his post moves are great and he has worked really hard to get into good shape and it's showing. if McLean can teke him under his wing, and show him the secrets to how he got in shape so fast he'll be great. this kid is a really good passeer. the way he hits cutters is amazing, with his no look passes. he's the type of kid that loves to have fun on the court, and he is very, very, VERY competitive. he'll help out, and he will be great down the road.

[TDDance234]

I'd compare McClean to our old favorite of Leo Lightbourne.

[Sly Fox]

Would that be Leo in his junior or senior season?

[TIMSCAR20]

Ok, I happened to be in Lynchburg yesterday and got to observe the Flames for a few minutes. I met TJ too. Very nice kid. From what I saw I would have to temper the hype somewhat as compared to our good friend Manger. Playing pickup is so, so so far from practice situations and game situations. As far as BJ and Smitty connecting on alley oops in pickup, that is great and I am glad they have some chemistry. Try that in a practice sitiuation or even the game and have the ball not go through the hoop and you will see a coach go through the roof. No real way to gauge how good these guys will be collectively until Oct when they start practice and even more so when they put on their new jerseys (not to be confused with the state). BTW the new uniforms are suweet to quote Medic. Give these guys a break Manger and stop raising the expectation level because if they can't live up to it, you will have a lot of disappointed Flame fans for sure. I hope they can live up to it though.

[TDDance234]

I think the talent level on this team, compared to my previous three years here, is the best I've seen.

We've got some very good depth at gaurd. To think we could really run 6 deep at the gaurd position is a luxory that not many schools can boast. With Brew and Blair most-likely to start out at the one and two, respectively, they can be backed up by BJ (who I've been told has been lighting things up. Is probably our PG of the future), Anthony Smith (again, the future at SG.. could you imagine us getting Paye as well? Yikes) Larry Franklin, who is more than servicable at either gaurd spot coming off the bench, and the wildcard: Justin Holland. I think it really comes down to can Jenkins or Holland hold down the backup point position?

Then you move to the front court and again, we actually have some depth for once. I can remember just in my time, when we had to ask Glyn Turner to come back for a 5th year to provide SOMETHING. But now we're looking at Hubbard (who probably was our second best player last year, next to Rell) starting at the 3 and Rell back at the four, with Rusell or Mclean starting at C with whoever loses out backing up and Armon to add some beef (my own personal opinion, I haven't been that impressed with Armon. He's got an attitude problem and well, he screams Rashad Robinson to me.. hopefully, I'm wrong).

The real killer is the injury to Winters. He's a strong guy who can defend any 5man in the big south not named Bradshaw (which, BTW, is going to sneak into the upper 2R of the NBA draft this year. This guy has some serious potential and is going to be a pain in our rear this year).

So in all honesty, I echo Managers hype surrounding this team, SCAR. They have some serious potential, something we haven't seen in awhile on the court. After last years debaucle, ANYTHING should bring some added hype. This team has potential to compete in the Big South, legitimately, and that is exciting.

[jcmanson]

I can't wait to see these guys on the court. It should be fun to watch, but we must take Scar's advice and remember where they were last year. Sure, they should be better, but they have never played together before.

[LU'sbestmanager]

come check em out

[LUconn]

What style are these jerseys? I'm hoping they are not Nike. Do they look like another big program team's from last year? I'm dreading them being this one style in particular:




Put my mind at ease and tell me they aren't.

[TIMSCAR20]

Luconn, you can rest easy. They are not like Kentucky's or any other teams for that matter because coach Zach Jones ordered them custom made for Liberty. In fact he designed them and Pro Sports (the company) has decided to use his design as a prototype and sell it to other schools and give part of the proceeds back to Liberty hoops. The Red uni's are from last season but they have new white and new blue. The locker room is being re-designed and the hall leading to the locker area now has glass doors and giant action photos of the players. They are really trying to create an atmosphere of an up and coming program.

[Killn'emsoftly]

I definitely think the Flames will be better, but just quick question to TDDance, how do you play 6 guards at the college level? Blair will never come off the floor and if Brew is that good he probably will not ever sit either so by what I hear that leaves 4 guards to play the 3 spot.... I hope Coach D can keep those other guys happy. Everybody talks about the luxury of depth which is a good thing in the fall but to have real chemistry you need to have a tight rotation. In the past the GREAT teams at Liberty usually only go 8 deep. Instead of depth it's more important to be together and talented!!

[TDDance234]

I'd imagine Holland is the odd man out.

I didn't say I knew how to fix the problem (if you can call it that..) it's just a good one to have.

[TIMSCAR20]

I happen to think it is an aweful problem to have. It is like having 3 good QB's. My ideal team would be to have 8 really good players and 9 and 10 help you at times with 11-14 being borderline division 1 players that are happy to have a uni. Duke seems to do it that way. Most of the guys on the end of their bench are not ACC caliber players. Chemistry is way, way, way more important than depth. Depth can hurt your team because if you are the odd player out but you know you are as good or better than who the coaches are playing in front of you, are you gonna keep quiet? Esp if you lose or even if you win but those guys have a bad game. If you are good enough to get that far you are usually competitive enough to want to play which usually manifests itself in griping or sulking. If I were some of those guys I would try to redshirt and get some of these guards off of the depth chart through graduation. When I was a senior, most of our guards took a shirt because Alston was gonna play 38 min per game and I was gonna play 30 plus. Hard to get minutes that way for the rest.

[PAmedic]

... The locker room is being re-designed and the hall leading to the locker area now has glass doors and giant action photos of the players. They are really trying to create an atmosphere of an up and coming program.

hey SCAR, how 'bout some pix of those upgrades?

[TIMSCAR20]

Medic, I just blew into town for a quick second but I will be back there on Saturday. I will see what I can do. I think Manger or some other insider would be better to ask though since they have access. Everything is locked down in the Vines Center these days so it may be difficult to get pix from me. You will be down here in 3 weeks, you can't wait that long?

[TDDance234]

Good points, SCAR, as usual.

Duke can afford to get away with a rotation of 7-8 guys. Especially last season when you look at them having two of the best players in the country, however, Liberty cannot. We have to get the max out of our guys. We had maybe 5 guys last season that were capable of putting up consistant numbers on the floor game in and game out. This year, we've got several guys that can contribute. The simple equation, IMO, is to feed the guy with the hot hand.

I think depth is the best problem to have. Coach D is going to have to really do some creative managing though and make these guys buy into what we do as a team. Going to be fun to watch.

[Purple Haize]

SCAR don't let anyone tell you differently, being bald is a sign of your sageness, not any type of hereditery condition!! The best team I ever played on would have put everyone to sleep during open gyms (# 6 in the country). When we start playing with other teams, running offensive sets and defensive pressure (and maybe a referee or three!!) can we make any type of determination. Seriously, did I read someone state that having 6 guards is a good thing? Can we start a drug testing policy on this board? For several reasons this is a horrible situation. 1) There are only so many scholarship players and roster spots to fill and about 1/2 are guards? 2) Even if you are running a three guard offense, there are not enough minutes to spread among some people who may/may not have the ability to play. We have two starters for sure, but can we count on LB to go from a lead guard to a point guard? VERY tough. Now a good distributor would have a field day. Just those two alone have the potential to make any half way decent ditributor an All AMerican (even though the PG would only have a bout 6 pts a game!) 3) Match ups.
No doubt they are good athletes. No doubt they "look" impressive. But looks can be deceiving. (Unless you are PAMEDIC, I mean after all short is short)

[LU'sbestmanager]

What style are these jerseys? I'm hoping they are not Nike. Do they look like another big program team's from last year? I'm dreading them being this one style in particular:




Put my mind at ease and tell me they aren't.

they are the same exact jersey as the mcdonalds jerseys. google it.

[LU'sbestmanager]

Medic, I just blew into town for a quick second but I will be back there on Saturday. I will see what I can do. I think Manger or some other insider would be better to ask though since they have access. Everything is locked down in the Vines Center these days so it may be difficult to get pix from me. You will be down here in 3 weeks, you can't wait that long?

the best i can do is camera phone. is that ok? someone would have to explain to me how to upload them also. but it is really nice. big pictures of smitty, LB, and Rell. and there are also some nice pictures of the vines, inside(packed) and outside, with big gold letters that say "THE FURNACE". the glass doors are the same doors as the team room, if any of you have seen those before. the only difference is the "mens basketball" under the LU. when you look through the doors you see our big team picture. very nice

[TIMSCAR20]

2 things: 1st and foremost, I AM NOT BALD!!!! Secondly, TDDance I respect your opinion but I gotta tell you that it doesn't matter whether you are Duke or VMI, if you have 3 or 4 really good players, a couple of good players on the bench and then a few role players that don't hurt you but won't put up big numbers, you have a great formula for success. Stockpiling athletes or scorers in basketball doesn't work. In football you can do it because there are so many roles you can perform on a football team to contribute. Basketball is a tough sport to keep everyone happy with the minutes they play. Yes I agree it is nice to have a lot of talent. However if you have 15 guys that can all start on 1 team, you are gonna have 5 to 7 guys simply wasting away on the bench. It is a fact of coaching basketball. As far as feeding the hot hand, that is one of the hardest things to do sometimes. You don't really know who has the hot hand really until close to the second half. That is why when you get a team like Detroit that knows each other so well and can feel who is hot at just the right time, people want to talk about it. Again, I say chemistry and cohesiveness works better than sheer talent and athleticism for the most part. Now if you have a team like UNLV or the Fab 5, you can beat a lot of people because you are simply that much more talented and athletic than your opponent. For the most part, in the NCAA's now days, the talent and athleticism is pretty well distributed throughout the country.