Recap from the Triad 49er Event

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It was an excellent event as always, here are some of the most interesting tidpids:

Starting line up: Bobby said that until 2 days ago, the starting line would be Baldwin, Alexander, Drayton, Withers, Nance. But then he had that team play together for the first time and they got blown out by the second team. He did say that was the first time thay had all played together and that usually in practice they seperate Withers and Alexander because they are the most competitive players on the team. Lee is the first player off the bench with Bennet, Coleman and Williams having a large role. He said this my be the deepest team he has every coached as well as being the most physical team since the days of Kelvin Price. The players that coach said could be the biggest surprise are Coleman and Williams. Said Coleman is playing very well in practice and Williams played the best they have seen him play at the madness event and hopefully that means he plays the best when the lights are on him…

Coach said that they have had 5 different NBA people visit practice(including Bob Ferry) and that all 5 have pointed out and commented about a different player each time.

A-10- He said he has been made aware the we are going to be the biggest game or game that most of the A-10 schools are looking forward to and that we need to be ready to get everyones best shot every night. We have gone from the hunter to the hunted. The 2 places he is most concerned about playing at is Temple and St. Joes. because he anticipates a great home court advantage from the crowds and the refs.

Scheduling- Very excited about this years schedule with big home games against Miss St and IU and of course the game with Wake. Wake will play a return game in 2 years at the new uptown arena. We are working to get games scheduled with NC St.(the AD’s have agreed to it, but the coaches would agree to when) Michigan St.(return game at the uptown arena), Alabama, Auburn seem like the best possiblities, but nothing is definite. We have tried to get games with Duke and Carolina in the uptown arena, but they will not do it.

Recruits- Coaches are not aloud to comment on unsigned recruits, but other various sources I spoke with said the following: We expect to sign at least 6 players this year with the plan being to sign 6 in the fall period and possibly add a 7th in the spring.(Coach did say it is very unlikely that Bennet will get an extra year). Tatum is the stud of our group and Georgia wanted him badly. They hope Ian Anderson will be a Jobey Thomas type player and that is what they are expecting. The visit with Wilderness went very well and we have a shot at him. Carlos Williams will start at point guard the day he arrives and he is the best passer we have had since Sean Colson. The chances are very good that Beasley will in fact sign with us when the time comes. Recruit does not seem to be affected by our move to the A-10 and we will sign 2 west coast player for the first time ever.

Trip to Kuwait: The coach went on trip to visit the troops and do some clinics. He went with Coaches Sampson, Odom, Izzo and Godfried. He said it was an amazing time and we all need to do whatever we can to support the troops.

We have about 50 people in attendance with a very special apearance by HP who seems to be progressing very well.

They gave away 3 sets of tickets to people that answered the following trivia questions correctly:

  1. How many times have we been to the NCAA tourney in the last 10 years??

  2. We have a player on the men’s and women’s team that share the same name, what is it?

  3. What are the three schools in the A-10 located in Phili???
    The idiot that tried to answer this question raised his hand and promptly said St. Joes and Lasalle and forgot about the easiest one Temple.

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Excellent information. Thanks! This year, recruiting and especially SCHEDULING all sound promising!!!

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What a wealth of information!! Great post. :smiley: I have no idea where to begin.

I’m really fascinated that a Withers-Alexander duo got smoked by the reserves. That gives me a great feeling about our depth but again raises a few questions about chemistry. Would it be correct to assume that the Baldwin-Alexander-Drayton-Withers-Nance lineup is still a go?

Rotten news about Bennett. :frowning: Talk about getting screwed! Someone oughta beat some common sense into the NCAA.

Here’s to the first of many happy returns by HP :toast:

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Good recap Jimmy. I hope the guy that missed the Temple answer will read this book,

I will go out on a limb and say, while I can’t admit to being a huge women’s basketball fan, Coach Butler is a wonderful and enthusiatic ambassador for the University. If she can coach half as well as she can promote, the women will be seeing more post-season action too.

I was happy to make the surprise appearance. It was not decided upon until yesterday around lunch. It did me good to me some fellow 49ers, although I was tired when I returned and feel the effects this morning.

One additional note from the newspaper and WakeForestSports.com…

[b]The 2005-2006 Wake Forest Men's Basketball season is off to a fast start even before the tip-off of the first game. Season tickets for Demon Deacon Basketball are selling at a record clip and are projected to sell out for the first time in the 100-year history of the program.

Tie-Dye Nation, the theme for the 2005-06 season, has spawned a basketball fever in the heart of ACC country and fans are responding to the excitement surrounding Wake Forest basketball.

Less than 250 season tickets are available for the 20-game home slate which includes non-conference opponents Charlotte, DePaul, and Wisconsin along with ACC opponents Duke and North Carolina.[/b]

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[i]Originally posted by Jimmyhat49er[/i]@Oct 27 2005, 11:02 AM [b] Starting line up: Bobby said that until 2 days ago, the starting line would be Baldwin, Alexander, Drayton, Withers, Nance. [/b]
Yowzas thats a BIG starting five! me likes
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Thanks for the information Jimbo. The scheduling and recruiting information sounds promising. I hope Bobby can get the team to gel before the season starts though. We don’t want an early season “bad” loss.

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Great post, JH - thanks!!

Couple of things;

  • Great to hear of our depth, but also a little concerned that our starting 5 got smoked by the reserves. Did Lutz say who our new starting 5 may be? (considering he said that until 2 days ago it was…).

  • Love that we have so many big names that potentially may schedule us. I hate to hear that Duke and UNC-CH won’t do a return game w/ us. Not calling Bobby out - but this is the type of thing I’d love to see in the Observer. They gave us a shot to talk about it last year and we took the high road…

  • Bobby & Co. getting it done with the recruits (again). Looking forward to seeing Tatum & Anderson in green… and C. Williams being the best passer we’ve seen since Colson??? :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: Sad news for Bennett, but I think we all knew it was coming.

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[i]Originally posted by Jimmyhat49er[/i]@Oct 27 2005, 11:02 AM [b] Starting line up: Bobby said that until 2 days ago, the starting line would be Baldwin, Alexander, Drayton, Withers, Nance. But then he had that team play together for the first time and they got blown out by the second team. [/b]
That would make the 2nd team... Goldwire, Bennett, Jamison, Williams, Coleman? Thats not a bad little lineup either (especially the way Coach praised Williams/Coleman).
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[i]Originally posted by forDniner[/i]@Oct 27 2005, 01:45 PM [b] - Great to hear of our depth, but also a little concerned that our starting 5 got smoked by the reserves. Did Lutz say who our new starting 5 may be? (considering he said that [u]until[/u] 2 days ago it was...).
  • Love that we have so many big names that potentially may schedule us. I hate to hear that Duke and UNC-CH won’t do a return game w/ us. Not calling Bobby out - but this is the type of thing I’d love to see in the Observer. They gave us a shot to talk about it last year and we took the high road…

[/b]


I think that Baldwin, Alexander, Drayton, Withers and Nance will still be the starters, but they need to play together more and develope chemistry. I think them getting beat by the second team is a combo of our incredible depth and the first teamers not use to each others role when they are on the same team. That will take some time. Coach did say Mitchell has been very good in practice and his offense seems much better, a big key for us this year will be Mitchell’s health, if he stays healthy, we will go far. Coach also said that Nance is a much more confident and polished player and that he should take a big step forward in his second year like a lot of Juco’s seem to do.

Bobby really can’t afford to call the ACC out about scheduling us, it would only make the situation worse. Quite frankly Duke and Carolina don’t have to play us and they will only do so if the see a benefit for themselves. We need the media to put the pressure on those schools. Or maybe they will sign a big time player from Charlotte and they will schedule a game with us in fron of his home town. If we continue to be successfull we will get some good games with some quality programs.

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Baldwin, Alexander, Drayton, Withers, Nance is big/talented but certainly not quick. Goldwire and Bennett may get more minutes than originally thought (A-10 is not big)…with DA and Drayton splitting time at the 3. Although Drayton can get some more minutes at the 4. We need to find out what works early in the season so we are set when conf play roles around.

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[i]Originally posted by Jimmyhat49er[/i]@Oct 27 2005, 01:22 PM [b] Bobby really can't afford to call the ACC out about scheduling us, it would only make the situation worse..... We need the media to put the pressure on those schools. [/b]
We have been told on this board (on a yearly basis) that is not the responsibility of the media, at least not the media in Charlotte. :rolleyes:

Last night was the first Triad event I have missed but neither of us could make it. I was able to talk to Bobby today during lunch (an advantage of spending time in both cities).

Sounds like we’re gonna be as deep as many of us had anticipated.

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I think that it is a bit ironic that most of us despised (envied) Cincy the most out of our Conference foes (I’m not talking [SIZE=1]Memphis[/SIZE] fans of foes), which was perenially the biggest, most physical team in the conference and now through a combination of a bigger, more physical team than ever and a move to a new conference, we’ve taken on their role in the A-10 and have a target on our backs.

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[i]Originally posted by MeinShaft[/i]@Oct 27 2005, 02:35 PM [b] I think that it is a bit ironic that most of us despised (envied) Cincy the most out of our Conference foes (I'm not talking [SIZE=1]Memphis[/SIZE] fans of foes), which was perenially the biggest, most physical team in the conference and now through a combination of a bigger, more physical team than ever and a move to a new conference, we've taken on their role in the A-10 and have a target on our backs. [/b]
I think the target is on our backs more because of the high pre-season praise the team is getting. Coach stated that GW is not happy that we're getting all the attention when they are the defending champions. The other perrenial conference leaders probably feel the same.

He also mentioned that our game at Fordham is their first home game on ESPN ever. Thus, they are predicting a sellout already and Coach Whittenburg has told Lutz that they are gearing up for us.

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I thought the most interesting thing coach said was about the gyms in the A-10, how they are all so much smaller than what we played in last year in C-USA, with 3500 students in the gym on top of you is a much bigger home court advantage and our guys would have to get used to it. Might take us a year before we know which road games are going to be the hardest.

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Sounds like we could almost make “posse” -like substitutions :o

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Think about these possiblities:

Team 1
Baldwin
Bennett
Jamison
Withers
Williams

Team 2
Goldwire
Alexander
Drayton
Coleman
Nance

Those are two pretty good teams that could compete with pretty much any team on our schedule. I’d like to be able to watch these 2 teams go at it in practice.

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[i]Originally posted by Jimmyhat49er[/i]@Oct 27 2005, 05:11 PM [b] I'd like to be able to watch these 2 teams go at it in practice. [/b]
I was thinking the same thing last night. How about a practice pass coach?
[b]Sounds like we could almost make "posse" -like substitutions. [/b]

If we can ever press like Lutz would like to, this is a definite possibilty. When Pitino had his great kentucky teams he would do this several times per game. You have to be REALLY deep to do that though.

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When you have a team this deep one of the problems you see is not enough minutes to make everyone happy. If you play a 40-minutes-of-hell style defense it takes care of itself.

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Excellent news about getting Wake and NCSU to play us. This will benefit us greatly over the next 4 years with recruiting and exposure!

But they’re also both benefiting some too.

State has fallen off a little in basketball and in in-state recruiting. They have no chance recruiting eastern NC where UNCCHhas always had a lock, but they probably feel they can make inroads into western NC, specifically Charlotte.

Same thing for Wake, but they also probably see a way to use basketball to also help boost their football recruiting, which in the new ACC is now paramount! They can use all the help they can get with football. They have a great staff and coach, but they’re not on most fball players radars. Basketball is their primary recruiting tool for all their sports.

Duke and UNCCH won’t play us until they see a benefit in it for them. They beat us, and because we’re usually lower in RPI then them they get no significant benefit. But if they loss to us, well a loss is bad in itself, and we’re just good enough where they know we can beat them.

But even if we move up to a higher level they will still be reluctant to play us, especially UNCCH, who would hate to loss to us. Any success in recruiting that we, or for that matter State or ECU, has in NC harms UNCCH.

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Our “second” team could make the NCAA tournament by itself.

How about them apples?