Pick-up Tidbit from Paul Suellentrop

[1972Shocker]

From Pual Suellentrop's Shockwaves Blog:

A brief Wichita State basketball pickup report
Oct. 6, 2011, 10:09 p.m.

I stay away from taking pickup basketball too seriously because, well, because it’s pickup basketball.

So I’ll throw out these two observations from Thursday’s session with that disclaimer. File them away and we’ll see if they are relevant in January.

1. Ehimen Orukpe caught just about every pass thrown his way and grabbed a bunch of rebounds. This is potentially quite important. This summer, Orukpe struggled to catch the ball, leaving me to wonder how much he could play if coaches couldn’t trust him to handle the ball. He’s worked hard on that skill and it appears to be paying off, if Thursday is an indication. He also continues to work on a short jump hook that can be a go-to move for him with continued progress. He looked more like a confident, competent offensive player than he has at any point in his short stay at WSU.

2. Ben Smith scored on drives to the basket, the kind of versatility he didn’t display as a junior. If he has progressed from standstill shooter to a player who can put it on the floor and score, it’s a good development for the Shocker offense. Smith is a fine outside shooter who can really make himself hard to guard if he can get to the basket or make pull-up jumpers


Read more: http://blogs.kansas.com/shockwaves/#ixzz1a6WKriMa

[_kai_]

Those 2 are huge for our post play this year. That is great news, if it holds up into this season.

[pinstripers]

If Stutz and EO can give us a decent 40 minutes, we can be hellish.

[im4wsu]

Fianlly, a report on the pick-up scrimmages. Hope others will contribute as well.

[SHOXAAC]

Re: Pick-up Tidbit from Paul Suellentrop

From Pual Suellentrop's Shockwaves Blog:

A brief Wichita State basketball pickup report
Oct. 6, 2011, 10:09 p.m.

I stay away from taking pickup basketball too seriously because, well, because it’s pickup basketball.

So I’ll throw out these two observations from Thursday’s session with that disclaimer. File them away and we’ll see if they are relevant in January.

1. Ehimen Orukpe caught just about every pass thrown his way and grabbed a bunch of rebounds. This is potentially quite important. This summer, Orukpe struggled to catch the ball, leaving me to wonder how much he could play if coaches couldn’t trust him to handle the ball. He’s worked hard on that skill and it appears to be paying off, if Thursday is an indication. He also continues to work on a short jump hook that can be a go-to move for him with continued progress. He looked more like a confident, competent offensive player than he has at any point in his short stay at WSU.

2. Ben Smith scored on drives to the basket, the kind of versatility he didn’t display as a junior. If he has progressed from standstill shooter to a player who can put it on the floor and score, it’s a good development for the Shocker offense. Smith is a fine outside shooter who can really make himself hard to guard if he can get to the basket or make pull-up jumpers


Read more: http://blogs.kansas.com/shockwaves/#ixzz1a6WKriMa

If David Kyles can show the same behavior at the 2-guard we really have progress to talk about.

[wufan]

:yes: Very true! Ragland and Blair were the only players that showed consistent ability to slash to the basket with the ball in their hand last year (and Rags only in the last 1/3 of the season).

I still remember Stutz driving past his man for the dunk or lay-up last year. He was about 25 foot out on the wing and just put it on the floor for the easy two! Pretty sweet.

[shox8498]

But that was against teams like Virginia Tech and Alabama......neither of them are very good.