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10.31.08
Longwood University
sixth-year head coach Mike Gillian and his
men's basketball team just passed the
midway point of preseason practice in
preparation for the upcoming 2008-09
campaign. The Lancers will open on Friday,
November 14, hosting Virginia-Wise in
Willett Hall beginning at 7 p.m.; the
first of three-straight home games in
Farmville, including Norfolk State (Nov.
16, 7 p.m.) and Gardner-Webb (Nov. 18, 7
p.m.). Through 14 practices, Coach Gillian
had the following to say about his
program.
On Practice
Fourteen practices in the books, 13 more
to go before we take court when it counts
against VA-Wise on November 14th. I think
we are ahead of where we have been in the
past defensively, and have a little bit of
catching up to do offensively. With what
we are expecting out of the players on
this year's team, it was important to
focus more early attention on how we want
to play defense as a group, and be able to
execute the plan. There is a general
feeling that that has happened so far, and
we are going to start to find out as we
play against someone other than ourselves.
On Fifth-Year, Redshirt-Junior Dana
Smith
Dana Smith has done what he needed to do
in order to be physically ready to play.
That rehab is a long, arduous process. He
has been practicing well and taken on a
very clear leadership role with this
group. What is next for him is to get back
out there in game action where the level
of intensity is kicked up a notch and he
can adjust to the flow of the game, and
impact the game like he is capable of
doing.
On Senior Ryan Bogan
Ryan Bogan has been the best player in the
gym every day in practice. He does all of
the fundamental things, those little
details, so well that sometimes you take
them for granted. Once he adjusted to the
speed of the college game last year and
slowed himself down, he was fantastic. He
is shooting the ball well, his decision
making on where and when to move the ball
to the next guy has improved (and it was
pretty good to begin with) and he is
defending with confidence. He is going to
be very important to this team throughout
the season.
On Play Of Point Guards
Point Guard play is going to be vital for
us. There is no clear cut front runner in
that position as of yet. There are four
guys (Durann, E.J., Martiz, Earl) working
hard and doing a good job in practice
every day but no one has set himself apart
from the others yet. One thing that we are
going to expect out of our point guard is
to set the tone for the defense by
defending the ball extremely well. That
may end up being a deciding factor in how
those minutes end up being distributed.
On Freshmen Class
Freshmen are always one thing, new to the
college game. That newness means they have
not experienced the speed of the game and
the strength and/or physicality of the
other players. There is always an
adjustment period for young players to
those things. Our three freshmen (Antwan,
Jan, Martiz) are all talented and have the
ability to make a positive contribution
for us. How quickly they can adjust will
really determine how much that
contribution is.
On The Post Position
The play of guys competing for minutes in
the post positions has been a pleasant
surprise. Those three (Billy, Brandon,
Antwan) have worked extremely hard
individually and as a group thus far and
the results are beginning to show. If we
can get solid play in the post on both
ends of the court, we are only going to be
a better team. There isn't any reason to
believe that each of them can't carry over
to the games the level of performance we
are seeing in practice every day. This is
clearly an area that has been lacking in
the past, and that we feel like we've
improved on.
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