Mish Mash from UW players
Isaiah Thomas told me that practice has been going well, though he felt it was “tiring”. He said, “I just can’t wait for the games to start”. He feels that his defense is the number one thing that he needs to work on. “It’s the biggest weakness I have. It’s getting better as we practice everyday.”
He mentioned needing to be able to “Pressure my man, keep my man in front of me”. He mentioned that the prep school ranks were much tougher than state of Washington High School basketball, as good as it is. He felt, “It made me a lot better player overall”. He mentioned that the team was shooting the ball well and that himself, Elston and JD were shooting well. Of the big men he mentioned Brockman as a mid-range shooter, “His free throw shooting is a lot better” and Wolf with the long range stuff.
Brockman mentioned right before the practices began that he was really looking forward to playing against someone other than his team mates. From the way guys have been bruised up going against him that sounds promising for UW. He mentioned that he thought that Spencer was doing “alright” in Sacramento and that he felt that he might have done best to stay at UW another year. He mentioned that Ryan Appleby had gotten bigger, but more importantly gotten stronger. We talked about music a long time and agreed on a few favorites, one being Johnny Cash.
Lorenzo Romar mentioned that he felt sad about the Sonics leaving. He seemed up beat about Seattle UW starting to rise up again. He mentioned some of the great Chieftain teams of his era with Jawaan Oldham, Clint Richardson and Carl Ervin (who smoked my junior high school team when he was at Asa Mercer Jr. High). He said “Those guys were all pros or near pros and that was a big game”. Another reporter was skeptical that the Seattle U. Washington games were a big deal and I had a hard time keeping my mouth shut.
Elston Turner appears comfortable for a freshman. He feels as if much of what he’s experienced is not a surprise. He feels that the role of shooter/scorer is something he expected, even as a freshman. He feels that he is ready to play this style of pressure defense.