Tide Finishes 1st Official Basketball Practice Session
10/13/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
“The biggest thing you notice,” said the freshman out of Mary Montgomery, “is probably game speed and having to get used to playing harder defense. But the biggest difference is game speed. It feels good to be out there. This is a life-long dream of mine, so it feels good. I was surprised to see a crowd there, too. That was exciting.”
It was opening day of practice number three for
“It’s early, so obviously, we’re not as good as we need to be, but I think the effort was good,” said the junior All-Southeastern Conference and 2006 Honorable Mention AP All-American point guard. “I think everybody was excited with it being the first day and everything. The crowd really helped us out. But I think for a first day, we’re right on track. We’ve got a lot of work to do, but we’re right on schedule.
“We’ve got a lot of depth. All of the new guys are really, really talented. They just have to learn the system. I think they’re going to step in and play well,” said Steele.
Gottfried liked the effort of his team although, like Steele, believes his team has much work to do if it wants to become a contender and advance to what would be its sixth straight NCAA postseason appearance come March.
“When you critique yourself, you find all the faults out there, but there were some good signs, too,” said Gottfried who is in his ninth season as
“The older guys are helping the younger guys. They’ve done a nice job with that,” said Gottfried. “And I think all of our young guys, you could see throughout practice that they all have glimmers and these little moments where they looked real good. And then they had other moments where they looked like it’s just their first time ever to touch the basketball.”
