Tide Hoops Team Completes 1st Practice Session Sunday Night
8/19/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
TUSCALOOSA ?? Minus a view of his three newcomers who, per NCAA rules, must wait until classes start Wednesday to practice with the team, head coach Mark Gottfried got his first view of his 2007-08 University of Alabama basketball team in action.
Sunday evening Alabama began the first of 10 practices it will hold within the next two weeks to prepare for the team’s trip to Canada on Labor Day weekend. Alabama will travel to Ottawa to play four exhibition games in three days against Canadian university teams. Freshmen Rico Pickett, Justin Knox and Senario Hillman were forced to stand and watch from the sideline Sunday, as did senior All-Southeastern Conference point guard Ronald Steele. Steele likely will participate little in the next two weeks as he continues his recovery, on schedule, from arthroscopic surgery on both of his knees last April 3.
“I’m feeling better every day. I’m re-habbing hard,” said Steele. “It’s hard sitting out watching the guys practice, but I’m trying to do what I can to help them off the court. I’m getting better. I’m not behind by any means in my recovery. They just want me to take it slow so I won’t have any problems during the season. I expect to be ready to play when the season starts.”
Gottfried said his team will be ready as well, though he thought conditioning was an issue on Sunday night.
“I think first of all, obviously it’s August the 19th, so we’re not in great basketball shape, nor should we expect to be,” said Gottfried following Alabama’s two-hour practice. “That’s the first thing that stood out, more than anything, is our conditioning in August. We’ve got to get a couple of days under our belt here, get our legs underneath us and then I think we’ll start to be a little bit better. But today we struggled more than anything. It was the first day, and, again it’s August the 19th.”
Alabama returns starters Steele, Richard Hendrix, Alonzo Gee, Mykal Riley and Brandon Hollinger from its 2006-07 team that had 20 wins and started the season with the championship at the Paradise Jam with wins against, in order, Middle Tennessee, Iowa and, for the championship, Xavier.
The first official day of practice for the season won’t be until October 12, but Hendrix said he and his teammates were eager to get the bonus days that the NCAA allows teams leading to trips like these that teams are allowed to take every four years.
“It’s a lot different,” said Hendrix, an All-SEC forward from Athens of starting practice in August. “Right now, I think the main thing is getting the legs back under us, getting used to being in practice shape. Just getting in the gym and getting on the floor is always somewhat of a productive day, but we have to get better, particularly me.”
The Tide returns to the floor at noon CT on Monday for the second practice session. It will take Tuesday off then begin with the freshmen and a full team on Wednesday at 3 p.m. CT.
