Bulking up

Our two low post men, Javes and Leeper, reportedly have added 65 pounds between them from where they reported last year. That has to help.

British Open

Look at the history of the various venues where the British Open is played, and you will understand why it is my favorite golf tournament. It just oozes history.

Under the radar

The pundits this year will grossly underestimate the importance of Gus Leeper returning healthy.

Height!

I hope you will not get tired of my repeating this, but I look at that roster and see FOUR players at 6-10. How nice that looks after years of playing with undersized squads!

Experience

We will be very short on experience as a team, admittedly. But our starting line-up might not be short on maturity, at least. Michael Javes is 22 years old, despite being only a sophomore. Gus, Will and James White all had redshirt years, so they are year older than their academic classes. Ben Dillard appears to be mature beyond his years, at least from a distance.

How fast

I have no idea how hard the old timers really threw the baseball, but remember that however fast it was, the batters were standing up there with NO HELMETS.

Total dominance

We forget sometimes just how dominant UCLA was in the Wooden area. Seven national championships in a row. Imagine! Get two in a row these days and the coach is hailed as the greatest of all time.

Not coincidence

One of the most amazing things about UCLA's run of seven consecutive national titles was the fact that in that period they did not have any bad apples that spoiled the system. Today, when you are recruiting kids of that degree of talent (and ego), there will be some who just will not do right, and it kills the team. How Wooden avoided that is remarkable.

Bandwagon jumpers

I just have no desire to be one of these sports fans who find which team is in first place and jump on the bandwagon, so they can be a "winner." It never has been any fun to me. Pick out a team and stick with them, through thick and thin, even if they a bottom-feeder.

Good coaches

Good coaches keep their teams in the thick of things year in and year out. But they have to wait for that exceptional talent, or exceptional chemistry, to win a championship.

Coaches' motivation

I do not know what motivates each individual coach. Probably like most people, it is a variety of things. For some it is money and prestige. Some want to accomplish at the highest level they can in their profession. Perhaps a few honorable men among them are mainly concerned with making a living for their families. Some just love teaching the game of basketball.

It is a shame, however, that in college basketball the success of a coaches' career is determined by a very few games played in the NCAA tournament. That is a broken measuring stick.

Projects

Andrew Poulter is EXACTLY the kind of recruit we need to be signing on a regular basis to be developed by Joe Kleine - and redshirted if at all possible.

Tougher job

Recruiting to lower-level schools has to be a much tougher job than recruiting to glamor schools. You actually have to dig and access the skills of the players. Everybody knows about the Top 100 players in the country. To ferret out the next tier and identify the ones that would fit your program is a lot harder.

No credit

When you play blue collar basketball, you tend to get overlooked. Just goes with the territory. People tend to listen to the sizzle and ignore the steak.

Lots of very good teams have underachieved because of the lack of a good point guard. I hope that is not our lot this year.