Open Practice and Coach Jones' First "Chalk Talk": A Musical* of Epic Proportions

*This is not actually a musical

Our Eagles tipped off this week with a veritable smorgasbord of new events, which helped to feed my insatiable hunger for AU basketball. First on the docket was the first open practice I've ever been to in my time as an Eagle, followed by Coach Jones' first official "Chalk Talk." As you can tell by the title, it was not actually a musical, but it was not your average song and dance either. See what I did there? I know you come here for the great puns. No, you come here for the basketball? Well fine, let's get to that right after the jump.

Let me admit, I've never before been lucky enough to watch the team practice outside of warm-ups before a game, so I was incredibly excited for the open practice this evening. I'm sure the other 30-40 people in attendance felt much the same way. If you weren't one of those 30-40, you really missed out, but from the tone of things it sounded like Athletics and Coach Jones were more than eager to repeat this event next year, so my recommendation is that you make a point of being there and filling the stands so it becomes a truly annual thing. All guilt tripping (an invaluable skill imparted by my doting Jewish mother) aside, it really was exciting to see the team run drills and practice some things I hadn't before seen on the floor.

The first of these things, of course, was Charles Hinkle, Wayne Simon, and Warren Flood. It was my first time ever seeing any of them do as much as hold a basketball. As for what they did with it next, that varied. Wayne definitely has the quickest pair of legs, although he's not quite as athletic as Troy (I doubt anyone in the Patriot League is). He had some trouble getting inside, but he always covered his man well. If he gains some confidence for the college game, he's going to be deadly. It was also great to see Charles play - while he may not be the impact player Vlad was when he became eligible, Charles was clearly a leader on the court and a very big body that seemed capable of playing every position from shooting guard to slightly undersized 4-man. That versatility to back up the skill we already have on the court will serve us well come League play. Finally, I have to say that I barely saw Warren. While he may be our version of Rudy, his triumphs will most likely have to live on in spirit as I still doubt that he'll see much, if any, play this season. In fact, considering that we now boast a 17-man roster, he probably won't even travel.

Other than the new blood, it was good seeing more of Tony Wroblicky. It was again very, very clear why he's already beating out Riley as Lump's backup. Coach Jones was definitely conflicted as to whether he should be on the Blue team with Lumpkins, or on the White (read: less skilled) team against him. Without a doubt, he's going to continue to put on muscle and is going to be a very, very good player (more on this later), and he challenges Lump under the basket and makes him better as well. If his progress continues as I've been seeing it, we are not going to have to worry about having an adequate big man for a very long time.

If you squint, you can see Tony laying it in to the basket from a few feet out as if 6'11" Riley Grafft were not standing directly in front of him. Any questions as to who will be backing up Lumpkins this year end with this picture.

Other players of note during open practice included Mike "FREEDOM" Bersch, who was raining threes like it was going out of style. Unfortunately, this seemed to be about all he could do, and despite a clear skill (that doesn't always translate to actual games), he still remains a little one-dimensional. That being said, I still expect him to play some solid backup minutes this year, and he still has plenty of time to break out. Other than Bersch, there were also some great treys from Troy Brewer, who is definitely anything but one-dimensional. He had some great chemistry going with Nick Hendra tonight, and it brought a smile to this blogger's face to see them high-five on court after executing a great play. My fears that Troy would not mesh well with the team dynamic that developed last year have certainly been assuaged. 

Last, I want to mention that while I have no concrete evidence of this, I can only imagine that Coach Jones was putting forth no less than a truly herculean effort not to use a more "creative" vocabulary than he did in front of tonight's crowd. I commend his ability to wear so many different hats, which brings me to the highly anticipated Chalk Talk.

We all have a little Captain in us

After we were all treated to about 60 minutes of raw, unadulterated basketball goodness, the stakes got a little higher when Coach came over and took any and all questions. You can see behind him that a white board was conveniently provided for the X's and O's that any lesser coach would require, but Jones needed only his own melodic voice to paint a brilliant narrative of Patriot League (nay, NCAA) domination. OK, ultimately he didn't tell us too much that we didn't already know, but that's largely a product of there being so many unknowns this early in the season. Either that, or we just spend way too much time thinking about AU Basketball. No, that can't be possible, but I digress. While I wasn't able to scribble down a full transcript of the wisdom imparted to us by Jones, let me give you the highlights:

• "Jekyll and Hyde" is how Jones described the way that the team was able to go from Championship-caliber one half, to abysmal and off-kilter the second. He mentioned that at the beginning of this very practice, we witnessed the "good team", while near the end the 4 of 10 free-throw shooting we winced at was the "bad team." He brought up the Youngstown State scrimmage from Saturday, mentioning that during the first of three "second halves" we lost, but in the second, we won by about 25. As the team matures, he hopes that the Jekyll and Hyde effect subsides, but this isn't the first (or best) AU team I've seen succumb to that same monster. 
• When other teams double or triple-team Vlad, we shouldn't fear because we now have other scoring options. 
• Dribble penetration is not our strong suit, and our only hope for it is Danny getting better ("he now has shoulders"), and one day Wayne. 
• Tony has the potential to be an even better player than the coaching staff envisioned.
• Despite stating after the Randolph-Macon game that Blake is right in the running for seeing play time at the point, Jones said tonight that he is just not keeping up with Danny and Luptak in practice. Danny is improving and getting a lot stronger, while Luptak is the best communicator and has made great strides between this year and last. After briefly comparing Luptak to a quarterback with a bad arm, Jones stated that "it's probably not a good idea to play three point guards." 
• What Jones did re-state is that this team has incredible depth, and has the most that he's seen in his time here, or "at least in the past six or seven years." This depth is two-fold, in that there's a lot of talent, as well as a whopping 17 players on the roster.
• If there is 2:10 left in a game and we are up by 25, Jones will consider putting in the scrub team. However, it's not too often that we find ourselves in that situation ("if we're up by only 15, no way"), so for anyone desperately waiting to see Daniel Fisher, Jordan Borucki, and Warren Flood on the court at the same time, you should probably have come to practice today. 
• Finally, Jones expressed how much he'd like to have another Chalk Talk. We suspect it will happen again at this time next year, so get a head start and mark your calendars now.

That's all for today, folks. There's a whole lot more great stuff coming this week, including the inaugural Faculty-Staff Class and American Madness rally on Wednesday, the season and home opener against St. Francis (PA) on Friday, our long-awaited summer recap, the second half of our Patriot League Preview series, and a whole lot more. Needless to say, this season has hit the ground running! If you need a quick way to keep up on the go, there's a big blue button at the top of the right-hand column that brings you right to our RSS feed that can be accessed from the reader of your choice. 

PRO DEO ET PATRIA and GO EAGLES!

Josh