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Not really Midnight Madness but how big is this that the UofA can start basketball practice on August 21? With the Italy trip being cancelled last May, the Cats can practice and fly to Canada and play some exhibition games during Labor Day weekend.
What is great about this is not only do they get a head start on everyone, the talented freshmen class gets to practice and play. This trip will benefit the team immensely as they play one of the toughest schedules in the country.
http://www.azstarnet.com/sports/142830
By Bruce Pascoe
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 08.19.2006
advertisementForget Midnight Madness.
This year, for the UA men's basketball team, it is Monday Madness. As in this Monday.
That is the day the Wildcats will unofficially begin their 2006-07 season, thanks to an NCAA rule that allows teams to hold 10 extra practices before foreign exhibition tours.
The Wildcats' Sept. 1-4 exhibition tour to Vancouver, British Columbia, while valuable, may actually be secondary to the "free'' practices that will allow the Wildcats to install much of their system and initiate their three freshmen at a time when players are normally just playing pick-up games.
"It's gonna be a great thing," UA senior guard Mustafa Shakur said. "Everybody's fired up about it. I'm really excited about it. Hopefully, we'll move ahead of schedule and focus on the things we need to focus on."
The two weeks of practices, daily from Monday through Aug. 31 except for Aug. 25, will allow the coaching staff to immediately introduce players to much of its man-to-man and zone offenses.
While the Wildcats have only the three freshmen starting from scratch, the entire team will be adjusting to a different scheme: Last year in the fall, the Wildcats were working with a motion offense they eventually scrapped, and this year, there is more shooting talent to cater to with Jawann McClellan back and freshmen Chase Budinger and Nic Wise.
"I think since we have so many shooters, we're probably going to open it up and spread the floor," Shakur said.
What's more, the Wildcats will have a maximum of 20 hours to conduct their six practices per week, meaning they can and probably will approach the three-hour mark in each workout.
That means that even though the Vancouver games might be exhibitions, the practices are not.
"They're going to be intense," assistant coach Josh Pastner said.
Then, once the Wildcats return from Vancouver, they will have six weeks before the official start of practices Oct. 14. During that period, they can work out as a team no more than two total hours per week, but they will already have a firm knowledge of the system to build on.
Last season, coach Lute Olson typically spread the two hours out into three 40-minute sessions and left the court afterward, while the Wildcats transitioned into unsupervised pick-up games. The UA could not do much but the basics in those drills and had to wait until mid-October to really get serious.
"This year, it will be helpful," said associate head coach Jim Rosborough, who will run Monday's practice while Olson remains out of town until Tuesday.
"Last year, in our two hours (a week) we did warm-ups, ballhandling and then our whole team stuff, because we were trying to get a new offense in. This year, when we get to (mid-October) we will have had a lot of hours on the court. We ought to be ready."
They should at least be better off. Las Vegas-based Maury Hanks, who is organizing the UA's trip this season, has helped several NCAA teams visit Canada in recent years. He said teams typically get a boost on the upcoming season, noting how Murray State cited its trip to Ottawa last season for helping the Racers make the NCAA tournament.
"It gives you some very, very valuable experience, especially because you can bring the freshmen," Hanks said.
Arizona had originally planned a European tour last May but replaced that with the Vancouver swing once it began facing a manpower shortage, with Marcus Williams and Mustafa Shakur deciding whether or not to leave for the NBA, and McClellan undergoing knee surgery. UA's freshmen would not have been eligible to play on a springtime trip.
NCAA rules allow teams to take foreign exhibition tours once every four years. Arizona took advantage of the rule to visit Australia in 1993, 1997 and 2002.
What is great about this is not only do they get a head start on everyone, the talented freshmen class gets to practice and play. This trip will benefit the team immensely as they play one of the toughest schedules in the country.
http://www.azstarnet.com/sports/142830
By Bruce Pascoe
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 08.19.2006
advertisementForget Midnight Madness.
This year, for the UA men's basketball team, it is Monday Madness. As in this Monday.
That is the day the Wildcats will unofficially begin their 2006-07 season, thanks to an NCAA rule that allows teams to hold 10 extra practices before foreign exhibition tours.
The Wildcats' Sept. 1-4 exhibition tour to Vancouver, British Columbia, while valuable, may actually be secondary to the "free'' practices that will allow the Wildcats to install much of their system and initiate their three freshmen at a time when players are normally just playing pick-up games.
"It's gonna be a great thing," UA senior guard Mustafa Shakur said. "Everybody's fired up about it. I'm really excited about it. Hopefully, we'll move ahead of schedule and focus on the things we need to focus on."
The two weeks of practices, daily from Monday through Aug. 31 except for Aug. 25, will allow the coaching staff to immediately introduce players to much of its man-to-man and zone offenses.
While the Wildcats have only the three freshmen starting from scratch, the entire team will be adjusting to a different scheme: Last year in the fall, the Wildcats were working with a motion offense they eventually scrapped, and this year, there is more shooting talent to cater to with Jawann McClellan back and freshmen Chase Budinger and Nic Wise.
"I think since we have so many shooters, we're probably going to open it up and spread the floor," Shakur said.
What's more, the Wildcats will have a maximum of 20 hours to conduct their six practices per week, meaning they can and probably will approach the three-hour mark in each workout.
That means that even though the Vancouver games might be exhibitions, the practices are not.
"They're going to be intense," assistant coach Josh Pastner said.
Then, once the Wildcats return from Vancouver, they will have six weeks before the official start of practices Oct. 14. During that period, they can work out as a team no more than two total hours per week, but they will already have a firm knowledge of the system to build on.
Last season, coach Lute Olson typically spread the two hours out into three 40-minute sessions and left the court afterward, while the Wildcats transitioned into unsupervised pick-up games. The UA could not do much but the basics in those drills and had to wait until mid-October to really get serious.
"This year, it will be helpful," said associate head coach Jim Rosborough, who will run Monday's practice while Olson remains out of town until Tuesday.
"Last year, in our two hours (a week) we did warm-ups, ballhandling and then our whole team stuff, because we were trying to get a new offense in. This year, when we get to (mid-October) we will have had a lot of hours on the court. We ought to be ready."
They should at least be better off. Las Vegas-based Maury Hanks, who is organizing the UA's trip this season, has helped several NCAA teams visit Canada in recent years. He said teams typically get a boost on the upcoming season, noting how Murray State cited its trip to Ottawa last season for helping the Racers make the NCAA tournament.
"It gives you some very, very valuable experience, especially because you can bring the freshmen," Hanks said.
Arizona had originally planned a European tour last May but replaced that with the Vancouver swing once it began facing a manpower shortage, with Marcus Williams and Mustafa Shakur deciding whether or not to leave for the NBA, and McClellan undergoing knee surgery. UA's freshmen would not have been eligible to play on a springtime trip.
NCAA rules allow teams to take foreign exhibition tours once every four years. Arizona took advantage of the rule to visit Australia in 1993, 1997 and 2002.
