Men’s Basketball Preseason Notebook: Where We Stand
Oct 9, 2017 | Men's Basketball
NEW ORLEANS - The Tulane men's basketball team is through its first official week of practice ahead of the 2017-18 season, and second-year head coach Mike Dunleavy, Sr., already sees the fruits of the hard work players and staff have put in throughout the summer.
The 10 extra practices, four exhibition games and off-the-court camaraderie the Green Wave has built upon since its foreign tour of Spain in August gave everyone an early start. The ball has been bouncing well ahead of schedule for everyone.
"I think the first week of practice has gone really well in terms of where we are, knowing our system and how far in we are versus a year ago," Dunleavy said. "I would say our freshmen know as much as our team knew last January. We're that far ahead, which is very positive, but we have a long way to go."
Specifically, Dunleavy sees the foundation of the team's discipline and retention of his teachings to be well ahead of schedule.
"We have virtually all of our sets in and I think our defensive coverages are sharper," Dunleavy said. "We have a bunch of guys who understand what they're supposed to be doing, so I have a dozen teachers out there."
Beyond the framework, pace of play is a key to success in the American Athletic Conference, a category Tulane led the league in last year. Workouts have been strenuous, but still, more work is to be done to play at the level Dunleavy desires.
"Conditioning-wise, we're much better now than we were at this time last year," he said. "We're still trying to take it up another notch-and-a-half."
Even when a team is where it needs to be physically, has some early success and the engine lights check out fine, a breakdown in fundamentals can be the thorn that punctures that foundation. Dunleavy stresses the fundamentals every day and won't stop until it's a habit with every one of his players.
"We're working on a lot of fundamental stuff like boxing out. We're not a big team, but we are bigger than we were last year. We want to control the glass."
With a year of experience under the belts of his upperclassmen, two redshirts like junior Jordan Cornish and sophomore Samir Sehic who have a year of offseason work learning the system and five freshmen on the roster eager to contribute and learn, flexibility will be a welcomed attribute for Tulane this season. Added depth at all five positions is the goal of any Division I basketball program, and the Green Wave can now say "we have it."
"We've introduced some new things and different concepts based on our depth and skill level. We're doing more things in terms of understanding how to play the game and reading off one another. I've seen good improvement there, but it's not perfect. On each position, I want to get the mistakes down and the fundamentals up. We have to get that engrained. It needs to be a point of emphasis for us."
Follow Tulane men's basketball on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Follow Tulane Athletics on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and @TulaneAthletics on Snapchat.
The 10 extra practices, four exhibition games and off-the-court camaraderie the Green Wave has built upon since its foreign tour of Spain in August gave everyone an early start. The ball has been bouncing well ahead of schedule for everyone.
"I think the first week of practice has gone really well in terms of where we are, knowing our system and how far in we are versus a year ago," Dunleavy said. "I would say our freshmen know as much as our team knew last January. We're that far ahead, which is very positive, but we have a long way to go."
Specifically, Dunleavy sees the foundation of the team's discipline and retention of his teachings to be well ahead of schedule.
"We have virtually all of our sets in and I think our defensive coverages are sharper," Dunleavy said. "We have a bunch of guys who understand what they're supposed to be doing, so I have a dozen teachers out there."
Beyond the framework, pace of play is a key to success in the American Athletic Conference, a category Tulane led the league in last year. Workouts have been strenuous, but still, more work is to be done to play at the level Dunleavy desires.
"Conditioning-wise, we're much better now than we were at this time last year," he said. "We're still trying to take it up another notch-and-a-half."
Even when a team is where it needs to be physically, has some early success and the engine lights check out fine, a breakdown in fundamentals can be the thorn that punctures that foundation. Dunleavy stresses the fundamentals every day and won't stop until it's a habit with every one of his players.
"We're working on a lot of fundamental stuff like boxing out. We're not a big team, but we are bigger than we were last year. We want to control the glass."
With a year of experience under the belts of his upperclassmen, two redshirts like junior Jordan Cornish and sophomore Samir Sehic who have a year of offseason work learning the system and five freshmen on the roster eager to contribute and learn, flexibility will be a welcomed attribute for Tulane this season. Added depth at all five positions is the goal of any Division I basketball program, and the Green Wave can now say "we have it."
"We've introduced some new things and different concepts based on our depth and skill level. We're doing more things in terms of understanding how to play the game and reading off one another. I've seen good improvement there, but it's not perfect. On each position, I want to get the mistakes down and the fundamentals up. We have to get that engrained. It needs to be a point of emphasis for us."
Follow Tulane men's basketball on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Follow Tulane Athletics on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and @TulaneAthletics on Snapchat.
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