Notes

It seems like the two things people want to read about the most are the clearinghouse issues and Jahmar Young. Following are some quotes from Menzies on both situations and I have a story on Sy and Tyrone Watson probably Saturday or Sunday. Sy practiced for the first time on Wednesday since the team normally takes Tuesday off. He was cleared to practice all year but he can't play in games yet. I don't know if you read my story on the Aggies 3-point shooting/3-point shooting defense, but here it is. It seemed to me that rebounding and transition defense were the biggest weaknesses last year and hopefully they address those two things early on. We get to see for the first time in Monday's exhibition game.

Menzies on Bandja Sy's eligibility
"He has been cleared to receive his scholarship and practice for the whole year. There is a portion of the Clearinghouse where they have to check your amateurism to make sure you were never a professional and being that he was a international student and we recruited him so late, you fill out that paperwork and the process of checking and going through the background that the NCAA has to do, we are still in the balance there so we are kind of at their mercy. It's just a matter of time with him. He has got through on the academic piece. Worst case scenario he redshirts this year and he's ready to go next year and that's not all bad either. I'm OK with redshirting guys except for the fact that without Troy and Wendell we could probably use him."

BJ West has all of his paperwork submitted to the NCAA.


Menzies on reports that Jahmar Young will sit on Monday
"I haven't made a decision. He doesn't have to. That's my call. He was going to have some trouble with his ankle a little bit and we have so many guys that I have to take a look at and it's an exhibition game. We have a lot of new guys who have to get their feet wet. Everybody else is good to go. As of today, as far as I know, that is the only one that had a question mark and he got that resolved."


Menzies on addressing the rebounding
"You have to get out there and emphasize things. We talked about it last year but obviously we didn't emphasize it enough. We didn't drill it enough. Every single possession, whether you're talking about offense or defense, is an opportunity to rebound so we have tweaked some of our drills so the rebound is the completion of the drill. A lot of times, certain drills end with the shot. Now we secure the rebound and try to push it to halfcourt or get the outlet pass before the drill is over. Who knows if it will work or not. At the end of the day you have to have guys who make that a priority. Just like defensively, they want to get stops so it's not like let me survive this possession so I can go score again. When you look at the total body of work from last year and you show your players that and they see they could have done a better team if they had done these things, that in itself should be enough of a motivator for them to be more consistent in practice."



Finally I have a question. Last year I did a little running blog entry for the games I was at. I enjoyed doing it and plan to do it again. Do you have any suggestions? I tried to update at every media timeout as long as the game was competitive. Do you follow them during games or are you at the same game? anything you would want added? Keeping in mind that I'm working on the story for the paper so go easy on me....