Hoyas draw 1200 to their Open Practice

Remember, regardless of what WASJU says, we beat them twice last season!  LOL

http://www.casualhoya.com/

If you are expecting any ground breaking revelations from Saturday's HHC Open Practice, you are going to be sorely disappointed with the following write-up.  Imagine a team that has been practicing for a week.  Imagine the drills, skills and fundamentals coaches run in order to get a team into shape.  And then imagine yourself sitting on hard wood bleachers in a poorly ventilated high school gymnasium.  That was Saturday in a nutshell.

Autographs and Q&A Session

•Took place in the dinning hall because there was such an overwhelming response to the invite that they needed a bigger venue... or so we were told.
•Process of filing into Leo's, signing in and receiving pins, shirts and other goodies was remarkably efficient - kudos to Athletic Department for making that better than any other Georgetown process I have seen.
•All attendees received Georgetown Thunder Sticks in their information packets - made me want to puke.  Navy blue inflatable menaces with "29 Sports, One Team" scribed across the demon sticks.  Good idea, I just hate those things.
•Players and JT3 signed autographs for young Hoya fans and awkwardly eager parents claiming it was for their kids.  Others sat around tables munching on bagels, muffins and fruit.  Conversations were about the off-season news including: Jeremiah Rivers' whiny comments, DaJuan Summers' NBA status, latest episode of Gossip Girl, etc.
•Coach Thompson did not have much to say in opening remarks - mainly he was thankful for the support, excited for the season, blah, blah, blah.  Then led to Q&A.
•Commented that the Big East will not be as top heavy as it was last year, and that the most experienced teams are actually the ones near the bottom last year.  He expects more parity in the league.
•He did not know where Georgetown was picked to finish in the preseason polls and said he did not care because nothing anyone says now matters anyway.
•He is nervous about OCC schedule, expects Temple to be a very tough game and scared Verizon Center will be empty for the Tuesday home opener at 4pm.  Does not want to give a national television audience the impression that Georgetown does not have supportive fans.
•Most impressed with the improvement of Jason Clark but says that can change since it is so early in the season. 
•Vee is a very cerebral player while Jerrelle has been injured for most of the offseason.
•Thinks Hollis can contribute immediately since he was here for half the season last year.
•Visibly tired of people questioning the offense.  He understands that people like to watch up-tempo teams but he wants to win, doesn't care how it looks.  Said they played at a faster speed last year than in previous years.
•He was amazed at the stupidity of someone asking if they work on boxing out and free throw drills in practice.  Shot down question immediately.
•When asked about facilities - he revealed that the reason the Autographs and Q&A session was moved to the dining hall is because they could not reserve the gym at 10am.  Said McDonough is cramped but they make it work. 
Open Practice
•Team started with a shoot-around. 
•Ran full court weaves and passing drills.
•Practiced dribbling the length of the court, Hollis Thompson was the most impressive here.
•Did a back-door pass drill, worked on kicking out to open shooter at 3 point line.
•Every player practiced taking threes from the top of the key and corners.  Looked like the team had five minutes to hit a certain amount of threes otherwise they would run laps.  But they were able to take foul shots in order to get out of running.  Something like that, interesting drill.
•Yes, they did practice boxing out.  Nice to see, players were getting physical.  Practiced backing out opponents away from the ball and going up strong on offensive rebounds.
•Ran 4 on 4 and 5 on 4 half court sets - team did not look especially sharp here but it has only been a week.
•I am not even going to attempt to do player evaluations since they were running drills and not playing in games.  The team looked motivated but uncomfortable having a group of people watching their every move.  Every player hit a shot, every player missed a shot.  Every player did something good, every player did something bad.  Anyone attempting to evaluate beyond that is full of crap.
•And then there was pizza outside.  And beer.  And then it rained. 
There you have it, a quick recap of the open practice.  As people were filing out JT3 commented that he could now run the actual practice, since he never likes to embarrass players in front of a crowd.  You could tell he was holding back from critiquing the players during the drills.  Good to see a healthy turnout at the open practice, don't ask me how many people because I am horrible at estimating crowd sizes.  If I had to guess, I'd say it was somewhere between 300 and 1,200.


Good talk.

They had one thing we didn't have.....beer.

They had one thing we didn't have.....beer.

Damm, I missed that interesting point!

Gotta love the tagline for the site...
Where Cynical Meets Delusional 

Quote from: Dave on October 26, 2009, 04:30:52 PM

They had one thing we didn't have.....beer.

Damm, I missed that interesting point!

Gotta love the tagline for the site...
Where Cynical Meets Delusional

Are you trying to compare this to our pep rally? There is a large difference between pep-rally and open practice.

Are you trying to compare this to our pep rally? There is a large difference between pep-rally and open practice.

Yes!
This was much more than an open practice.

Quote from: Dave on October 26, 2009, 08:20:35 PM

Are you trying to compare this to our pep rally? There is a large difference between pep-rally and open practice.

Yes!
This was much more than an open practice.

So what are you suggesting in comparison to St. John's event? Also did you attend the St. John's Stormfest?

 Georgetown had a lot more people at their midnight madness,  including ESPN.   I'm assuming your not referring to that.  Why must we constantly try and compare lame things at other schools to make St.John's look less lame?

 Are we suddenly a better program than Georgetown because they didn't have a great turnout at a stupid open practice. They consistently get top level recruits and , with the exception of last year,  usually field a very good, competitive team.  And i hate Georgetown! But facts are facts. 

Georgetown had a lot more people at their midnight madness,  including ESPN.   I'm assuming your not referring to that.  Why must we constantly try and compare lame things at other schools to make St.John's look less lame?

 Are we suddenly a better program than Georgetown because they didn't have a great turnout at a stupid open practice. They consistently get top level recruits and , with the exception of last year,  usually field a very good, competitive team.  And i hate Georgetown! But facts are facts.

My, my we're a little touchy today. Get up on the wrong side of the bed or something?

Not sure how you could have read into my posting that I was referring to their midnight madness. Same goes for accusing me of laming other schools down. I read my post twice and still can’t find where I said we were a better program than they are.

You probably missed where I said we beat them twice last season. That’s a fact.

Yes, Hoyas and nine other schools had ESPN at their Midnight Madness.

I thought it was an interesting fact that they got 1200 people to show up at an expanded open practice. That was the sole reason for posting the article.

Have a nice day.

Quote from: boo3 on October 27, 2009, 11:01:13 AM

Georgetown had a lot more people at their midnight madness,  including ESPN.   I'm assuming your not referring to that.  Why must we constantly try and compare lame things at other schools to make St.John's look less lame?

 Are we suddenly a better program than Georgetown because they didn't have a great turnout at a stupid open practice. They consistently get top level recruits and , with the exception of last year,  usually field a very good, competitive team.  And i hate Georgetown! But facts are facts.

My, my we're a little touchy today. Get up on the wrong side of the bed or something?

Not sure how you could have read into my posting that I was referring to their midnight madness. Same goes for accusing me of laming other schools down. I read my post twice and still can’t find where I said we were a better program than they are.

You probably missed where I said we beat them twice last season. That’s a fact.

Yes, Hoyas and nine other schools had ESPN at their Midnight Madness.

I thought it was an interesting fact that they got 1200 people to show up at an expanded open practice. That was the sole reason for posting the article.

Have a nice day.

YUp, beat them twice in a week. And if you want to give an excuse "well that team gave up" than you have to blame their coach. They have 2 NBA players on the roster, plus everyones All Everything PG Chris Wright. No reason they should lose to lowly St Johns and Norm Roberts, right?

Quote from: redstormhoopsfan on October 27, 2009, 01:07:15 PM

Quote from: boo3 on October 27, 2009, 11:01:13 AM

Georgetown had a lot more people at their midnight madness,  including ESPN.   I'm assuming your not referring to that.  Why must we constantly try and compare lame things at other schools to make St.John's look less lame?

 Are we suddenly a better program than Georgetown because they didn't have a great turnout at a stupid open practice. They consistently get top level recruits and , with the exception of last year,  usually field a very good, competitive team.  And i hate Georgetown! But facts are facts.

My, my we're a little touchy today. Get up on the wrong side of the bed or something?

Not sure how you could have read into my posting that I was referring to their midnight madness. Same goes for accusing me of laming other schools down. I read my post twice and still can’t find where I said we were a better program than they are.

You probably missed where I said we beat them twice last season. That’s a fact.

Yes, Hoyas and nine other schools had ESPN at their Midnight Madness.

I thought it was an interesting fact that they got 1200 people to show up at an expanded open practice. That was the sole reason for posting the article.

Have a nice day.

YUp, beat them twice in a week. And if you want to give an excuse "well that team gave up" than you have to blame their coach. They have 2 NBA players on the roster, plus everyones All Everything PG Chris Wright. No reason they should lose to lowly St Johns and Norm Roberts, right?

  Yet you predict Georgetown to beat us this year?

Quote from: boo3 on October 27, 2009, 11:01:13 AM

Georgetown had a lot more people at their midnight madness,  including ESPN.   I'm assuming your not referring to that.  Why must we constantly try and compare lame things at other schools to make St.John's look less lame?

 Are we suddenly a better program than Georgetown because they didn't have a great turnout at a stupid open practice. They consistently get top level recruits and , with the exception of last year,  usually field a very good, competitive team.  And i hate Georgetown! But facts are facts.

My, my we're a little touchy today. Get up on the wrong side of the bed or something?

Not sure how you could have read into my posting that I was referring to their midnight madness. Same goes for accusing me of laming other schools down. I read my post twice and still can’t find where I said we were a better program than they are.

You probably missed where I said we beat them twice last season. That’s a fact.

Yes, Hoyas and nine other schools had ESPN at their Midnight Madness.

I thought it was an interesting fact that they got 1200 people to show up at an expanded open practice. That was the sole reason for posting the article.

Have a nice day.

  You were the one comparing their attendance to an open practice to Stormfest,  or so you reponded to Dave. Anyhow,  i apologize for accusing you of bringing to light other program/ coaches deficiencies.  You would never do such a thing...right? 
  I don't blame you though.  Loyalty to good friends is a great quality.  If Norm was my buddy,  i'd do the same.
 

Quote from: Marco Baldi on October 27, 2009, 01:17:46 PM

Quote from: redstormhoopsfan on October 27, 2009, 01:07:15 PM

Quote from: boo3 on October 27, 2009, 11:01:13 AM

Georgetown had a lot more people at their midnight madness,  including ESPN.   I'm assuming your not referring to that.  Why must we constantly try and compare lame things at other schools to make St.John's look less lame?

 Are we suddenly a better program than Georgetown because they didn't have a great turnout at a stupid open practice. They consistently get top level recruits and , with the exception of last year,  usually field a very good, competitive team.  And i hate Georgetown! But facts are facts.

My, my we're a little touchy today. Get up on the wrong side of the bed or something?

Not sure how you could have read into my posting that I was referring to their midnight madness. Same goes for accusing me of laming other schools down. I read my post twice and still can’t find where I said we were a better program than they are.

You probably missed where I said we beat them twice last season. That’s a fact.

Yes, Hoyas and nine other schools had ESPN at their Midnight Madness.

I thought it was an interesting fact that they got 1200 people to show up at an expanded open practice. That was the sole reason for posting the article.

Have a nice day.

YUp, beat them twice in a week. And if you want to give an excuse "well that team gave up" than you have to blame their coach. They have 2 NBA players on the roster, plus everyones All Everything PG Chris Wright. No reason they should lose to lowly St Johns and Norm Roberts, right?

  Yet you predict Georgetown to beat us this year?

By the time Gtown comes around, St Johns will be due for a loss.I'll give JT3 the W at home. The only other loss that I have at that point is Duke. Plus im jumping on the Wright bandwaggon, he might score 50 points with 12 assists

Quote from: boo3 on October 27, 2009, 01:31:42 PM

Quote from: Marco Baldi on October 27, 2009, 01:17:46 PM

Quote from: redstormhoopsfan on October 27, 2009, 01:07:15 PM

Quote from: boo3 on October 27, 2009, 11:01:13 AM

Georgetown had a lot more people at their midnight madness,  including ESPN.   I'm assuming your not referring to that.  Why must we constantly try and compare lame things at other schools to make St.John's look less lame?

 Are we suddenly a better program than Georgetown because they didn't have a great turnout at a stupid open practice. They consistently get top level recruits and , with the exception of last year,  usually field a very good, competitive team.  And i hate Georgetown! But facts are facts.

My, my we're a little touchy today. Get up on the wrong side of the bed or something?

Not sure how you could have read into my posting that I was referring to their midnight madness. Same goes for accusing me of laming other schools down. I read my post twice and still can’t find where I said we were a better program than they are.

You probably missed where I said we beat them twice last season. That’s a fact.

Yes, Hoyas and nine other schools had ESPN at their Midnight Madness.

I thought it was an interesting fact that they got 1200 people to show up at an expanded open practice. That was the sole reason for posting the article.

Have a nice day.

YUp, beat them twice in a week. And if you want to give an excuse "well that team gave up" than you have to blame their coach. They have 2 NBA players on the roster, plus everyones All Everything PG Chris Wright. No reason they should lose to lowly St Johns and Norm Roberts, right?

  Yet you predict Georgetown to beat us this year?

By the time Gtown comes around, St Johns will be due for a loss.I'll give JT3 the W at home. The only other loss that I have at that point is Duke. Plus im jumping on the Wright bandwaggon, he might score 50 points with 12 assists

  lol!  All i ever said about Wright was that he was 10x than what we have at the point.  Not really a stretch there is it?   Would you not rather have Chris Wright at point over Malik x2?

Quote from: Marco Baldi on October 27, 2009, 01:41:59 PM

Quote from: boo3 on October 27, 2009, 01:31:42 PM

Quote from: Marco Baldi on October 27, 2009, 01:17:46 PM

Quote from: redstormhoopsfan on October 27, 2009, 01:07:15 PM

Quote from: boo3 on October 27, 2009, 11:01:13 AM

Georgetown had a lot more people at their midnight madness,  including ESPN.   I'm assuming your not referring to that.  Why must we constantly try and compare lame things at other schools to make St.John's look less lame?

 Are we suddenly a better program than Georgetown because they didn't have a great turnout at a stupid open practice. They consistently get top level recruits and , with the exception of last year,  usually field a very good, competitive team.  And i hate Georgetown! But facts are facts.

My, my we're a little touchy today. Get up on the wrong side of the bed or something?

Not sure how you could have read into my posting that I was referring to their midnight madness. Same goes for accusing me of laming other schools down. I read my post twice and still can’t find where I said we were a better program than they are.

You probably missed where I said we beat them twice last season. That’s a fact.

Yes, Hoyas and nine other schools had ESPN at their Midnight Madness.

I thought it was an interesting fact that they got 1200 people to show up at an expanded open practice. That was the sole reason for posting the article.

Have a nice day.

YUp, beat them twice in a week. And if you want to give an excuse "well that team gave up" than you have to blame their coach. They have 2 NBA players on the roster, plus everyones All Everything PG Chris Wright. No reason they should lose to lowly St Johns and Norm Roberts, right?

  Yet you predict Georgetown to beat us this year?

By the time Gtown comes around, St Johns will be due for a loss.I'll give JT3 the W at home. The only other loss that I have at that point is Duke. Plus im jumping on the Wright bandwaggon, he might score 50 points with 12 assists

  lol!  All i ever said about Wright was that he was 10x than what we have at the point.  Not really a stretch there is it?   Would you not rather have Chris Wright at point over Malik x2?

I need to see a healthy Boothe this year first before making that choice. Chris Wright looked awful against us

Quote from: boo3 on October 27, 2009, 11:01:13 AM

Georgetown had a lot more people at their midnight madness,  including ESPN.   I'm assuming your not referring to that.  Why must we constantly try and compare lame things at other schools to make St.John's look less lame?

 Are we suddenly a better program than Georgetown because they didn't have a great turnout at a stupid open practice. They consistently get top level recruits and , with the exception of last year,  usually field a very good, competitive team.  And i hate Georgetown! But facts are facts.

My, my we're a little touchy today. Get up on the wrong side of the bed or something?

Not sure how you could have read into my posting that I was referring to their midnight madness. Same goes for accusing me of laming other schools down. I read my post twice and still can’t find where I said we were a better program than they are.

You probably missed where I said we beat them twice last season. That’s a fact.

Yes, Hoyas and nine other schools had ESPN at their Midnight Madness.

I thought it was an interesting fact that they got 1200 people to show up at an expanded open practice. That was the sole reason for posting the article.

Have a nice day.

I have to defend boo here a bit. You make a statement and I'm not sure whether it was pro St. John's or pro Georgetown as you made a comparison between the two events.

Are you happy St. John's drew 1,200?

Or are you think its amazing Georgetown's practice outdrew our pep rally? Is that more + Georgetown or -  St. John's?

Does it have nothing to do with the numbers and what was done in practice that impressed you?

I'm not sure what your point was by saying the cynical meets the delusional? I'm just looking for clarification before I rush into responding to your post.

I wasn’t trying to compare the events, but obviously it seemed to some posters that a comparison was in order. I thought it was pretty good that they drew 1200 people to an “enhanced” open practice. I didn’t see the attendance figures from their Midnight Madness event, but it would not surprise me if they drew several thousand fans.

You asked me “Are you trying to compare this to our pep rally? There is a large difference between pep-rally and open practice.”

I replied “Yes! This was much more than an open practice.”
I think maybe you took my yes to be that I was comparing the events. It wasn’t a plug for GT or a dig at SJU, and I’m sorry if some readers seemed to take it one way or the other.

As for our Stormfest, I was unable to attend due to a work commitment. I would have attended without question if the situation permitted. From memory I have missed two home games in the last four or five years, and made up for that with five or six road trips to see them play.

I don’t know what public safety considered the capacity at Taffner for this event, but if it were held in CA I would have liked to hear that we drew 3000-4000.

Lastly I thought the website’s tagline was a very interesting way of stating the middle ground for an issue: where cynical meets the delusional.   
Think of it this way:  WASJU = cynical,  RSHF = delusional.

I wasn’t trying to compare the events, but obviously it seemed to some posters that a comparison was in order. I thought it was pretty good that they drew 1200 people to an “enhanced” open practice. I didn’t see the attendance figures from their Midnight Madness event, but it would not surprise me if they drew several thousand fans.

You asked me “Are you trying to compare this to our pep rally? There is a large difference between pep-rally and open practice.”

I replied “Yes! This was much more than an open practice.”
I think maybe you took my yes to be that I was comparing the events. It wasn’t a plug for GT or a dig at SJU, and I’m sorry if some readers seemed to take it one way or the other.

As for our Stormfest, I was unable to attend due to a work commitment. I would have attended without question if the situation permitted. From memory I have missed two home games in the last four or five years, and made up for that with five or six road trips to see them play.

I don’t know what public safety considered the capacity at Taffner for this event, but if it were held in CA I would have liked to hear that we drew 3000-4000.

Lastly I thought the website’s tagline was a very interesting way of stating the middle ground for an issue: where cynical meets the delusional.   
Think of it this way:  WASJU = cynical,  RSHF = delusional.

Oh ok that clears up a few misinterpretations of your post I had.

I do think having 1,200 people at Georgetown's open practice is pretty good. I don't think its amazing either though.

I think having mostly 1,200 students at St. John's midnight madness event was pretty good in comparison to recent years but idealy I think it can be much greater if marketed to the alumni and public better. Also it needs to be in CA and St. John's administrators conceived that to me as well when I questioned them on it that night. 

The coaching staff has a soft spot for Taffner though because I think they want to show off the practice facility, weight room, and offices to the recruits. 

I see no reason why next season we can't get 5,000+ at the event. I will do everything I can to assist the University if they are open to ideas I have.

i wrote the post on casual hoya.  i find this thread very amusing because no matter the school or the topic, people find ways to bicker about the most minute details.

there were not 1200 people at the open practice.  there were not 300.  i have no idea how many people there were, i cant estimate crowd sizes.  the 300-1200 estimate was a joke...

you beat us twice last year.  i cried.  twice.  reminded me of when you beat us with 4 schollies players in 2004.  looking forward to our new year's eve matinee this year...

i wrote the post on casual hoya.  i find this thread very amusing because no matter the school or the topic, people find ways to bicker about the most minute details.

there were not 1200 people at the open practice.  there were not 300.  i have no idea how many people there were, i cant estimate crowd sizes.  the 300-1200 estimate was a joke...

you beat us twice last year.  i cried.  twice.  reminded me of when you beat us with 4 schollies players in 2004.  looking forward to our new year's eve matinee this year...

We not bickering, this is just how we communicate. We’re like an old married couple!


I did enjoy your original piece and I look forward to a good game against your guys this season!

hire esherick, good to have you here. What are your expectations this year? Where do you finish in the Big East?