I spent much of yesterday in Oxford. First time there since March. I was shocked to see the entire front and side lawns in Millett are a construction sight. I have no idea where all the tailgating that is normally held there is going to be moved to. Picked up my football season tickets and ordered men’s and women’s basketball.
I attended men’s basketball workouts on the floor of Millett. Not a lot to report. Reese Potter is out with what must be a minor injury, He said he would be back in 10 days and Coach Steele said 2 weeks. So not a big concern. Watching the workouts a lot of guys looked good, none looked great. Mostly it was very competitive and guys would do two things well and then one thing not so well. Our freshmen Skaljac and Byers looked good to me. I expect them to be in the rotation from the start. Jr Transfer center Antwone Woolfolk will help us. So will sophomore transfer Cam Craft. Sophomore Jackson Kotecki seemed much improved to me. I thought as a group we looked to lack a little physicality compared to what we have seen at the top of the MAC in recent years. Grad Student transfer Dan Leurs looked like our strongest player. I asked him if he was our strongest guy, and he said Yes. Point guard looks to be a very competitive spot with Ipsora and Cooper and Skaljac all being quite capable.
Will we play with a bigger lineup or a smaller lineup? Who knows. It may be situational.
Coaches and players came over and introduced themselves if we did not know each other. Coach Steele thanked us for coming. I think he is running the program in a classy style, hope we make another big jump in competitiveness this season.
After that we went down to Yeager and watched about 45 minutes of practice. I though it was very well organized in that different groups were doing different things at the same time so that and whistles would blow and people quickly moved into different activities. We were getting a lot accomplished in a short time period. From my own coaching experiences (not football), I always thought that was really important.
With a hundred players out there and all kinds of things going on, Coach Martin came over and talked to us twice. So in one afternoon we got to talk with both head coaches. Chuck knows tomorrow is a really big game and he has a chance to capture some new fans. He is ready. We often talk about it being tough to be a Miami fan, but try to talk to both head coaches during practice at Ohio State.
