AJC > Sports > Tech > Blog > Archives > 2006 > October > 26
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Some glaring weaknesses
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This blog will be posted before I speak with Chan Gailey after practice, but I’m going to ask about Reggie Ball today. Will Chan and his staff monitor Ball more closely, give more thought than most weeks to pulling him if he’s not up to his usual speed?
Clearly, against Clemson, Reggie was banged around enough that he became limited. Most of his rushing yards came on broken passing plays, and fairly early in the game Patrick Nix appeared to stop calling his number as a runner.
The passing attack was poor, obviously, against Clemson, and much of that was probably due to the fact Clemson could see Ball was limited, and didn’t have to fear/respect Reggie as a dual threat. When a defense has to be on its toes to look for him to run or pass, it helps Tech’s passing game as linebackers in particular have to kind of linger before either committing to him as a runner or drop into coverage. It helps Tech’s running game, too, of course.
But when Reggie’s gimpy, a team can defend Tech more straight up; make a call and execute it.
It’s been said, but I’ll say it again: If the Jackets’ defense doesn’t slow the run better than in the last two games, they’re in trouble again.
In the past two games, Maryland’s Lance Ball, Clemson’s James Davis and Clemson’s CJ Spiller have all gone past 100 rushing yards against Tech, Davis way past that mark, obviously. Tech in those games had to come from behind than then hold on for life against Maryland, and got whipped at Clemson.
Miami can throw the ball a little anyway, and they may get back one of their better receivers from last season. If the ‘Canes find they can run it Saturday — and their running game has improved with the freshman James — it will not be a good omen for Tech.
And what about Travis Bell? Tech’s options behind him are limited.
On hoops:
Coach Paul Hewitt has the way his team is going about conditioning, chiefly in the offseason, by reducing or eliminating track work and instead doing most conditioning on the hardwood.
“We’ve had a lot of lower leg and back injuries and [previous training methods] may have contributed to that,” Hewitt said. “[Lewis] Clinch missed five games with a stress fracture [in his leg]. Going back a year, Elder tore a hamstring, and dislocated a knee cap. The year before that, Tarver dislocated a knee cap. Jeremis Smith had problems with his lower back all last year.
“We changed our conditioning this year to do more on-the-court workouts, just running the lanes, doing some basketball drills. Two things I hope come out of it. Number one, I hope our conditioning is better, and number two, we reduce the probability of injuries. You can’t eliminate injuries. Our trainers feel like if we’re running them on the wood rather than the track, you might reduce some of it.”
Asked about the impact of freshmen Javaris Crittenton and Thaddeus Young, Hewitt said, “They’re both very talented players. So is [freshman] Zach Peacock, and Mouhammad Faye is essentially a freshman. I think [freshman] Brad Sheehan is going to be very good as well, but physically he has to develop.”
And as for how long it will take new players to mesh with returning players:
“A lot of it’s going to depend on how quickly we develop defensively. We’re not talking real well on the court. Because we don’t talk, we’re playing like a team that’s slow. We’re a step slow on our rotations, and a step slow on a lot of our closeouts. When we get to a point where we become a fast team defensively, we’ve got a chance to be pretty good. If we don’t ever develop that communication on the court, then we’ll be average, or below average.”
Anthony Morrow (back) remains on schedule to return to practice Nov. 5. Hewitt said he “might” play in the Nov. 10 opener against Elon.
Morrow said he’s ready to go now, but understands the idea of holding him out now to reduce the likelihood of his back nagging him later in the season.
It was interesting to see him and Mario West hanging out in the lobby of the hotel in Greensboro the other day, chatting with Maryland’s DJ Strawberry and Ekene Ibekwe, and Virginia’s very good backcourt of Sean Singletary and JR Reynolds. They were speaking to one another for at least 20 minutes, waiting for their respective coaches to finish so they could head back to their campuses.
Finally, Maryland coach Gary Williams comes rolling through, sticks his head in the lounge and says, “Anybody get a Redskins score?” to folks watching NFL games (which the players completely ignored, by the way). Told the Redskins-Colts game had not yet started, Williams corralled his lads and bolted.
