Here are some notes and observations from Thursday’s practice. By Kevin Zimmerman/Arizona Daily Wildcat:
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There were seemingly two main themes from Thursday’s basketball practice: conditioning and fundamentals.
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Miller started practice by huddling at halfcourt, telling the team that there were three options for handling practice: the team could get better, get worse or stay where it was. The overall message? Improvement.
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To begin drills, the team broke into a red and blue teams to run halfcourt offensive drills that focused on ball movement, screens and running off those screens properly.
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The team ran a drill where players would attempt to score 75 buckets in two minutes. Without dribbling, players would sprint down the court while passing to two standing coaches, who would pass the ball back. The players would finish on the other end with a layup.
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Quickly transitioning to the second drill, players would take a rebound, throw an outlet pass to a guard and run a play on the other end of the court ending with one of the big men finishing at the rim.
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At one point in the drill, guard Garland Judkins lost his dribble and the ball rolled out of bounds. Miller was sharp with Judkins afterwards, but quickly started the drill again, showing he will hold players accountable but won’t dwell on their mistakes.
