Was at practice today, here are my notes!
- The star of practice without doing very much was injured Ben Emelogu. This was the first time I’ve seen him practice so far this season. He only participated for the first few minutes, stretching and taking jump shots with the team before doing running some basic plays. During one of these plays Emelogu got up and dunked the ball, causing Markus Kennedy and the rest of the team to erupt. Nic Moore, jokester that he is, yelled at Emelogu, “You shouldn’t have done that, now coach (Larry Brown) is going to want to play you!” It was an encouraging sign for the injured Mustang.
- Overall it was a very lighthearted, fun practice. Jordan Tolbert called Sterling Brown and his fancy new haircut “Peacock Brown” and guys were talking about the NFL playoffs and other things.
- Towards the end of practice the team worked on free throws. Sterling Brown and Shake Milton both got to one of the free throw lines at the same time and kept pushing each other around trying to shoot first. The junior eventually beat out the freshman but when Brown missed both free throw shots Milton was staring right at him with a big grin on his face.
- After practice officially broke up, some guys went to one half of Moody to shoot free throws and goof around a bit while Milton, Jarrey Foster, Semi Ojeleye and Sterling Brown worked on post moves with Larry Brown. When he looked down the court and saw what the group was doing, Nic Moore yelled out, “You’re doing post moves! Coach why didn’t you tell me, don’t you know I always wanted to be a big man my whole life!” Like I said, very loose practice as the guys were still basking in the glow of defeating Cincinnati.
- Ojeleye worked with Larry Brown on a sky hook after everyone else walked away. Nic Moore watched and yelled out, “Alcindor!” at Ojeleye in reference to the great Kareem Abdul-Jabar.
- Markus Kennedy, who reinjured his sprained ankle at practice on Monday, did not practice Friday.
- The coaching staff celebrated last night's win with a trip to classic SMU watering hole Bandito's.
