Big Man's Camp

[Way Of The Ray <wayray@ix.netcom.com>]

Thanks to gokamoto@scu.edu for highlighting the article.



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Friday, August 14, 1998 




N B A _ B A S K E T B A L L


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Post is the
toast of camp




Numerous NBA and college
players will be on hand for
next week's Big Man Camp



By Cindy Luis
Star-Bulletin




Know what you coach. Coach what you know.



Pete Newell knows the NBA and what it takes for postmen to make it in the pros. The former college coach and NBA general manager opens his 21st annual Big Man Camp on Monday at the Kamehameha Schools Kekuhaupi'o Gym with the intent of teaching just that.



"So many big guys have never played with their backs to the basket," said Newell, consultant and West Coast scout for the Cleveland Cavaliers. "They really don't have any background for post offense in the NBA. They have the athleticism. They have the skills, but they aren't acquainted with the skills required of post players.



"We work with them posting up and doing counters, making that first step. I'm so tired of watching centers in the NBA get double-teamed and they don't know how to counter. We try to give them things they're going to need to know."



Seventeen NBA players and 24 college players will participate in the daily sessions. The NBA lockout has complicated matters. Any camp coach with an NBA affiliation, such as Newell (Cleveland) and Rick Carlisle (Indiana), cannot work with the 17 pro players.



But at least Newell wasn't forced to cancel his popular event, as was the case in 1995, the year of the last NBA lockout. The former head coach at California said he was going to have the camp, with or without the pros.



"The number of collegiate players we had signed up was enough to justify having the camp," Newell said. "The last time (1995), we didn't have a college camp. Up until three weeks ago, we only had a few of the pros signed up. Then the agents started setting things up."



NBA teams cannot have contact with players under contract, which might have hindered camp attendance. But there are several marquee names: Michael Olowokandi, the first pick in the June NBA Draft; Robert "Tractor" Traylor, Lorenzen Wright, Kelvin Cato and Sean Elliott.



Top college players are A.J. Bramlett from Arizona, Bret Jepsen of BYU, Kaspars Kambala from UNLV and Arizona State's Bobby Lazor, who played against Hawaii in the NIT last spring. Former Castle and Kahuku player Clifton Jones, a 6-foot-8 forward who will be a junior at Oregon State this season, will be the first Hawaii high school product at the camp.



Newell likes his collegiate crop, even though most of the players aren't household names. He points to last year's camp, which featured three players that ended up in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament: Tim Young (Stanford), Brad Miller (Purdue) and Jake Voskuhl (Connecticut).



"We had a lot of very, very effective centers last year," Newell said.



Two players who were here as collegians last year are back as pros: Olowokandi and Sean Marks.



According to Newell, two college players to look out for are Chris Mihm of Texas and Evan Eschmeyer of Northwestern.



As optimistic as he is about the camp, Newell is pessimistic about the NBA lockout being resolved quickly. He said he wouldn't be surprised if negotiations drag on through December.



"I'm pessimistic, I really am," he said. "Because I see it tending more toward legal things, like the pay situation. There's a lot of knotty issues, like the three-year contracts, that they have to deal with.



"I don't know what's going to happen. With Michael Jordan leaving and the late start (of the season), like what happened with (Major League) baseball, people may not be interested when things start up again.



"One thing's for sure, the game needs fixing. What's changed since I was a GM (Rockets), it's the lawyers who are negotiating the contracts instead of the GMs. My feeling is they need to get some basketball people in there to help fix things."












Big Man Camp
players list 






Cleveland: Ryan Stack. Toronto: Sean Marks. Golden State: Adonal Foyle. Indiana: Austin Croshere, Mark Pope. L.A. Clippers: Michael Olowokandi, Lorenzen Wright. Milwaukee: Andrew Lang, Robert Traylor. Philadelphia: Casey Shaw. Portland: Kelvin Cato. Sacramento: Mike Stewart. San Antonio: Sean Elliott. Seattle: Jim McIllvaine. Free agents: Gary Trent, Ike Nwankwo, Peter Cornell.



College



Cal Poly Pomona: Nick Alexander, Terrell Davis. Tennessee State: Julian Bankston. Arizona: A.J. Bramlett, Donnell Harris. Voorhees: Jermaine Butler. Northwestern: Evan Eschmeyer, Aron Molnar. Southwest Texas: Jeff Foster. California: Shahar Gordon. BYU: Bret Jepsen. Notre Dame: Phil Hickey. Sonoma State: Patrick Ingham. Dartmouth: Jay Jenckes. Oregon State: Clifton Jones. UNLV: Kaspars Kambala. Arizona State: Bobby Lazor. Kansas State: Joe Leonard. Texas: Chris Mihm. Long Beach State: Ian Milley. Washington State: Leif Nelson. Cornell: Trevor Tarpley. Boise State: Trever Tillman. Western Michigan: Brad Van Timmeren. 
















Camp schedule




Where: Kekuhaupi'o Gym, Kamehameha Schools.





Monday: NBA session, 8:30 a.m.-11 a.m.



Tuesday-Friday: NBA session, 8:30-11:30 a.m.; college session, 3-6 p.m.



Saturday: College session, 8-11 a.m.



Admission: Free.



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