Player notes

[Alex Wang <awang@mit.edu>]

1. Before Fortson's injury became known, Pitino evidently had him as
the starting power forward, with Antoine moving to small forward. So
in the long term, Antoine will be a small forward, which is what many
of us hoped for.
  Antoine also had the type of stat line last night that I hope he
can duplicate consistently (except for the 6 turnovers): 22 points, 
11 rebounds, 5 assists, 5 steals, 8-18 from the field, 5-7 from
the line, only 2 three-pointers attempted. He could have been 9-18
if not for a blown layup that should have been a dunk. Overall, it
was an encouraging night for Walker compared to the first two games.

2. Fortson's injury is definitely a big blow, because his presence 
changed the team from a relatively weak rebounding team to a strong
one, at least judging from the preseason and looking at the roster
on paper. The PF and C positions are not deep and Antoine is likely
to play mostly at PF until Fortson's return which is a setback 
towards his development as our future SF.
  In the meantime, hopefully Antoine will return to form as a great
rebounder, and Battie will develop some consistent rebounding after
all his summer work. I would guess that McCarty moves into the 
starting lineup instead of Eric Williams to better balance the
scoring between the first and second units.

3. Pat Riley describes Adrian Griffin as a player he wish he hadn't
let go. "There are a lot of players I let walk out that door that I 
wished we would have kept," he said. "Adrian Griffin we developed him 
last summer. The same thing with Bruce Bowen before that." Doesn't
it seem like Pitino keeps taking players from Riley? 

4. From Pitino's book, Success is a Choice, on Wayne Turner: "He was
a great high-school star at a prep school outside of Boston, a high
school All-American. He played in a weak league, where he averaged
about forty points a game, mostly on taking the ball to the basket,
an area of the game in which he is very gifted. Because he was able
to do this so easily at the level he played in during high school,
he rarely shot the ball from the perimeter - now this is the weakest
part of his game. 
  When Wayne arrived at Kentucky as a freshman he had some serious
shooting flaws, but he really didn't see these as a problem because
he always had been able to play to his strength. But as the competition
got better, his weakness at shooting the perimeter shot became more
pronounced."

Alex