Observations from Cedar Rapids

["Nathan A." <nja13@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I made the five hour trip from Nebraska to watch the C's in CR. A few 
observatoins from behind the basket row 6:  (keeping in mind that this is 
the first game I've seen this preseason due to no League Pass coverage as 
of yet)

- The one thing I saw from my vantage point under the basket was the 
players making a concerted effort to get Vin Baker the ball. I was curious 
to see how this would look after reading how he seems to be getting no 
touches from people on this list. Now, it's not like he dominated the ball, 
but I people were looking to get him the ball. One time in particular had 
Antoine at the free throw line extended with the ball, Sundov in the corner 
and Baker on the block. AW waved at Sundov to get him to cut through to 
clear it out for VB. AW then fed the ball to Baker and shouted "Go to 
work!" at Baker. So it looks like to me that his teammates are trying to 
get Baker involved and want to see him succeed. I can think of at least on 
other time when a person on the wing waited for a corner person to clear 
out to isolate Baker.
    Baker's best move came late in the game with the second unit. He just 
looks like a natural under the basket. We really must use him.

-- S. Williams looks pretty fluid with the ball. He impressed me handling 
the point. He could penetrate at times, but then got lost in the trees. He 
doesn't seem to have the ability that Kenny had to use his body as a shield 
against bigger defenders while getting the ball to the rim. I thought that 
Kenny had a knack for snaking his way to the rim; SW is more likely to get 
his shot swatted into row 3.

-- Bremer and Shammond played a lot together, with SW playing the point and 
JRB the 2.

-- With extended garbage time, even the walk-ons got several minutes of PT. 
The only guy not to get in was Wolkowyski. I was surprised at this since I 
read several people on this list saying how he looked pretty good last 
game. Any insight on this, anyone? There has to be something to it, since 
even the camp dummies got in.

-- I was half expecting a playground game after reading the comments on 
this list about how JO'B hasn't gotten around to installing an offense yet. 
But it appeared to me that we did run several set play and specials, a some 
even involved Baker sliding to the block.

-- Number 21 for the T-wolves is pretty good. I didn't get his name, since 
I didn't have a program. Maybe we could trade Walter and the rights to Ben 
Pepper for him? Josh, suggest this to Wallace next time, would you?

All in all, it was a fun night of basketball.

Nathan A.