Dick Weiss is a bit concerned about what he's seen on the floor so far. He's a far better talent evaluator than I am, so I'll leave that stuff to him, but I will relay some of what Jay Wright told reporters this morning about what he's looking for in building the final team.
The biggest priority seems to be putting players together who can play well against a zone defense. As Wright said, the refrain about American basketball players and zones has become pretty familiar by now: "Play them zone, because they don't think we pass or shoot well."
The players here can clearly pass -- in fact, Wright is worried that they're passing too much.
"Sometimes it's difficult, because they know how good these guys can be, they want to be unselfish," Wright said of the mutual respect among the players. "But they've got to be a little selfish and aggressive so we can see what they do."
"We've got to have a good number of shooters," Wright said this morning. "In the same sense, we've got to have guys who can get in the lane and make plays, draw people and kick to shooters."
The requirement extends to point guard, a position that is tasked more with distributing the ball than shooting it in American basketball.
"You can't just have point guards, because everybody's got to be able to score," Wright said, "You can have maybe one. But guys have to be able to shoot the ball because they're going to play zone and expose you if you can't."
That probably opens the door for Michigan State's Drew Neitzel. I'd like to think it would help Eric Maynor too, but I haven't seen him take many shots while I've been here. As for Scottie Reynolds. We know he can shoot and play the point, but he's not necessarily a shoot-first type.
Reviews of him here seem to be mixed, with some observers thinking he'll make it and others not fully convinced.
Reynolds could benefit from Jay Wright's desire to push the tempo. This morning, Wright shouted, "Run the offense to score -- you're not in college!" at the players he was watching at the time.
Asked later what this meant, Wright said that it referred to the aforementioned unselfishness and the 24-second shot clock in the international game. I think the tempo suits Reynolds; we'll find out what USA Basketball thinks soon enough.
