Soft Pretzel Logic

Well, here it is: the list of 12 players who will head for Rio de Janeiro at the end of the week. Here's the story I wrote for Philly.com just now.

There are six forwards, a center, and five guards:

F Joey Dorsey (Memphis)
F Kyle Weaver (Washington State)
F D.J. White (Indiana)
F Shan Foster (Vanderbilt)
F James Gist (Maryland)
F Maarty Leunen (Oregon)

C Roy Hibbert (Georgetown)

G Wayne Ellington (UNC)
G Derrick Low (Washington State)
G Eric Maynor (Virginia Commonwealth)
G Drew Neitzel (Michigan State)
G Scottie Reynolds (Villanova)

So the last two players cut were Josh Carter of Texas A&M and Bryce Taylor of Oregon. Jay Wright said in a press release issued by USA Basketball that "we just had to decide do we want to play with some extra guards and some extra bigs and maybe not as many wings, and that’s really what it came down to."

That's definitely what he's got. Dorsey, Leunen, White and Hibbert are all post players, with Dorsey and White the pound-it types and Hibbert and Leunen better at passing out to the perimeter. Gist can play inside and outside and is a great defender.

I didn't see a lot of Weaver, but he and Foster seem to be the only two wing-type players on the list. Ellington plays on the perimeter, but he's a shooting guard (and almost certain to be a starter).

Oh, and all four point guards are really good shooters, a point that everyone's already made a ton of times.

I can't really blame him, given his and USA Basketball's desire to run an offense based around moving the ball into and then back out of the paint for perimeter shots. Having said that, Taylor shot 42.2 percent from three-point range last season and Carter shot 50 percent even from long range.

Now, keep in mind that I haven't been at practices since Sunday, but if I had to guess, I'd bet that Wright dropped the two guys who made the most mistakes since then.

I remember Wright yelling at Foster and Carter for not looking at him when he was talking. That kind of stuff makes a difference to a guy like Wright, even if it might seem annoying. It says something about a player if he's looking at you and nodding along, or shouting encouragement to other players (which Reynolds did a lot of), and stuff like that.

I definitely look forward to seeing what the Inquirer and Daily News reports have to say tomorrow.

Your thoughts?

Click here to watch Jay Wright's post-practice press conference. He had some pretty interesting stuff to say.

That wraps up the coverage of the Pan Am Games trials here on the blog. My thanks as always to everyone who came by and checked this thing out, especially those of you who read the blog for the first time. I hope you all stick around; I do focus on the local teams in the Philadelphia region, but I'm always willing to write about the national scene if someone asks me to.

For now, though, I'm going to step away for a while. My job calls me to the pro sports scene for a while, so look for me on the Inquirer's PhilliesCast and, in a few weeks, at Eagles training camp.

I talked with Scottie about surviving the first round of cuts and whether he can be the kind of combo guard USA Basketball is looking for at the Pan Am Games. Click on the picture below to watch.

We all know what Wayne Ellington can do with a basketball, so I decided to talk tactics with him. I asked him about playing in Jay Wright's system, and whether the players have taken to heart Wright's desire for them to really hustle on the floor.

Click on the picture below to watch.

I can sum up my interview with Roy Hibbert like this: I'm 5-foot-6, he's 7-2, and you will definitely be able to tell.

When I was further away from him, though, I saw him hit a great hook shot and display the full range of skills that make him so great for an international basketball tournament. Click here to watch.

As you've noticed by now, USA Basketball was kind enough to let me shoot video of the trials. That privilege almost paid really big dividends with Maryland forward James Gist. I was focusing on someone else when he threw down the slam dunk of the day.

I got lucky later on, though, as Gist played a really nice give-and-go with Roy Hibbert and came about an inch short of the slam when he went up to the basket. Watch that highlight and an interview I did with him after practice by clicking on the picture below.

Even though I've been purposely trying to cover the local angles at the Pan Am Games trials, there's no doubt that the thing has a distinctly Philly flavor.

A big part of that is Fran O'Hanlon, whose work as a court coach wrapped up after the first round of roster cuts. The Philadelphia native played on the great Villanova teams of the late 1960s, and later built an offense as an assistant coach at Penn that fueled the Quakers' upset of Nebraska in the 1994 NCAA Tournament.

A year later, O'Hanlon took over the head coaching job at Lafayette College. For those of you who aren't from the Philadelphia area, Lafayette is a Patriot League school about an hour and a half from here in Easton, Pa. O'Hanlon still maintains his Philly ties, though; he's close friends with Temple coach Fran Dunphy (who hired O'Hanlon at Penn) and Villanova's Jay Wright.

So it came as no surprise to me to hear that O'Hanlon was named a court coach for the Pan Am Games trials, meaning that he got to coach one of the scrimmage teams. There's no question that these are the best college players he's ever had to coach -- not least because his Leopards only got athletic scholarships last year.

Click on the picture below to watch my interview with him and some clips of him working on the bench.

I had been told that it would end at 3 p.m., but Jay Wright ended things just a bit after 2. I shot videos of Wright, Roy Hibbert, James Gist, Wayne Ellington and Scottie Reynolds, and will post them later today.

Former 'Nova stars Chris Charles and Jason Fraser are here.

"If you dive, you get it."

Jay Wright really wants these guys getting down there for loose balls. He mentioned earlier that if they don't go after them, the other team could grab it and bang in a three right at the end of a shot clock.

"That's a six-point turnaround," he said.

A moment ago, Joey Dorsey went down for a loose ball and missed it, and Wright gave his team possession. You have to admire that in Wright, and in guys like Dorsey who want to put the effort in.

Lots of shooting and passing drills now. Jay Wright is really into it, shouting specific instructions to the players... and a few choice words that I can't print here. The guys seem to be listening well, and working hard to do what he wants, and I think they actually like Jay's tone and manner. Yeah, he's the coach, but he's not trying to be bigger than the players.

It's interesting to me, because I get to cover a lot of games but not that many practices. I think I've learned a lot more about Wright as a coach than I knew before.

And to answer Locker's question, they haven't played a scrimmage yet, just drills.

Jay just offered his "last teaching point of the day," about defending ball screens. I wonder if that'll actually be the case...

Here are the two teams for the day:

Blue

9 - G Derrick Low
10 - G Eric Maynor
13 - F Josh Carter
20 - F James Gist
35 - C Roy Hibbert
37 - F Maarty Leunen
42 - F Kyle Weaver

White

6 - G Drew Neitzel
15 - G Wayne Ellington
28 - F Joey Dorsey
29 - G Scottie Reynolds
33 - F Shan Foster
39 - F D.J. White
41 - F Bryce Taylor

Jay is doing some very specific situational instruction right now on the defensive side. "It's also good to know your player," he said. "If you're guarding Roy Hibbert on the perimeter, he's not going to think to drive first."

"All these international guys are very good at driving the ball, putting their shoulder down, and then jumping in to you to draw a foul."

The instruction, then is easy: don't foul them.

"International referees protect the shooter," Wright said. "If this guy starts to go on you, you want to get your hands up and back and get your chest on him."

Somehow, it only took me half an hour to get out here today instead of the usual 45 minutes or so. That allowed me to do something I havent' done yet the entire time here: get all my equipment set up before practice starts.

It also allowed me to indulge in one of my other sporting passions for a few minutes. Haverford College is one of the only schools in the country with a cricket pitch on its campus, and there was a match going on when I got here. I got to watch an over or so, and given how hot it is out, that was just fine.

(Go find out what an over is for yourself.)

Anyway, the players and coaches just got here. Jay Wirhg is chatting with Josh Carter, and now he walks over and puts his arm around Eric Maynor's shoulder and gives him a few pointers.

I have to say, I'm really pleased that Maynor made it. He worked very hard here, and seems to have definitely made an impression on the selection committee. People across the country might only know him for his shot against Duke, but I'd say this is an even better measurement of his skills as a basketball player.

I'm a little bit surprised that Brandon Costner didn't make it, but then again, his injured knee definitely seemed to slow him down a step or two. David Scott thought very highly of Tasmin Mitchell and is surprised he didn't make the cut, but I admit that I wasn't paying much attention to him.

He's also surprised that Chris Lofton didn't make it, but after yesterday, I'm not.

Now Mark Gottfried is at center court telling the players to "always work on something." There are teams of two players at each basket doing pass-and-shoot drills; right now, I'm watching D.J. White and James Gist, as well as Wayne Ellington and Josh Carter.

Craig Miller, PR guy for USA Basketball, informs me that there's no set date for cutting the 14-man finalist roster down to the official 12 that will travel to Rio. I do know that they'll be up here until the 18th, then at the Verizon Center in D.C. July 19-21. I won't be here after today, though.

More to come later, and let me know what you think about the roster.

Preamble: If you're coming here to see the video of my interview with Brandon Costner that was referred to in the print edition of the Sunday Inquirer, click here.

Click here to listen to what Jay Wright had to say after the Saturday afternoon practice session.

The money quotes go something like this. Wright said that some of the players did well early on and some did well later on, which led me to ask how that applied to the guards specifically (as I wrote about today with Lofton, Reynolds, Low, et al.). Here's what he said:

A couple guys showed well early, a couple guys showed well late. I don't think any of them went through every day and just dominated at the guard position. I think a guy like Roy Hibbert is just so different that every day, he's doing what he does, being 7-2. I thought D.J. White [was the same} -- every day, just a big presence.

[With Joey] Dorsey you could say did that too. Dorsey was pretty dominant every day. The guards didn't do that, but everybody had some good days.

With that, I'm off to sleep. For those of you who are visiting the blog for the first time, my real job is maintaining the sports page of Philly.com, and today I had a 6am shift doing not only the daily sports page buildout but also the news side on the main home page. So I'm pretty tired.

I'll talk to you all again tomorrow when I get to Haverford for practice, which starts at noon Eastern. With the new commenting system running pretty smoothly, I've set comments to publish automatically, so if you all want to chat among yourselves, go right ahead. Just be nice, if you don't mind...

Two new comments. Neither commenter says where they're from, but they did give names...

From Art:

Can you tell me how DJ White has played throughout the trials....

D.J. White is another one of those guys I haven't paid nearly enough attention to. But everyone else I've talked to has thought quite highly of him. Luke Winn of SI.com has White fighting Joey Dorsey for the 4-spot in the starting lineup, so he's almost a lock to survive the first round of cuts.

Jay Wright was also pleased with White's performance, and mentioned him by name after today's practice. I'll post that quote later tonight.

From Locker:

How's Hibbert doing? I imagine it's hard to get many opportunities in a run-and-gun style. Has he been the most effective big?

He's been about what you would expect, which is to say he's also an almost certain lock to make the roster. He's definitely had his chances to score, and he still lacks the kind of aggression in the paint that so many people want to see from him.

But as Jay said earlier, he does what he does, and that's just fine. He's hit a few hook shots in scrimmages, and people think he won't have much trouble scoring in Rio de Janeiro.

Has he been the most effective big? Probably not. Joey Dorsey and D.J. White have been more impressive, but they're the types who want to drive it hard to the basket for a slam, which is always more eye-catching.

But the thing I've been most impressed with about Hibbert, and the thing he unquestionably excels at, is distributing the ball from the post out to a shooter. As I said earlier today, the Princeton offense is built for just that, and Hibbert is as good as anyone Pete Carril saw.

Everyone knows what Hibbert can do, and if they didn't want it, we'd all know. So there's no reason to worry.

I like what I'm seeing from Memphis big man Joey Dorsey right now. He just beat Roy Hibbert underneath for a layup, and his big body definitely compensates for the height he gives up facing Hibbert in the paint.

It's actually a rather interesting contrast: whereas Dorsey is taking the ball strong inside, Hibbert is doing very well at getting the ball inside and kicking it back out to a shooter. That's no surprise given Georgetown's Princeton-style offense, but if you put the two guys on the same side, you'd have a pretty good frontcourt of Dorsey at the 4 and Hibbert at the 5.

Eight members of Maryland forward James Gist's family are in the house today. That's by far the largest support crew I've yet seen for any one player.

(The previous record of one was set by Marquette coach Tom Crean.)

Right now, teams C and D are on the floor. It looks like Jay Wright is making the team that trails when the clock hits zero do push-ups.

As if I needed any further proof of my lack of athleticism.

I'm going to call them Team A, B, C, and D. Jay Wright created teams with the same names, but I don't know if my Team A and his are the same. But if you think of me as being on the left side of one endline, the teams go clockwise starting with the near right corner.

Team A

6 - G Drew Neitzel
14 - G Eric Devendorf
18 - C Brian Butch
20 - F James Gist
28 - F Joey Dorsey
33 - F Shan Foster
40 - G Jerel McNeal

Team B

15 - G Wayne Ellington
17 - G Alonzo Gee
22 - G Mario Chalmers
29 - G Scottie Reynolds
35 - C Roy Hibbert
37 - F Maarty Leunen
39 - F D.J. White
41 - F Bryce Taylor

Team C

4 - G Sherron Collins
9 - G Derrick Low
11 - G Jon Scheyer
13 - F Josh Carter
16 - F Randal Falker
21 - F Jon Brockman
24 - F Wesley Matthews

Team D

8 - G Chris Lofton
10 - G Eric Maynor
12 - F Tasmin Mitchell
19 - F Brandon Costner
34 - F Richard Hendrix
38 - F Ahmad Nivins
42 - F Kyle Weaver

The players I've heard talked about most seem to be pretty well spread out. For a moment, I thought that Team B had more players likely to make the final roster than some of the other teams, but now that I look everything over, maybe not.

What is notable is that this isn't the first time Reynolds and Hibbert have played together, and with Ellington and D.J. White in that group too, it seems the strongest of the four.

If anyone is actually out there reading this, feel free to leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

The last practice session before the first (and possibly final, depending on who you read) round of cuts at the Pan Am Games trials is just getting under way. Jay Wright has divided the 29 players here into four teams. I'll give you the breakdown soon.

I expect this to be the hardest session yet, and hopefully it'll be the one with the most made shots. I've seen a lot of good battles in the post so far, but I haven't seen all that much good shooting. I hear it was better this morning, but we'll see.

Soon after I posted that tidbit about the coaches going to Merion, I found out from a very good source that in fact, Fran Dunphy who set the tee time up, and that it was for Jim Boeheim in particular. Dunphy later denied this to me, in what I would call his particular way of doing that sort of thing.

But we also talked about his role as a member of USA Basketball's selection committee for the final Pan Am Games team. Click on the picture below to see the interview (and his answer to the Merion question).

N.C. State forward Brandon Costner, the son of former St. Joe's star Tony Costner (you might recall Brandon talked about this when the Wolfpack came to town for the NIT), has gotten some good reviews from observers at the Pan Am Games trials. Click on the picture below to watch my interview with him.

Big 5 fans know full well about Saint Joseph's center Ahmad Nivins' range of skills and athleticism. Over the last two days, observers at the Pan Am Games trials have found out about him too. Click on the picture below to watch my interview with him.

If you had four or so hours in the middle of your day to kill, what would you do?

If you're me, you would drive back to the office, host the latest episode of the PhilliesCast, then get back on the road and head to Haverford.

If you're one Jim Boeheim, Tom Izzo or Tom Crean, however, you probably have better plans. They were chatting with Jay Wright at center court after the morning practice, and I overheard Wright ask if any of them wanted to get a tee time at Merion Golf Club.

I don't play golf (unless the only club involved is a putter), but I'd sure accept that invitation.

What do you mean, you don't remember Eric Maynor?

Yeah, I thought you did. Well, he's here at the Pan Am Games trials, and I interviewed him yesterday. Click on the picture below to watch.

So here I am back at Haverford again. A bit later than I hoped, but there's still plenty going on. The first impression is that the tempo and intensity are way up from yesterday. Jay Wright is shouting stuff all over the place, pointing at players, telling them when to shoot and to be more precise in running his offense.

The intensity -- and certainly the star power -- of the spectators' gallery has increased too. In addition to the coaches who were here yesterday, such as Syracuse's Jim Boeheim and Temple's Fran Dunphy, today's attendees include Michigan State's Tom Izzo, Marquette's Tom Crean and Kansas' Bill Self.

I'll be back with more in a bit.

The star Villanova guard talks about what it's like to take part in the Pan Am Games basketball trials, and the special significance of having the team be coached by Wildcats coach Jay Wright. Click on the picture below to watch the video.

The UNC superstar and Episcopal High School grad talks about participating in the Pan Am Games right in his hometown. Click on the picture below to watch.

The Villanova head coach (and ladies' favorite, of course) talks about what it's like to be in charge of the Pan Am Games team. Watch the video by clicking on the picture below.

Hello from the Main Line, where I'll be covering the Pan Am Games basketball trials for the next few days at Haverford College's Gooding Arena. It took me a while to get things set up, in part because of the somewhat tricky wireless internet connection and in part because of the enormous plume of smoke caused by a burning car that I had to drive through on Girard Avenue coming out here.

Nonetheless, everything's in place now, and over the next few days, I'll be bringing you video features on some of the participants out here. The roster is stacked with some of the best players in college basketball, and there are a lot of high-profile coaches in the house as well.

Check back later tonight for the first batch of videos.

(And in the meantime, check out the blog Haverford is running for the event, as well as CSTV's famed Hang Time blog, both of which are live from the site all weekend.