Humbled St.

Ahh, much better.  So what did I learn from last night's exhibition game vs Humboldt St?  Mike Roll is the key to our season.  I have never been so happy to see Mike Roll.  Just as we suspected, he was a calming influence on our offense and he knows Coach Howland's system.  That experience showed in that our spacing improved drastically as well as the flow of our offense.  At the very least, his shooting opened up the floor for the rest of the squad to operate.

Jerime Anderson cannot get hurt.  Please. A huge improvement over Mustafa, Jerime was a true point guard out there.  He continually looked to set up other players with good shots.  Malcolm is clearly not a true point guard at heart, as he seems to excel at getting his shot off.

Drew Gordon is a monster inside and will have to be this season.  There is really no other proven banger inside for us.

Dragovic is a ball-hoggin, shootin fool.  While his defense is probably better than all of Europe, thanks to Coach Howland, it still stinks.  If he isn't shooting well, I already know I'm going to be mad at him all game.

I did think it was strange that Keefe only played 16 minutes when Reeves Nelson played 11.  I would have thought that Keefe might even start and play a good 25-30 minutes a game this season.  Either he picked up a knock or he hasn't earned Howland's trust yet.

In big recruiting news of the week, Josh Smith, a 6-9 five star center from Washington spurned the Huskies and chose us.  Josh Smith has already said that he intends to stay to earn a degree unless he's going in the lottery.  I'm fine with that.  At least he's up front about it.  As long as he doesn't start comparing himself to Alcindor (who is fighting a treatable leukemia now) or Walton, I'm okay with that plan.  From the video that I've seen, he looks like a 2 year player to me.

We've also already got 6-4 SG Tyler Lamb, so our recruiting class is off to a good start.  I watched some youtube interviews of these two and they both seem relatively well-spoken, balanced and intelligent.  While Lamb did sign his LOI today, Josh Smith has postponed doing the same.  Some say that he is putting together a signing party but I'm a little worried that he might back out, considering he's right in the Huskies backyard, which is still where his mom is.