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University of Oklahoma Athletics
Sampsons Sooners Open Hoops Season with Saturday Practice
October 16, 2004 | Men's Basketball
NORMAN, Okla. Both new faces and old took the Lloyd Noble Center floor Saturday at 11 a.m. for the Oklahoma men's basketball team's first practice of the 2004-05 season. Head coach Kelvin Sampson worked out his 15-player squad for two hours following a film session and came away pleased with his team's effort and performance.
“The first practice,” said Sampson, who begins his 11th year at Oklahoma, “you're doing a lot of teaching. We worked on little things, fundamentals. We'll work on offense at the end of each of these early practices, but we're working real hard on defense right now. We broke down everything, from our stance to our footwork to help side and deny side. As we go along, we'll pull it all together and get better at it.”
Included in OU's practice were low post positioning instruction, full and half-court shooting drills, full-court layups, passing drills and medicine ball drills. The Sooners also worked on defensive stance and foot movement, one-on-one defense and transition defense. Rebounding was also a focus with the familiar “bubble drill.”
“This team has a great spirit about it,” added Sampson. “Johnnie (Gilbert) and Kevin (Bookout) are our two captains and they've set the tone. Drew Lavender is a different person this year. He stepped forward and was one of our hardest workers today. It was good to see Lawrence (McKenzie) and Terrell (Everett) picking up things.
“I was pleased with our practice. I thought we had great spirit and great work ethic. If this team continues to work hard and get better, it'll be pretty good.”
Oklahoma returns 60 percent of its scoring, 61 percent of its rebounding and 68 percent of its assists from last year's 20-11 team. Seven of the 15 players on the OU roster are new to the program (five scholarship players and two walk-ons), as are assistant coaches Bob Hoffman and Ray McCallum, and strength coach Darby Rich. The newcomers are junior Nate Carter (a transfer who must sit out the 2004-05 season), junior Everett, freshman David Godbold, junior Taj Gray, freshman Longar Longar and freshman walk-ons Aaron Foster and Michael Ott. Players back from last year are seniors Gilbert and Jaison Williams, junior Bookout, sophomores Lavender, McKenzie, Brandon Foust and Larry Turner, and redshirt freshman Kellen Sampson.
The 6-8, 259-pound Bookout, who had season-ending surgery early last February, said after practice, “I thought the first practice went well. The shoulder felt great. I got hit on it and that's exactly what I wanted. We went from drill to drill quickly and I thought the new guys got after it. At this point in the year we're just trying to develop chemistry and get closer as a team. That's one of our goals this time of year.”
Said Gray, a first-team junior college All-American forward last year, “Practice was about as I expected. It was real intense and guys go hard. I like it that way. It takes a lot out of you, but you get a lot out of it.”
Oklahoma is scheduled to practice again Saturday evening at 6.
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