First a quick football note. Newport Harbor's Trevor Theriot, who will be a walking on to the Bruin football team this program, shined during past weekend's Shrine game, which is an all-star game matching up the best between public highschools v. the private ones. Public side won, and Theriot was the defensive MVP. Congrats to him, and we look forward to seeing him running all over the Rose Bowl sometime in the near future.
We are going to get back to more football stuff later, but right now we are on a roll with hoops because of lots of fresh new information. Let's start with Mav. He has some fresh goods over at Maverickbruin.com on our hoops program for the off season. Here is the teaser he posted on Bruinzone:
The good news is, UCLA looks to be as talented as anyone in the Pac-10 and has as much returning talent as anyone as well. Although Arizona will (and should be) favored, there is no reason the Bruins can't win the Pac-10 this season, and we ought to be able to beat Stanford at least once.
The Coach digs the "Big-Fundamental":
Duncan received the Wooden Award as a senior in 1997, and was selected by the Spurs with the first pick of the NBA Draft. He and center David Robinson, who received the Wooden Award in 1987, won NBA titles together in 1999 and 2003.
[...]
From the soft touch on his signature bank shot to his footwork and variety of post moves to his temperament, Duncan plays the game the way Wooden coached it.
"I love the bank shot and Tim probably uses the board more than any other player in the NBA today," Wooden said.
Wooden said he admires Duncan's cool demeanor.
"One writer in a story I read referred to him as stoic," Wooden said. "But that's Tim Duncan. He's into the game. I never wanted my players to get too excited. For every peak, there's a valley."
Wooden compared Duncan to former UCLA forward Keith Wilkes, who played on two national-championship teams with Bill Walton in the early 1970s.
"You never noticed how much Keith was getting done because he was so smooth that he made what he was doing look effortless," Wooden said. "I never saw him lose his temper.
"Tim reminds me of Keith. He doesn't let adversity get to him. He plays his game and is very consistent."
"I love the bank shot and Tim probably uses the board more than any other player in the NBA today," Wooden said.
Wooden said he admires Duncan's cool demeanor.
"One writer in a story I read referred to him as stoic," Wooden said. "But that's Tim Duncan. He's into the game. I never wanted my players to get too excited. For every peak, there's a valley."
Wooden compared Duncan to former UCLA forward Keith Wilkes, who played on two national-championship teams with Bill Walton in the early 1970s.
"You never noticed how much Keith was getting done because he was so smooth that he made what he was doing look effortless," Wooden said. "I never saw him lose his temper.
"Tim reminds me of Keith. He doesn't let adversity get to him. He plays his game and is very consistent."
GO BRUINS.