October 24, 2010

Bears Unveil 2010-11 Team at Orange & White Scrimmage

Box Score

MACON, Ga. – Mercer University head coach Bob Hoffman got his first look at his young Bears team in a game-like setting at the team’s “Orange & White” intersquad game. With his team splitting up into White and Black uniforms, Hoffman left the coaching to his assistants and roamed the sidelines assessing, instructing and evaluating.

For the record, the White Team withstood a furious second-half rally by the Black Team to score a 94-85 win. However, with a total of 11 players – six from White and five from Black – in double-digit scoring the Bears may well have plenty of scoring punch to replace the nearly 68-percent of its 2009-10 scoring lost.

Afterwards, the veteran Hoffman – in his third season with MU and 20^th overall as a head coach – was able to dissect the first semblance of live-game action.

“It was really good for the guys to be able to be on the floor with their uniforms on, with all the lights being on and having referees,” Hoffman said. “We’ve had 12 practices in seven days since we began practice and I know for (the team) they were excited about doing something different than hearing me yell at them.

“I thought we did a lot of good things today. We swung the ball from side-to-side and made some easy entry passes. On the offensive end we got a lot of post touches – which we’re going to have to do if we’re going to be good – and I think if we continue to build off what we saw today, offensively we could make it hard for other teams to guard us.

“On the defensive end, we didn’t do a good enough job communicating. Our post defense was bad, our block outs were terrible and we’ve got to get better. If you’re going to be a running team and push the ball up the floor – our guards are really good at throwing the ball ahead – you can’t go until you get the rebound. That’s an element that was really missing today. We’ve got to go back and work on that some.”

With a roster that includes a total of nine student-athletes with freshman status and one junior newcomer, Hoffman got a pretty solid effort from his four seniors: Brian Mills, Brandon Moore, Mark Hall and Jeff Smith.  Mills, playing for the Black Team, had a monster game of 23 points and 16 rebounds and two blocks in 31 minutes.

Moore, playing opposite of Mills on the White Team, also rolled up 23 points and added six boards in 28 minutes. Moore was an efficient 7-for-12 from the field and 9-of-11 from the free throw line.

Mark Hall was a perfect 8-for-8 from the charity stripe and finished with 14 points for the White Team’s ledger. Smith, his counterpart on the Black Team, had 11 points after it appeared he would be on the shelf until early December following an injury from an auto accident.

“The four seniors did a great job leading,” Hoffman praised.

Paul Larsen, the big freshman who led his team to a North Carolina state title last year, had a double-double of 18 points and 10 rebounds playing alongside Mills on the Black Team. Junior transfer Justin Cecil and freshman forward Daniel Coursey added 14 and 10 points, respectively, to round out Black Team members in double figures.

As for the White Team, redshirt sophomore Jake Gollon had 10 points, while the frosh trio of Jibri Bryan (14 points), Langston Hall (13 points) and Bud Thomas (13 points) helped ignite the potent White Team offense.  Gollon and Bryan (who also had four steals) shared team rebound honors at six caroms with Moore.

The Black Team’s Kevin Canevari – who was a prep teammate of Larsen – had a game-leading seven assists.

Upwards of 200 fans came out to watch what was – in essence – a glorified practice by the Bears as they prepare for the real deal in three weeks. That interest, Hoffman believes, is a direct correlation to last season’s success in reaching the title game of the A-Sun tournament.

“It was fun and it was game-like,” Hoffman said of the atmosphere. “(The team) should be encouraged that many people wanted to see what we had. I think (the fans) walked away and said ‘man, they got some guys who can play basketball’.

“Our senior last year set a high bar. Our seniors this year are doing a really good job leading. You always want to continue to build on past experiences and past success…that’s how you grow as a team. We want to continue to grow until we cut those nets down and we’d love to do that on March 5.”