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Basketball: Amoke happy to be healthy
By Jeff Faraudo
Friday, November 6th, 2009 at 10:05 am in Basketball.
Here’s the story I wrote in this morning’s editions about sophomore forward Omondi Amoke, who finally had a heathy offseason, and made strides in his game as a result.
Amoke had nine points and six rebounds in the exhibition win over Chico State, and if Harper Kamp (knee) can’t go for a while, Amoke will play a significant role off the bench on Cal’s not-so-deep frontline.
Elsewhere . . .
– Check out this story from the Arizona Republic on Arizona State freshman guard Demetrius Walker, once labeled by Sports Illustrated as the best eight-grader in the country.
– New Arizona coach Sean Miller tries to figure out how he will divide playing time among his roster.
– UCLA coach Ben Howland frets over how disorganized his backcourt was in the Bruins’ one-point exhibition win this week.
– Oregon prep star Terrence Jones is visiting UCLA this weekend, after recent stops at Kentucky and Oregon.
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November 6th, 2009 at 12:18 pm
At one point, perhaps a year ago, or maybe even 6 months ago, Jones was connected to Cal on some recruiting boards. I wonder what happened. He had a huge summer, and went national, no?
See – my contention is that Monty should be able to compete with the top 15 schools nationally. We shouldn’t have to settle for “Best of the West”, after all the top guys have already gone to the typical top basketball programs.
November 6th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
Uh oh-
I think you’re point is what will determine how good Cal hoops can be. Montgomery showed me last year that he can still coach. He got so much more out the Bears than Ben Braun ever would have/could have.
So the big question is can he recruit the top kids? Can he connect with the best kids and does he have a vision and can he sell a vision that will attract the top players he targets. He was able to do that to an extent at Stanford. If he can, Cal will be a top 15 team every year and will start actually contending for Pac 10 titles. If not, the program will still be stronger and more consistent than it ever was under Braun, and we will hope for NCAA berths and pray for a sweet sixteen appearances.