Tigers personnel mesh well with new coaches
By Adam Douglas-->Sports Editor
Published: Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Updated: Wednesday, September 14, 2011 16:09
Three weeks into individual workouts, The University of Memphis Tigers men's basketball team is praising their new assistant coaches, Damon Stoudamire and Luke Walton. But what's most important is what the NBA stars are teaching the Tigers.
"Having two pro coaches makes us get after it," sophomore guard Will Barton said. "They've added a pro style, giving us hints that they've used on the next level so that we can be more experienced than our opponents."
The Tigers had a problem last season with a lack of depth in the frontcourt, especially when junior forward Angel Garcia decided to leave the program to play overseas, so the addition of junior college transfer Stan Simpson should be a key to the Tigers' success this season.
"Stan has a lot of talent," Barton said. "I think that once he gets into shape and learns how we do things around here, I think he will be a real good impact on our team."
Simpson has talent, but what the team and head coach Josh Pastner is raving about is his size. The team was highly undersized against most opponents last year, and that in turn caused them to be outrebounded and out muscled. So with Simpson being 6'10 to 6'11, the tigers should have no problem with being the aggressor under the boards this season.
"He's real crucial to our team," Barton said. "He's the tallest person on the team, we already have an enforcer with (Tarik) Black, but with Stan he can block shots, rebound and help keep Black out of foul trouble."
A year ago, these same Tigers were made up mostly freshmen and sophomores. This year they're a little more experienced – sophomores, juniors and seniors. With the experience comes a more defined role of leadership, and some Tigers are poised to take on that role this season – something that some of the elder players were reluctant to do last year.
"I got to lead, I've got to be more vocal this year," senior guard Charles Carmouche said. "I think I could have done a better job of leading last year because we had a lot of freshman. I should have brought my knowledge to the table more last year so that everybody could have been on the same page."
Also in the mix this season for the Tigers is former McDonald's High School All-American and Melrose standout Adonis Thomas. Thomas understands that now as a freshman, he's not ‘the man' any more and that things a very different on the college level.
"The transition has been tough, tougher than I thought," Thomas said. "It's a lot of things that I need to learn, especially defensively, so I just have to listen to the coaches and my teammates because it's a learning process. And with the coaches, you just can't help but to listen to guys that been to where you want to go."
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Tigers personnel mesh well with new coaches
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