Here is the truth from his experienced eyes.
BGT: The freshman class, Mark, what is most impressive to you, as you view them courtside?
Johnson: Xavier Silas has a nice little pull-up game and he's got a little bit of swagger on the court, which I think you have to have to be a good player.
Jeremy Williams, as time has gone on, has shown he can step out and hit some shots and he's showing a willingness to do that.
So, I think those two guys, individually, impress me the most.
Kal Bay -- he's got the good basketball mind, he understands the game and he certainly can shoot the ball well.
Sean Kowal could be fun over the next couple of years if he develops and he gets some real solid coaching.
BGT: From what you've seen of the big men in this class, are they likely to become quality starters as soon as next season or are they better suited for reserve roles?
Johnson: Tough to tell. Jim Boeheim, when I was at Syracuse, used to say that those big guys are the toughest to project and they take the longest to develop.
BGT: Do you believe this season will affect Ricardo Patton's selling power on the open market or will it be considered but a blip on the radar, an anomaly?
Johnson: Good, debatable topic right there. I certainly think that whoever looks at Ricardo Patton down the road is going to have to look at the entire body of work. They'll look at the institution and what kind of support they did or did not put behind his efforts but (this season) will certainly be part of the equation.
BGT: A tough question but one fans talk about -- fundamentals -- why the great difficulty on defense, at the foul line, and creating smooth, consistent offensive flow, especially considering what many feel is above-average talent on the the roster?
Johnson: I don't lay it all on the coach. A thing you can look at with this team is the relative youth of it. Defense, I always thought was something, too, that you can look at and point fingers a lot of different directions because it's hard work, it's schematic, it's x's and o's, it's abilities and on down the line.
BGT: Richard Roby -- foregone conclusion he's coming back or could something crazy happen and could he skip off to the league or wild of the wild, could he transfer?
Johnson: The smart money is on him coming back. Down at Baylor, there were a number of NBA scouts there and I sat and talked with one or two after the game and I've got a good friend of mine who was an assistant at Syracuse who is a scout now and every guy says pretty much the same thing about Rich -- he's got all the skills, he looks the part, he moves the part, he has the full skill-set but he hasn't brought it consistently yet this season.
The one thing Rich does not do night in and night out and is the one thing he needs to learn is that he has to be more consistent, be right around your average (numbers) every night.
BGT: Dominique Coleman, Marcus King-Stockton. Why do those players seem to fade in and and out of the picture so much?
Johnson: Dominique has been that way the entire time he's been here. We're seeing flashes from him and I think when the Buffs are playing their best, I thought it's been when Dominique has played under control. But he gets a little out of control at times and thats when he does damage to the team, and I think that is just inherent in him.
Marcus King-Stockton -- he's a little undersized and not a real power guy and I don't know if that's his game. He's a guy who would probably be best in a role if he were the backup center, play 10, 12, 15 minutes a game. I think he's been asked to do something he's not really equipped to do.
BGT: You're hired to be Patton's replacement after he gets his next job. You see talent in Roby, Williams, Silas and others but what stands out as the biggest obstacle to producing winning basketball in 2007-08?
Johnson: The first thing is an interior presence. I do think you have a team with enough talent on the perimeter.
Marcus Hall coming back next season, I think, would be a huge boost for this team. He would have been a huge part of this year's squad had he been eligible.
I think you have the nucleus, with a perimeter-oriented team, that with the right guys, right schemes and the right intensity, can still be a good basketball team.
But the interior will likely be the achilles heal.
BGT: Could CU find a guy, Mark, that could do for it what Bob Huggins has done for Kansas State, turning that program around quickly?
Johnson: That's the one thing that's going to be interesting about (the coaching search), where where facilities-wise, CU is compared to other schools. That will be the interesting part of this equation, to see if (CU) can find a veteran coach who is willing to overlook that and take the job on faith or do they have to go with the younger guy who is energetic that takes the job thinking I can make something out of this, as opposed to the established guy who comes in and wants everything in place.
BGT: What about the Kyle Ringo story in the Daily Camera that throws out the name of Duke assistant Steve Wojciechowski as a possible candidate for the job -- he's a high-intensity guy with a great collegiate bloodline but who really knows if he is ready or capable of being a head coach?
Johnson: You know how it works -- when anyone is connected to that Mike Krzyzewski-tree, they automatically are thought to be a good pickup. He's interesting in that regard because some of those (Duke) guys have had success but then you look at Quin Snyder at Missouri, who did not have great success, who, let's face it, had all the window dressing -- great facilities, brand new arena.
I trust a guy like Tom McGrath with his great experience and background with USA Basketball, and he's good friends with Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Boeheim, Bobby Knight and Roy Williams.
(Wojciechowski) is intriguing to me being that young, energetic guy.
Note: Want more of Mark Johnson? Check out his comments on Carmelo Anthony and his contrast and comparison of the games of the Nuggets' star and Texas superstar Kevin Durant at NuggetsNoise.blogspot.com.
Line of the day
Ryan Miller, the Parade All-American lineman and Buffs' recruit from Columbine, fed Kyle Ringo of the Daily Camera one eye-opening quote after another here, but in the end, this mountain of a (young) man knows where it all began, "I thank God every day for giving me freakish size."
Some things just are given to you and are not a product of work. Hey, look at me, I didn't get 6-foot-7, 280-pound genes. Did you?
Fans will obviously love his defensive-player mentality -- that aggression to go with that "freakish size." Looking at his background and drive, it seems the only thing that could prevent him from being who CU desperately needs him to be is injury.
Shane Cook, another former prep (Bear Creek) with high accolades coming out of Colorado, was a servicable talent but Miller seems Tony Boselli-like. If he turns out remotely close to that comparison, coach Dan Hawkins will have the foundation of the offense of his dreams.
OU likes recruits sooner
Oklahoma hasn't even finalized its' 2007 recruiting class and it has already put "6" on the board in gettting one of the top juniors in Texas, and nationally, according to report in the Daily Oklahoman.
Running back Justin Johnson of Gilmer, Texas informed coach Bob Stoops of his decision this weekend. Johnson ran for 1,015 yards on 86 carries last season and is the thought to be the second-best recruit nationally by one web site, schoolsports.com.
Johnson sounds like the kind of person you can't get enough of on your roster. Here is a piece of his letter to the media, which I assume is all the rage in this day and age, in drawing attention to oneself, not that I know anything about that. Just saying.
"I am an Oklahoma Sooner. I hereby accept all the responsibilities that come with that title...I will keep myself in peak mental, physical and emotional condition at all times, so that I will be ready to give my best when my team needs me."
Just a hunch but it says regardless of what Johnson does on the field he is going big places in this life.
Cant-miss Husker
There is no such thing as a can't-miss prospect because of the human variable, however this guy sounds like a star-to-be, as written about at HuskerExtra.com.
Even though he plans on suiting up to hurt the Buffs, it is difficult for the BGT not to want him to succeed.
Letters
This one comes from Mark, sharing his thoughts on the coaching search.
Hey Truth,
I am an avid reader of your blog and I want to commend you for your hard work. I always look forward to checking out your site and reading the interesting interviews that you post. Please keep up the great work.
A few thoughts on the search for the men’s hoops coach:
1. There are many great things about this search. The first being that it is going to force this administration to put some resources into the basketball programs. I came here as a student in 1981 and very little has been done in the last 25 years to upgrade anything. The second is that it looks like there are going to be very few head coach openings in D-1, which will give CU the chance to get a better coach than they would have in other years. Finally, CU is going to move on from the Ricardo era with someone who is going to have to sell the program statewide. I think one of Dick Tharp’s major failings was the fact that he never made Ricardo accountable for anything having to do with promoting his own program.
2. Although I like your thinking, there is no way Mark Few would ever leave Gonzaga for CU. Why would he come here after turning down Indiana?
3. I think that CU has to give serious consideration to hiring a minority or Mike Bohn is going to get a reputation for only hiring white people. That being said, a person that really interests me is Reggie Theus. He is amazingly charismatic, has gained experience coaching under Rick Pitino and has had much success at NMSU. You need to put him in your top 20 and take out John Wooden.
4. Following the thinking of point three, there is no way CU is going to hire Wojo. Look at what happened the last time CU hired a mid-30’s Caucasian with no coaching experience. It’s just not going to happen.
5. I have a friend who used to work for the AP covering CU men’s hoops who once told me that he had a 30 minute conversation with Matt Doherty about this program – the strengths and weaknesses and such. Considering this, I believe that there are some names that are very interested in this job that we haven’t heard about. I also think that a big name will pop up late in the process.
6. I’d be really happy to have Bzdelik, Dunlap or even Gentry as the next coach here. I believe that good things are coming for both the football and the basketball programs in the coming years.
Thanks again,
Mark
BGT: Look at Mark, a comedian dressed as a thoughtful writer, busting me up on the Theus-for-Wooden trade, then the Wojo-Caucasian follow-up. Prepping for a Letterman or Leno stand-up gig?
Thanks for calling me out, as many have, on the Few lust. Thing is Mark, I'm not monogamous. I chase in the written word all the sexy coaching candidates, so I know I'm going to get rejected a lot. That's o.k. All I know is CU only has to score one "hottie." You know, the shotgun effect. Sort of like my dating life.
Hey, I'm not proud.
Your points are well taken and I will say that I agree passionately that CU is going to have a handful of high-quality names to choose from, people who will be interested in talking about, if not accepting, the job. If I'm Bohn, I like my chances. He'll surely have desirable options. Of course, he'll be responsible for making the right choice but he has shown he is intelligent enough to surround himself with bright people not named the BGT to get input on this ultimate and critical decision.
Will share this with you, Mark. Will soon be contacting "my people" to see if they have gone Tonto and listened to the ground for word of names being thrown out to them in regards to the opportunity Bohn is holding.
One thing some people fail to realize is that Bohn didn't create this cesspool, he just inherited it. You don't clean up a New Orleans-type mess (figuratively speaking, of course, all you politically- correct policemen) overnight. You do it one day, one decision at a time.
I, too, am guardedly optimistic.
By the way, Theus is intriguing but Wojo seems like a longshot to me, although with his name being as equally difficult to spell as his mentor, Coach K, it would be real fun for local journalists to wrestle with for a while.
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