New rule grants bball coaches limited time to work players during summer

[jbcarol]

In January, the NCAA's board of directors approved new rules granting coaches limited time to work with their players, including incoming freshmen and junior college transfers, who previously had to wait until the fall to get their first on-court experience with the men for whom they signed to play.

The new rule states that, "In men's basketball, a student-athlete who is enrolled in summer school may engage in required weight-training, conditioning and skill-related instruction for up to eight weeks (not required to be consecutive weeks). Participation in such activities shall be limited to a maximum of eight hours per week with not more than two hours per week spent on skill-related instruction."

"It's phenomenal," associate coach Tim Fuller said. "You were always kind of wondering, 'OK, they're in there playing pickup, you can't watch. What's happening and how are they playing?' And you can't get feedback from anybody, so you really can't touch your team. ... Jabari Brown may be in pickup developing bad habits.

"If we know and we're able to articulate to him, 'Here's where your shots are going to come from,' he knows that is where we expect him to work on getting his shots off at."

Fuller said every player has something different the MU staff wants him to focus on to make the most of the summer months. For Phil Pressey, it's improving his jump shot. For Dixon, it's working on his decision-making in ball-screen situations.

The coaches are trying to work with Brown, the Oregon transfer who joined the program in December, on using ball screens.

They want to build up Connecticut transfer Alex Oriakhi's confidence as a finisher because they're counting on him providing an inside scoring threat to replace Ricardo Ratliffe, who connected on nearly 70 percent of his shots last season.