Crean said he likes this team a lot. Very complimentary of Cook; says he is the best leader he's had since he's been in Athens. Thinks Cook should be up for the Cousy award for best PG. Said Ridgnal is coming off an ankle injury this summer that is slowing him down a bit. Said JAR is basically coming off 2 years of not playing since he played so little last year at UVA. Wants him to pick up his game and said he would be better by the end of the season than he will be early, barring injury. He was asked about the #14 preseason prediction. Said he understands it, but he said none of those people have seen this team even practice. Ingram and everyone else will have to pick up the slack from Horne's injury. He said this team works harder than last year's team and took a little swipe at them, I thought. They weren't in the gym early and often on their own. He said the team was going to lift weights at 8:45 a.m. last week, and JAR and Ingram were in the practice gym working beforehand. It seemed like he thinks this team can surprise some people. I forgot to mention that Crean said he couldn't name a starting 5 himself at the moment, which I thought was interesting.

If this team is anything but a hot discombobulated mess out the gate I will be pleasantly surprised. They will improve and hopefully gel with every game. Going to be interesting.