TSN's top 25: … and 25 other polls, lists and must-know items to get you ready for the 2002-03 college basketball season

Sporting News, The, Nov 11, 2002 by Mike DeCourcy, Matt Hayes, Kyle Veltrop, Bob Holt, Bruce Pascoe

Toughest classes I've aced

BY MATT BONNER Florida senior center

Though Bonner averaged 15.6 points and 7.2 rebounds last season, his most impressive stat line is this: one grade lower than an A since kindergarten. And the chemistry class that Bonner, a business administration major, got a B in as a freshman at Florida didn't even make the list of his toughest classes.

1. Finance. Three multiple-choice exams of 25 questions filled with multistep problems with no partial credit. Enough said.

2. Music appreciation. Don't let the class title fool you. Beethoven, Mozart, Bach. They all sound the same to me--especially at 7:30 in the morning. At 7:30, Metallica and Nelly sound the same to me.

3, Financial accounting. In my first discussion class, a girl raised her hand and said it was her fourth time taking it.

4. Bowling II. It must have taken six weeks to get that right-to-left hook down--not to mention the 7-10 split. OK, just kidding. Thanks to this class, I can hold my own at Boutwell's Bowling back home in New Hampshire.

5. Marketing. The lectures were so boring that I opted to teach myself all the material a week before the test.

Three players most likely to turn in a triple-double

1. Luke Walton, F, Arizona. Walton's vintage performance: 27 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists, four blocks and four steals in a win against USC last January.

2. Emeka Okafor, C/PF, Connecticut. The nation's best shot blocker, Okafor came within one block of recording a triple-double in an overtime win at Arizona last season.

3. Ryan Sidney, G, Boston College. Backcourt mate Troy Bell gets most of the hype, but the 6-2 Sidney is the nation's best rebounding guard. He averaged 7.8 last season while also leading the Eagles in assists and finishing second in scoring.

Drill bits

Oklahoma consistently is one of the most irritating teams to play because of its nonstop hustle, relentless defense and excellent conditioning. That's a byproduct of coach Kelvin Sampson's rigorous practices. Hollis Price, an All-American contender for the Sooners, lists the five toughest drills Sampson runs during a typical practice.

BY HOLLIS PRICE
Oklahoma senior guard

1. Double Bubble. This is a rebounding drill where bubble lids are placed on both baskets. We play five-on-five, and a team gets 1 point for a defensive rebound, 2 points for an offensive rebound and minus 1 for a turnover. The first team to 10 wins. The losers run.

2. Loose Ball. Two players line up on the baseline. Coach Sampson blows a whistle, and the players have to drive and wrestle for a basketball. The guy who gets it has to turn around and try to score on the other guy.

3. Close-out and Horseshoe. These are simply defensive position drills.

4. Tip. We have one heavy ball at each basket. The players form a single-file line and have to catch the heavy ball off the backboard, then toss it up for the guy behind them. The players have to go from one basket to the next and run continuously for five minutes--or for however long Coach Sampson wants us to.