Welcome back to the Daily Clone as the Northwest Bank Studios have made a trip to my favorite place on Earth.

I'm at Hilton Coliseum as the men's basketball team had their final media availability of the summer

as they conclude their eight-week summer workout.

T.J. Otslberger provided us an update on Joshua Jefferson, saying that if summer

workouts win another week, he'd probably be cleared to practice. However, Otts added that it's

good for Jefferson to get healthy, and he's learned a lot about his teammates from the sidelines,

even though he has been begging to get back on the floor. According to Osselberger and pretty much every player we've talked to this summer,

this eight-week sample size of summer workouts has been very, very competitive.

Otsleberger says there's still a long way to go and a lot to learn about his team,

but so far this is how he would compare this team to his previous four during his tenure. Everybody likes to compare different teams. Right now, we're in the 50 or so. Is this team more like this team or that team? One thing I like is that at the guard position, we have a lot of speed and quickness. You know, our first year here, we probably had as much speed on the perimeter as we've had, even though we had some offensive

challenges with Brockington, Kelscher, Hunter, and Grill. That was a really fast back court,

and we have that dynamic again now with Bateman and Killian and Taman and Nelson and, you know,

some of that speed in the back court, which I think is so important to have in the league.

I feel confident in Taman that is so important to have in the league. I feel confident

in Taming that he's going to have the year and then some that he had as a sophomore. We're going to

keep him healthy. He's going to do his part. But his sophomore season, I mean, he was playing,

you know, at an all-American level, and he's capable of it. We're going to demand it. He's done the work to do it. But I think it's so important because he's the engine. And when he's really feeling good and he's driving, winning, everybody gets on board. I think, you know, certainly in the all conference and that sort of thing is sophomore year, he's probably runner up for conference player of the year. And had we won a couple more and Houston didn't, he probably would have been player of the year.

So I think for us to really elevate Taman, Taming to do his part, me to do my part, I think that

can really help us stand out as a team.

And then, you know, I think it's a group, when you look at even like the front line, the speed and versatility we have with those three front court players at the center spot with Buchanan, Mulder, and Plata.

You know, it's probably, you know, like Rob Jones, I couldn't be a bigger fan of what he did defensively.

And we're starting to get some of those attributes back on that side of the floor where there's

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