After watching the Tigers do drill after drill for a week, it was nice to see them get after each other in a scrimmage Sunday night. John Calipari likes to scrimmage in four-minute segments, and this time he switched up the teams often to get a look at how different combinations mesh. The first two segments were, to quote Cal, “awful.” There was a lot of jacking up threes and very little production. The first segment finished with a 5-4 score. “I know we’re a good defensive team,” he said, “but that’s ridiculous.” Shortly thereafter, the team picked things up. For the rest of practice, there was good pace, good energy, lots of playmaking. The team went full-court press for a few segments, then went halfcourt man-to-man, then zone, then finished with zone press.

A few other observations:

– Though I don’t have an official tally, free-throw shooting was below average. There were a couple 0-for-2s, a bunch of 1-for-2s and a few 2-for-2s.

– Antonio Anderson was the best player on the floor Sunday, defensively and offensively. It’s really, really hard to stop him from getting to the tin, and he’s now so strong that there’s not much you can do to prevent him from making a layup other than completely mauling him.

– Chris Douglas-Roberts is not the most impressive practice player, but when you put him in a scrimmage (or game) setting, it’s like a totally different guy. When he gets the ball in certain areas of the court, you just know it’s an automatic two points.

– Newcomers Derrick Rose, Shawn Taggart and Jeff Robinson got a taste of what it’s like to play at Memphis’ speed. It’s a different ballgame. “They know now they’ve got to pick it up a little bit,” Anderson said. “It’s going to take a little time, but they’re getting there. It’s hard. You’re always at full speed and then when you get to the rack, you’ve got to slow down and make a decision.”

– Calipari has encouraged Robinson to copy Robert Dozier’s little spin move that gets him a lot of looks at the basket when he gets the ball in the high post. Robinson used it for a very nice layup at one point and got fouled when he went to it a second time.

– Calipari is trying to stay positive with forward Pierre Niles because he really wants to give the 6-8 sophomore a chance. When Niles came in from the weak side for an offensive rebound tip-in, Calipari stopped the scrimmage and exclaimed, “That’s how you’ll get minutes Pierre!”

– The biggest surprise to me, so far, has been how proficent Joey Dorsey is around the basket. A year ago, I remember him missing 10 just absolute gimmes every practice. This year, I can hardly remember Dorsey missing a layup. He’s even converting little post-up hooks at an extremely high percentage. We’ll see how that translates to game action.