Indiana Pacer Links and Notes

I'm back in town trying to catch up on the latest camp news for the Indiana Pacers. Here's some items of interest I've run across:

• Mike Dunleavy reports a solid offseason, as he's ready to play for his fifth coach in six years. He's ready to fire up his share of 3-balls in O'B's system. We learned that strained ligaments on the little finger on his shooting hand didn't help his stroke last year. Let's hope that was indeed the case.As I suspected, he's packed on a few pounds of muscle too.
• O'B is no fan of zone defense which should play well with all of the Bobby Knight/Gene Keady fans in the area who are accustomed to a hard-nosed, man to man defensive effort.
• We have a nickname. In the Pacer Notebook linked above, Andre Owens reveals Pitbull is a moniker he answers to and proved he's up to the name by returning to practice a day after a virus had him in the hospital.
• Bruno's Caught in the Web has plenty of goodies, including O'B's projected starting lineup of Tinsley, Dunleavy, Granger, Murpohy, and Jermaine O'Neal.
• Bill Benner delivers a nice piece on the retun of Dick Harter and his impact on the Pacers' defense.
• The IBJ also discusses the Pacers' ad campaign. As mentioned here before, no players were used to sell the team. In a league that is player driven, relying soley on the coach to bring fans to the Fieldhouse could be a tough sell.
• Bloomington North's Sean May will have the same microsurgery on his knee as Lawrence North's Greg Oden. The result will be a lost season for May. Here's to a full recovery for one of my favorite players to watch over the years. The kid knows how to play the game.