So the Wizards have made some moves in the last week - you may have heard. In addition to re-acquiring forward Taylor Griffin and adding veteran guard Stefhon Hannah to the roster, the Golden State Warriors assigned rookie forward Chris Wright as well. We've given you the rundown on each individual, we've broken them down on Wizards Watch, but due to Dakota's recent road swing, we haven't had the chance to speak with the man charged with assimilating these three pieces into the Wizards roster.

We caught up with head coach Nate Bjorkgren yesterday at the Bismarck YMCA during Wizards practice to get his take on all three. There will be plenty more analysis on the way prior to Dakota's Saturday night meeting with Iowa at the Civic Center, but until then, take a listen to how Bjorkgren sees the new trio fitting in.

With the Wizards in the midst of another quick road-trip, we had the chance to catch up with head coach Nate Bjorkgren from Fort Wayne to discuss among other things, the teams recent acquisition of Patrick Sanders, the recent run of overtime games and the brutality of the D-League schedule. 

Dakota is back in action tonight against the Mad Ants, we'll have a full recap tomorrow.

On recent second half struggles, inability to close out games:
I think it’s a little bit of everything. I think some of it is fatigue, but I tell you what, we’ve just had the ball not bounce our way a few times. If you remember in that most recent win (double-overtime vs. Tulsa) on Friday, I think you even wrote it, we had three straight turnovers that were really uncharacteristic or out team. Mo (Baker) steps on the endline, Shy (Ely) tries to post feed (Curtis) Withers – that results in a turnover. Then Edwin (Ubiles) traveled bringing the ball up and the officials gave it back to Tulsa. That’s three straight possessions, bang, bang, bang, that results in nine straight points. If those three things don’t happen I thought we were very good in the fourth against Tulsa, we were in a position to win that one by 10 points. If you look at Sunday night against Fort Wayne it was the same thing. They had the ball under their own basket, we get a deflection and it goes right into the hands of Darnell Lazarre. Mo got run down from behind and the ball was knocked away and they got it back again – we’ve just had some bad bounces. Our guys are playing hard, but if they’re not closing out like they should, or not moving and cutting like they should, the other team is going to jump all over it. We do a good job of putting ourselves in position to win games and we’ve won some close ones, we’ve lost some close ones.

On the starters playing so long against Fort Wayne:
I’m trying to mix it up. In talking about our lapses in games, sometimes it’s been fatigue; sometimes it’s been certain lineups. I rode the starters longer in the second half. For example, JJ (Justin Johnson) didn’t have good numbers when he went in the first time, then he comes in late in the game and had four or six straight points. I’m just looking for that lineup and I did, I went for it in that game. I wanted to get that game just like I want to get every game.

On the D-League's packed schedule:
It’s tough when games come on you quick. We watch a lot of film, do extensive work in pregame stuff before heading to the arena. Guys are banged up but we’re able to walk through some stuff, get on the court as a team. It comes back to taking care of yourself and your own team first, we need to keep getting better at the little things. There were a few big perimeters from Sunday where they catch it on the perimeter and instead of us having active hands that are up, they’re down and they hit those shots. We have to challenge shots better.

On Patrick Sanders acquisition:
When Taylor Griffin went down in the Showcase we needed an emergency body and there was Patrick Sanders sitting in the pool. He’s a guy that I was familiar with, I knew what I’d get with him. He averaged 13 or 14 points a game in the D-League a few years ago. He’s a veteran, I knew he would come in and wouldn’t disrupt any chemistry.

Second-year Wizards forward Mike Anderson was the subject of this weeks Sports Spotlight on KFYR-TV - he's the second member of the team to be profiled this year (Justin Johnson earned that distinction about a month ago). The story aired last night during the 6 and 10 o'clock newscasts, but in case you happened to miss them, you can view the video below. Enjoy!

As I mentioned yesterday, it's a bit of a busy weekend in the sports department as I'm flying solo and handling the production of a live on location Wizards Watch this afternoon. So, with that in mind, plan on a full recap of this weekend's games against Tulsa coming tomorrow, following the Sunday matinee.

In the meantime, the Wizards held a light practice yesterday afternoon at the Bismarck YMCA and I caught up with head coach Nate Bjorkgren briefly to discuss Friday night's loss. Enjoy the interview below, and remember, Wizards Watch is live at the Civic Center today at 5:20, so be sure to tune in!

It's Monday boys and girls, which means it's time for another installment of the Best of Wizards Watch. Head coach Nate Bjorkgren was again my guest this week as we broke down the opening two games of the regular season, a weekend series the Wizards split with the Los Angeles D-Fenders. Among other topics, coach and I discuss defensive strategy for covering LA big man Brandon Costner, Edwin Ubiles' impressive debut on opening night and Mo Baker's huge 31-point effort in Saturday night's win - the first of Bjorkgren's career.

So if you missed yesterday's live broadcast or just feel like rewatching some of your favorite parts of the show, check out the week two version of Best of Wizards Watch below and enjoy.

In case those of you in the greater Bismarck area missed it, on Wednesday we ran a profile piece on Wizard's rookie guard Justin Johnson. The 6-foot-2 California native has had an interesting journey to get to the D-League, beginning at UC Irvine then transferring to both Citrus Community College and Concordia-Irvine. Along the way he won a pair of GSAC Player of the Year honors and was named the 2011 NAIA National Player of the Year. For more on Justin's path to Bismarck, check out the story below.

Earlier on in training camp I briefly mentioned that Wizards guard Anthony Goods had been among the nearly two dozen players invited to tryouts for Team USA that competed in the Pan-American Games. While he didn't make the final roster, it was a good experience for the shooting guard and unquestionably had him ready to go for the start of the D-League season.

I realize that I haven't yet posted both Goods' and head coach Nate Bjorkgren's thoughts on the matter, so below you'll find a brief story that we ran last Sunday (November 6th) on this subject. On a brief programming note, we'll be back at practice tomorrow morning and don't forget, Wizards Watch is back on the air next Sunday!

As part of the countdown to the start of the 2011-12 D-League season we'll be breaking down each of the Dakota Wizards training camp invites. These scouting reports will include advanced statistics, visual analysis and hopefully as much commentary and analysis as we can muster from the players and coaches themselves. Today we examine second-year center Mickell Gladness who in his short time with the franchise last season made a major impact defensively.


Mickell Gladness arrived in Bismarck about two-thirds of the way through last season and made an immediate impact defensively - exactly what you'd expect from the NCAA's all-time single game and career shot blocking king. That's what you get with the former Alabama A&M standout, a super long, super athletic defensive specialist. This isn't a bad thing either, as that kind of a label often carries a negative connotation, but Gladness is intriguing enough to have earned a training camp invite from the Miami Heat prior to the start of last season.

Physically you're talking about a guy who is tremendously long and thin. Gladness checks in at 6-foot-11 with a listed weight of 200 pounds - to put that into perspective, that's 10 inches taller but just 15 pounds heavier than guard Mo Baker. He has huge hands, a monster wingspan and is very athletic for a player his size (as you'll see in the video at the end of this post - just watch the dunk), all of which makes him a lethal interior defender. The lack of bulk and strength though has always hindered him offensively, not allowing him to consistently bang down low, making him more of a roaming power forward at the offensive end as opposed to a traditional center. Let's find out more about the Wizards shot blocking menace.