Bulls' players look forward to facing Skiles, Bucks

When Joakim Noah spoke on Thursday about playing against former Bulls coach Scott Skiles, he pounded his fist into his palm.

He was also laughing when he did it and was obviously joking.

"Nobody had a problem with Skiles," Noah said. "Everybody liked Skiles. But of course, when you're playing against your old coach and it's in your conference, there's a little rivalry.

"I think guys want to do well and show we're better. We want to say this is a new era and a new beginning."

The official dawn of a new Bulls era will be visible Tuesday when they open the regular season against Skiles' new team, the Milwaukee Bucks. But first comes a preseason dress rehearsal tonight at the United Center featuring the same teams in the same place.

Noah only spent about three months playing for Skiles last season before the Bulls changed coaches Dec. 24, firing Skiles and promoting assistant Jim Boylan to interim coach for the remainder of the season. Now, Boylan is back as Skiles' lead assistant with the Bucks.

Several Bulls, including Ben Gordon, Kirk Hinrich, Luol Deng and Andres Nocioni, were on board for the bulk of Skiles' four-plus seasons with the Bulls.

"It's going to be a little odd, but I think it will be just like any other game, with a few more familiar faces," Gordon said. "I guess it does add a little extra incentive playing against our old coach. So I think it will be a fun game that everyone will have no problem getting up for."

First-year Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro once played for Skiles in Phoenix, but he downplayed the reunion angle, especially for tonight's preseason finale.

"I'm sure Milwaukee's not going to show us a lot and we're not going to show them a lot," Del Negro said. "Scott coached me. I know Scott. I don't look back, I look forward."

Hinrich was asked if he plans to stroll over to the visitors' bench before the opening tip and give Skiles a hug, like Ben Wallace did with Flip Saunders, his former coach with the Pistons, a couple years ago.

"It will be a little different to have him on the other side," Hinrich said. "I'll probably definitely acknowledge him and Jim. (Bucks assistant) coach (Kelvin) Sampson recruited me really hard out of high school (to go to Oklahoma), so it's kind of a familiar coaching staff."

It will be interesting to see Tuesday if Skiles game-plans based on his knowledge of the Bulls players. For instance, trying to exploit Gordon on defense or using former Nets forward Richard Jefferson to attack Deng.

"I'm sure he would," Gordon said. "He's a smart coach, and I would expect him to try to exploit the weaknesses that he knows about the players on this team. That wouldn't be a surprise at all."

<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=245097">Hughes optimistic he'll be back soon<span class="date">[10/24/08]</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>