Was up in Coon Rapids this afternoon to catch today's practice for Anoka-Ramsey Community College. This is a program that has had more than its share of success over the last several years and is coming off yet another National Championship from this last season. But, as you can imagine, Head Coach David DeWitt is not a man to let his team rest on its laurels. He demands the best from his team - and he usually gets it.
In any event, I arrived right on the dot at 4:00 P.M.; just as players were finishing up some pre-practice development work. The first few sets of drills the team underwent involved work on setting proper screens; something that is vitally important when running a motion offense that ARCC runs. After some defensive drills that include 4-on-2 work, the team then went into some old familiar drills that I remember from my days at good ol' Ed-Co; running the weave and 3 line "push". Still another interesting drill that was done was the 3-on-2 continuous drill where the full court is used that is incredibly challenging for the two defensive players.
After some positioning work and shooting drills, the emphasis then switched to the defense - something that the Anoka-Ramsey program has taken pride in under DeWitt's tenure there. Unfortunately, this is also where DeWitt's frustrations became apparent as more 5-on-5 work was being done. Whether the team was just not mentally "into it" on this day is possible but DeWitt had more than a few choice words for his team at various times today when mental lapses became glaringly apparent. At 6:00 P.M. when the men's team came into the gym to prepare for their practice, DeWitt sent his minions upstairs to the classroom with notebooks in tow. I have a feeling that he got his word across in that session.
Despite the lack of sharpness of today's practice, there's still a lot to like about this team. While the lack of true height may be a factor for this squad there is still a lot of speed and athleticism to help make up for it. The one thing I did notice in this practice is that sophomore Allison Ballstadt has stepped up into the leadership role for this team which is a very good thing, IMHO. She's a very good player in her own right and she's got a year of experience under her belt and knows something of the sacrifices it takes to win. Undoubtedly, this team will have a much bigger target on its back this year coming off a National Championship and it will be interesting to see how it handles that; particularly the new freshmen. It's a little early for me to make any bold predictions on how this team will fare this season. I think a repeat of last year is likely to be a bridge too far but you have to figure that they will at least be one of the top teams in the conference. It will likely come down to how well (and how quickly) they mesh and how good the competition is as well.
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