Made the short hop from Macalester after catching a good chunk of their practice over to Concordia St. Paul to catch their practice on this Tuesday night which began promptly at 6:30 P.M. After working on some jump shots to get things going, Head Coach Paul Fessler then had his squad do a variety of stretching drills to get them loosened up for the main course.
The first part of practice saw the team divide into two groups - one group of eight players worked on dribbling and another group of five players worked on screens and proper movement without the ball. Both groups saw their drills get enhanced - the group of eight then had to deal with chairs being placed on the floor to test their dribbling skills. Then this same group did layups with assistant coach Gillian Bjerke-Letsche using a pad to try and "muscle" the players with the ball out of the lane. Then, they do push-ups!
After a 4-on-4 half-court drill where they objective appeared to be making it a priority to get the ball into the post player, there was also a 5-on-0 "shell" drill where the focus was on ball movement and how players should be moving without the ball. This same drill was slightly altered to involve setting screens as well. Additionally, a 5-on-5 half court drill involving plays with inbounds passes where some mistakes were made; much to the chagrin of Coach Fessler who, um, can make his displeasure known when he wants.
Another drill involved having players in three lines; with three defenders and three offensive players. The shot clock is utilized on this full-court drill where the emphasis is on defensive work and communication. Another drill was a 4-on-4 half-court where the emphasis was defensive/ball pressure. Finally, the real McCoy came late in practice: 5-on-5 full court which proved to be a very spirited scrimmage between the blue and gold groups. The Blue squad would wind up winning 30-29 in a very tight one.
In talking with Coach Fessler and his assistants, you get the feeling that the NSIC is really going to be something of a free-for-all this season; certainly a wide-open race. Wayne State may be the vote-getter among most of the prognosticators, but Fessler believes that this could be a year where you could possibly have as many as six or seven teams in the mix for the conference title and he definitely feels his Golden Bears will be one of those teams in the mix; hopefully/presumably right there at the end. This is a relatively young team with only two seniors on hand. Still, you have to like what Fessler has coming up with his young players. He has a nice blend of size and athleticism and his roster with be bolstered with the return of 5'10 junior Mandy Poke who is recovering from a concussion. Considering all the success Fessler has had at Concordia St. Paul and his ability to win big games when the chips are down I think it would be a huge mistake to overlook this team's chances at winning the NSIC.
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