Was over at UST's McCarthy Gymnasium this afternoon for their 4:00 P.M. practice. I was greeted in the lobby by Head Coach Ruth Sinn who was a most gracious host. She truly is one of the class acts of the MIAC. She provided me with a practice itinerary which was quite detailed with information and what the emphasis and focus would be with today's workout. I talked to Sinn before things got underway about this coming season and the disappointment of last year's finish in the MIAC Championship game where they basically got (deleted)-slapped by Concordia-Moorhead right there in Schoenecker Arena this last February. While the Tommies won the MIAC regular-season title, Sinn felt they weren't consistent enough during the season. "Consistency is the key for us. We are going to be consistent."
Today's emphasis on offense was "Win the 'slow' battle, posts-own the mid-line, and be strong with the ball on the perimeter" while defensively it was "Wall and TALL" with a message of "Be Present". The first order of practice had the team perform some incredibly tough dribbling drills that involved using two balls at once for each player (every possible manuever you could think of was done). Then it was time for the players to incorporate passing skills with the dribbling which is very hard. Shortly thereafter, the team broke into groups of three to do some short lay-up drills.
Then it was time for a Toughness Series Drill. And, yes, this is a tough one all right. This is where one player has to tap the ball off the glass three times, then pass the ball to the player near the "elbow", then come out to beyond the top of the key, come back and get the pass back from the second player at the "elbow" and then passes the ball back to the player who was at the elbow who finishes with a lay-up. Another fun one involved "perfection shooting"; where you have one shooter, one rebounder and one passer.
Then the team moved to an "O" Quick Strike Drill where four players go full court from out of bounds off a made basket. The goal of this drill per Coach Sinn is to get the post players to run the floor quickly. Also done was a half-court 3-on-2 drill that starts at the baseline and goes up to half court to start the 3-on-2 routine. The real fun one to watch, however, was a drill called "Oklahoma Shooting". Sinn would come over frequently to where I and two other guests were sitting to explain what was being done during practice and I was curious about this one. Basically what it incorporates is twenty layups, fifteen bank shots, ten free throws, and five "3" point shots. You have four to five players at a basket doing this. The losing groups have to do push-ups at the end of each set.
Some more drills were done before the grand finale - an "End Of Shot Clock Drill" where the emphasis is to be as efficient as possible with the shot clock winding down. Also "TM Perfection Shooting" where you have three players at a basket and the groups rotate at different baskets. When a team gets three in a row they'll yell "Got it!" and then they'll rotate to different baskets. The first set of this saw not enough baskets made by any of the groups which resulted in obligatory push-ups for everyone. The second set saw a group get enough baskets while the losing groups were treated to some more push-ups. Then it was finally time for a ten minute scrimmage between the black and purple squads. Coach Sinn would interrupt the scrimmage a couple of times with her whistle to explain some finer points that needed to be understood and done by her team but it was a fun scrimmage to watch with the black team coming out on top 12-8. The encore by the team was free throws before closing up shop for the day.
As far as the outlook for this team, well, what can you say? Most everyone has UST winning the conference and yours truly thinks that they should be the favorite as well. You've got three of the best players in the conference coming back in Taylor Young, Maggie Weiers, and MIAC 3-point shooting Queen Ali Johnson for her senior season plus a capable guard duo of Carolyn Dienhart and Kellie Ring. Oh, and a bench that is simply loaded won't hurt either. I posed the question of whether prognosticators such as myself should simply annoint the Tommies as MIAC Champs now to Coach Sinn who quickly poo-pooed the notion; sayng that they have to be ready to go for EVERY game. In reality, while the Tommies no doubt will have the inside track to the title, they showed last year that they're not totally infalliable, either. So, as Coach Sinn said, consistency will be the key for this team. The guess here is that they'll be the last ones standing when the MIAC Championship Game ends. The real question perhaps is can UST make a dent on the national scene as their counterparts on the men's side have already done and conquered.
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