With UCLA off on a bye week on this October Saturday I made the trip down to St. Peter to catch the Gusties Saturday A.M. practice. I was met by new Gustavus Head Coach Laurie Kelly and just spending time talking with her you can easily detect her passion and enthusiasm for not only the GAC program but for the MIAC in general and how much she wants to see the conference return to its glory days and prominence when she was a star player at UST. She certainly has inherited a solid, stable program that has a cupboard full of some very, very good players despite the losses of Molly Geske, Colleen Ruane, Ava Perry, and Liz Shay to graduation.
As I make my way into Lund Arena, I'm greeted by a familiar face - former Gustie great Angie Peterson-Potts who played for Gustavus from 2001-2004 (she played her freshman year at UST) and played an integral role in that fabulous 2002-03 season when GAC, Carleton, and CSB all wound up in a three-way tie for MIAC conference honors. Despite losing the MIAC Championship Game to Carleton in Northfield, the Gusties received a bid to the NCAA Tournament where they knocked off Wartburg at home in St. Peter before losing their second round game out in the Pacific Northwest. In retrospect, that GAC team was built for a deep run that year (as was Carleton) and it's a shame it didn't work out a bit differently for them. In any event, Peterson-Potts is volunteering for the Gustie program this year and her knowledge and experience will be invaluable to not only Kelly and assistants Dan Wolfe and Nate Otto but even more importantly to the players as well. She knows those important things on the floor to help make a player be as successful as they can possibly be. And when it comes to shooting the ball, well, there's no one better to learn from as AP had then - and has now - the prettiest jump shot you'll ever see.
After the normal warming up and stretching, the team moves on to a partner sideline passing drill that involves moving properly with pivoting. The intensity picks up on the next drill which is called a 12-person shooting drill and you can see the intensity and desire on senior post Abby Rothenbuehler's face as she shouts for a ball and contorts her face when a player is late getting her the ball. A transition 5-0 "shell" drill is also performed where the team splits into three different groups. Kelly is always making her presence known; whether it is in terms of correcting mistakes or rooting her players on. Transition defense is also worked on and this is where defense guru Wolfe gets a chance to help mold this squad into one of the top defensive teams in the conference. Positional breakdown drills are also done as guards, forwards and post players all work on their specialties.
Outtakes - From what I can tell, the Gusties are buying into Kelly's philosophy and I think that's important given what this program has gone through over the last 6-7 months. Obviously this program will have a somewhat different look than it did under the Haller regime but it remains to be seen how much. When I asked Kelly about who might fall into the starting point guard spot she seemed uncertain at this point stating that there are no "givens" at this stage of the season. The only "sure" deal at this point would appear to be Rothenbuehler at the post position backed up by Amanda Iverson. The guess here is that senior Steph Comer will probably get the nod at the PG spot but sharpshooting junior Julia Dysthie and sophomore Shelly Blashko could fill in there as well as Kelly wants to be as flexible as possible and doesn't want players to be nailed down to specific positions. One of the newcomers who really appears ready to step right in is Lindsey Johnson and she's only going to get better......This GAC team is too good and too talented to miss out on the MIAC playoffs but I don't know if it's good enough to actually make a serious run at the MIAC title. You have to figure that GAC along with both CSB and SMU will be jockeying for the 3rd, 4th and 5th spots respectively.
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