Made the trek down to Northfield Wednesday afternoon to take in St. Olaf's practice at their Skoglund Center facility. The starting time was 3:15 and I got there perhaps 20 minutes before things were slated to get going and already most players were out on the floor working on various aspects of their game. After greeting junior Maddie Ehrich; now finally healed after nearly a year's worth of re-hab, I then located both Head Coach Dave Stromme and assistant coach Mike Ludwig. Stromme and I talked about last year and how it ended on a downer with the opening-round playoff loss to St. Mary's and the potential for this year's squad. In my mind, I thought the biggest thing for this team is the consistency issue; i.e., doing well at home but then turning around and losing on the road to lesser teams. Stromme broke it down further to shooting issues saying that they had games last year where they shot barely over 20% from FG range which obviously won't get the job done anywhere.
The first thing that caught my eye when I got myself situated in the gym was the number of new faces this program has - considering the fact that St. Olaf did not graduate anyone from last year. Last year when I attended St. Olaf's practice Stromme had perhaps ten healthy bodies to go with. This time around he has almost double that which is a good thing to have, IMHO. Interestingly, Stromme has a nice Colorado pipeline in place now as he has at least three players who hail from the state (it could be more than that; will know when he has the official roster up). I've already mentioned how Ehrich is now back and fully healthy. Now, junior post Elise Raney is well on the way to full recovery from knee surgery which is huge for this program. After being out on several occasions last year from nagging knee problems, Raney now appears poised to be an integral part of the formidable St. Olaf front line that includes seniors Erin Haglund and Ashley Menzel. Another young lady who has returned from the walking wounded is junior Brit Webber who was hit with the ACL bugaboo the year before. Both senior PG Mackenzie Wolter (who will likely be the best PG in the conference this season IMHO) and fellow senior (C'mon) Eileen O'Donoghue are looking healthy and as strong as ever. Just as important, both players are excellent leaders in every sense of the word for this relatively young team.
Dave gave me a practice itenerary of all the things that the team would be covering in this day's practice. He has the team start out working on some of the finer points of the game (dribbling, passing, short jump shots). What's really amazing when you watch one of Stromme's practices is how he's constantly shouting out instructions on how his players should be doing things properly. He aptly borrowed a quote from the greatest college basketball coach that ever lived, John Wooden (who, of course, coached at the best public university in the world, UCLA) when he said "Be quick but don't hurry." Another thing that Coach Stromme stressed to his squad is that "we HAVE to be faster" which I would concur to. But, unlike last year, he's got the talent to do just that. The other thing that stood out to me was how he manages to keep practice close to being on time; i.e., he has start times listed on his itenerary when he wants to focus on certain items and he does just that. Another item that Stromme made a special emphasis on was lay-ups; specifically uncontested lay-ups. "Don't miss uncontested lay-ups - make it important!" After moving to the south gym around 4:30 to allow the men's team to use the main floor, Stromme had a special rebounding ring placed on the rim cylinder so the team could focus on rebounding and boxing out. After some more defensive work, the team wound things down with free throw shooting as the team cheered after each FT made.
Outtakes - Just the number of new faces - and healthy returnees, has changed the dynamics of this team considerably. While the loss of sophomore Sheridan Blanford to an ACL injury was a downer (and she was doing mostly stretching/flexing at practice while wishing she could be out there with her teammates), having Raney, Ehrich, and Webber back fully healthy or nearly so is just simply HUGE for this squad. Another key senior returnee, Kirstee Rotty, will be with the team again once volleyball season is completed. So now, not only does St. Olaf have the regular chain-gang group back, Stromme now finally has depth at BOTH the frontline and backcourt positions which is a luxury he didn't have last year. That said, I think this St. Olaf team likely has the best chance of not only challenging UST for league honors but also being a team that can get into the "Big Dance" as well. Again, consistency will be the key for this team. They can't afford to have lapses on the road like they had last year at Augsburg and Macalester. Being that this is the last go-around for seniors Mackenzie Wolter, O'Donoghue, Haglund, Rotty and Menzel, if they're going to reach the lofty goals they've set for themselves than this is the year they absolutely have to do it. While Stromme obviously realizes the potential this squad has, he also expects strong challenges from both Concordia and SMU.
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