Macalester Practice 10-18-13

Was over at Macalester's Leonard Center early on this Friday evening to catch Macalester 6:30 P.M. practice. After chatting briefly with Head Coach Ellen Thompson and Assistant Coach Evie Peterson, the team assembled up in the Fieldhouse area as the men were still occupying the main gym with their practice. After a short conference together, Thompson has the team do a variety of light running and stretching drills to get loosened up for the evening's activities. The first drill that the team does on this night is a 4-on-3 full-court drill with one defensive "chaser". The emphasis of this drill appears to be trying to thwart an easy transition opportunity for the offense. A bit later, Thompson has the team broken into four groups: Peterson has one group working on their dribbling skills with chairs on the floor while another group does 2-on-2 work with Assistant Coach Kathy Mobley. Another group is with Assistant Coach and former Macalester player Claire Berge and they work on jump shots and lay-ups while Thompson's group does work on cutting to an open area to receive a pass for an open look. After approximately ten minutes, the groups rotate to a different station until each group has done all four areas. Shortly after 7:00 P.M., the team is able to move from the fieldhouse area down to the main gym and, once settled in, Thompson has the team perform a drill I haven't seen before called 3-line shooting where Thompson has players lined up along the sidelines. The players without the ball run across the court to the other side where they receive a pass from a player and either do a lay-up or a jump shot. After this drill, Thompson has her team broken into groups of three to do free throws and you must make all three or you have to run sprints. Somewhat predictably, sprints are in the offing then for those who didn't get the requisite three charity stripe shots. Next, Thompson has the team into two groups where each group does 5-0 "shell"-type work to give the players more exposure to how Thompson's offensive philosophy works. For the returning veterans who know and understand how all of this works this may seem rather mundane but for the five new freshmen on the squad who are just in the early stages of grasping the fundamentals of it all this type of work is invaluable. A bit later, Thompson brings the team together for some 5-on-5 halfcourt work to see if all of this makes any sense. Not happy with the boxing out and defense, Thompson has the team work specifically on the boxing-out part. The team gets back to the 5-on-5 mode but now Peterson and Berge are putting up errant jump shots to see how the team plays defense and make sure they are boxing out. Next, Thompson has the team in two groups again. Thompson has the guards and wing players work on driving to the rim while Peterson and Mobley work with the post players and their defense. Thompson then has each group do some 2-on-2 work as well and then later changes things up to a 3-on-4 situation where the emphasis appears to be making sure the post player on defense closes off the baseline opportunity for the offense. Thompson then has the team do some more 5-on-5 halfcourt work as she wants the defense to be communicating and the guards on offense to be driving to the rim. Finally, it's then time for some full-court 5-on-5 work and, once into scrimmaging, Thompson stops the action from time to time to point out errors and other shortcomings on both sides of the ball. At the same time, you can see the hustle and desire from the players on the floor as they definitely like to get at it. To wrap things up, Thompson has more free throws (and sprints) for the team to do before they call it an evening. Outtakes: Thompson indicated to me that the freshmen on the squad are slowly coming along; learning all the intricate details of how things are done and meshing with the returning veterans. While Thompson insists that no one spot in the staring five is etched in stone at the moment, I would have to think that senior post player Veronika Jakubovie will almost certainly get the nod down low. That all-important point guard spot held by Kyanna Jones over the last few seasons is vacant but the guess here is that sophomore Erin Murray out of Sparta, Wisconsin likely has the inside track. Just judging from this practice, the floor leader would appear to be senior Emma Leyden out of Berkeley, California and I think she's someone you would want as a captain and leader. This squad may not be loaded with a ton of speed and athleticism but this squad is incredibly well-coached and the last thing you want to do is take a Macalester team coached by Ellen Thompson lightly as a lot of MIAC opponents have had to find out the hard way that that is not a smart thing to do.