St. Kate's Practice 10-17-16

My first stop to start out the 2016-17 season was over on the St. Paul side of town at St. Kate's and, as always, was treated to a warm and hospitable greeting by Head Coach Sean Pinkerton and his assistants Tim Kjar and Tim Peper.  I was particularly anxious to watch some of the new players on the team and how they would mesh with the returning veterans.

After visiting with Pinkerton in his office, we headed upstairs to the arena where the players were doing various stretching and running exercises to ready themselves for the evening's practice session. After gathering the squad together to go over the evenings objectives and goals, the first drill of the evening was "Iowa State Layups" and, being an Iowa grad and a die-hard UCLA fan, I couldn't help but jest with Pinkerton beforehand if he had any drills up his sleeve that might incorporate a Bruin or a Hawkeye flavor.  In any event, this drill has one player who throws a baseball pass to a mid-court player who then feeds a third palyer running in transition to complete the lay-up.  The goal here is to make 24 lay-ups in a two minute time period.

The next drill Pinkerton has his team in is called "Star Passing" and this drill has two ball in play with players in five lines in a star-like formation.  The whole drill itself is very fast-paced and you have to be precise and crisp with your passes to your teammates to keep the drill fluid and fast-paced.

Two more lay-up drills are performed upon Pinkerton's instructions.  One drill; termed "Canton Layups", has three lines of players at mid-court to work on a three-person transition opportunity and thirteen lay-ups need to be made on each side.  The other drill is called two-line lay-ups whereby one player makes a short shot off the glass then bounces the ball high off the glass for the player on the other side of the basket to finish with a short shot off the glass and the process is repeated.  This drill is not as easy as it looks and, the amount of easy shots missed during this drill does not please Pinkerton and a set of sprints were in the offing for the squad after this drill.

Next is the "Princeton Drill".  This begins as a 2-on-1 drill but on the defensive rebound it turns into a 3-on-2 drill and on the defensive rebound at the other basket it then morphs into a 4-on-3 drill; all representing transition opportunities for a team that prides itself on being up-tempo.

Next is 3-line rebounding where groups of players are located at the top of the key and at the corners of the baseline.  It's really a drill where the player with the ball has to battle two defenders down low.

Next is a point guard transition drill that gives the designated point guard a chance to survey the floor coming down in transition and junior twin sisters Audra and Meg Clark excel in this setting.

The next drill Pinkerton has his squad do is called the "Villanova Drill" and, for an Iowa grad like myself who remembers all too well what the eventual national champ Wildcats did to the Hawkeyes in the NCAA Tournament this last March, I'm intrigued at what this drill is like.  While Ryan Arcidiacono did not make a guest appearance for this drill, the Wildcat players were able to run it just fine.  Here, you have two offensive players out on the perimeter and one defender coming off the baseline along with one other defender out on the perimeter.  The real emphasis of the drill is for one of the offensive players to set a screen and force the defensive players to switch.

Pinkerton then switches the theme to defense and does some 3-on-3 drill to work on defensive switching.  The team also does some 4-on-4 "helper" drills to emphasize defensive help.

One of the most basic elements of basketball - shooting the ball - is the next point of emphasis.  One odd-looking drill; a one-and-run before you shoot" drill is performed.  The idea here is to be accurate with your shots after you run.  This drill is done with free throws first and then jump shots are incorporated and, trust me, it's not as easy as it looks.

After the team is split into two groups to work on bounce passes for lay-ups, a 3-on-0 drill is done where the emphasis is moving with the ball and getting open for a good jump shot.

Assistant Coach Tim Peper then has the squad do two different drills.  One drill is a half-court 5-on-5 drill and to close out the evening, Peper has the team do a drill called "Diamond Up And Down"; a 5-on-0 drill that he has the team run through to get an idea of positioning and movement.  As Peper explained to me afterward, it's a drill he was able to pick up this last summer while watching a practice and it's a tough one to do in a game situation with the shot clock.  Pinkerton has the team gather up for one last quick meeting before calling it a night.

Outtakes:  Although some of the newbies on the team are a little rough around the edges so to speak, there's a ton of potential that the new players bring and they'll be battling to get minutes coming off the bench.  The squad will be anchored by seniors Mari Lee and Kennedy Jennings along with Clark sister backcourt duo and senior Alexis Garcia will undoubtedly play a big role as well both on the court and with leadership.  Pinkerton was quick to admit, however, that the loss of Shauna Horsch to graduation will leave a huge hole to fill.  The early schedule for the team is challenging to say the least; starting off at UW-Eau Claire on 11-15 before heading off to the Big Apple for the NYU Tip-Off Tournament where they'll face both UMass-Boston and Baruch.  They come back to the friendly confines of Butler Center where they'll face a very good UW-Stout team on 11-27 before delving into MIAC play against CSB on 11-30.  The big challenge for the Wildcats, as I see it, will be staying healthy and avoiding that annual January swoon that, so far anyway, has kept them on the outside looking in come playoff time.  Assuming they can overcome these two obstacles, there's certainly reason to think that they can be solidly in contention for that sixth playoff spot if not better.