St. Kate's Practice 10-16-18

Made my way over to the St. Paul side of town after work on late Tuesday afternoon to take in the Tuesday evening practice for St. Kate's.  I got into Butler Center in plenty of time despite fighting some heavy traffic on the way over and was soon greeted by Assistant Coach Tim Kjar and we were able to catch up on things as we headed up to the gym where the team was already getting loosened up with some free shooting work beforehand.  I finally met up with Head Coach Don Mulhern who was congenial as always and he gave me a practice itinerary to review and follow along with.  Not all team members were present on this night as three players are currently involved in fall sports and junior Jackie Radford had a class to attend to on this night.

One of the first things the squad does on this night is split up into two different groups.  Kjar works primarily with the guards and wing players while Mulhern works with primarily the forwards and post players.  One of the drills that Kjar has his guard and wing players do is dribble with two balls and pass one of them to Kjar.  The player takes one shot from the free throw line and receives a pass from Kjar and takes a second shot near the elbow area.  Additionally, Kjar has the guard and wing players work on their passing as well.  Meanwhile, Mulhern has his forwards and post players do some rebounding work and then runs a drill he calls the "Kevin Love" drill where two players run down to a basket guarded by one defender with a blocking pad.   

Next is a drill Mulhern terms "Victory Shooting".  It's a bit of a complicated drill which took even this basketball junkie a while to figure out but essentially it's where you have players on each sideline and two under each basket.  One of the players under the basket along with one of the players on the sideline come down and one has to make a lay-up and the other shoots a jump shot.  The first run of this nets a total of 125 points which isn't too shabby.

After a quick round of sprints followed by a well-deserved water break, the team then works on a 3-on-2 half-court drill.  Here, Mulhern wants to go through how the point guard needs to jump stop, make the pass and spot up at ball-side elbow.

Next is a full-court 3-on-2 drill with many of the same pointers emphasized from above.  After another well-deserved water break, next up is a drill that Mulhern terms "Kentucky Shooting".  I can't resist jesting with Mulhern a bit when he saunters over to where I'm sitting and I ask him how this shooting drill got its name.  "I'd like to call it 'Mulhern Shooting' " he replies "but I don't have a big enough ego."  Here, the team is split into two groups on each side of the floor and it emphasizes the pivot.  You have to make two lay-ups, then 50 short jumpers and then 25 "3's".  Mulhern adds to this with another drill he calls "Yellowjacket Shooting"; obviously something he takes from his days at UW-Superior.

After another quick round of sprints, next is a 5-on-5 half-court drill where there four minutes on the clock.  There are four players on the perimeter and one on the post.  The offense shoots the ball and then it is live.  The losing team winds up running sprints and then the players get another well-deserved water break to quench their thirst.

Next up is a 3-on-0 fast break drill so the team can get their fast-break skills polished followed by a full-court 5-on-0 "shell" drill to work on spacing and ball movement.

The next big drills include some 1-on-1 work with players at all baskets followed by a complimentary screen drill.  Then the team is split into two groups at each basket to do another 5-on-0 "shell" drill to work on movement and spacing.

Mulhern knows a thing or two about defense and one drill is a 4-on-4 half-court drill to emphasize defense and perhaps, just as important, how to talk on defense.  A bit later, the team splits into two groups at each basket to work on more defensive aspects.

Next is what Mulhern terms a "Fencer Drill" where there is a point guard, a wing and defense on the wing.  The whole point of the drill is to get the defense moving correctly from side to side; like a fence.

The next drill that Mulhern had the team perform was my absolute favorite of the night; his "Iowa Bounce Pass" drill and right away I had flashbacks to the great Iowa mens teams of the late 1980's and early 90's during my days as a student at Iowa coached by none other than Dr. Tom Davis with players like B. J. Armstrong, the late Roy Marble, Kevin Gamble, Gerry Wright, Eddie Horton and so many others.  Basically, Mulhern wants his players to do a wrap-around bounce pass to feed the post and Mulhern knew right away with a smile when I said "Dr. Tom Davis!"

Next is the "Eric Transition" drill where the team gets to work again on transition and fast-break opportunities to allow them to get quick points.  Mulhern has to stop the drill on a couple of occasions to explain the finer points of the drill to the team.

Finally, it's time for some spirited 5-on-5 action as all players have been looking forward to this all evening with a chance to show off their skills.  The action ends perfectly with a three-point bomb at the buzzer.


Outtakes:  Two things that I took from this early season practice at Butler Center:  (1) Mulhern finally has a St. Kate's team with some true post presence down low; something that the Wildcats have been lacking for years.  Granted, post players at the DIII level don't grow on trees; it's not like you can go down to the local Walmart and get your pick off the shelf.  This time around though, Mulhern has some nice young size to work with and develop and it'll be fun to watch them progress.  (2) I LOVED the energy the players showed at practice on this night.  It was genuine and I couldn't help but remark to Mulhern midway through the practice that I loved the energy the team was showing.  Case in point:  When I said that, he brought the players over to where I was sitting and wanted me to say that to them which was pretty cool.  Then, one of the freshmen who's currently on the St. Kate's soccer team and will play basketball as well when the soccer season was over - Taylor Johnson - told the squad about how the soccer team beat Viterbo earlier in the afternoon.  A big whoop went up from the team and you can just tell that everybody is all-in and it's great to see.  As Mulhern would say, "Celebrate moments in your life!".......When I talked to Mulhern after practice was over, he felt that the team could finish as high as fourth in the MIAC or as low as tenth.  "Our 6-10 players will make us or break us" he said.  And I think there's a lot of truth to that.  It'll be critical to St. Kate's hopes for them to develop some depth as the season progresses.......Right now, you can pretty much bet that senior Audra Clark will be the leader of this team with juniors Danica Cambrice and Jackie Radford providing a lot of scoring punch........If they can start jelling by mid-January when a lot of teams can be tired or beat up, that could be something that works to their advantage.  Plus you look at what Mulhern did in his first year this last season by getting the Wildcats to that coveted sixth spot in the MIAC playoffs.  Knowing Mulhern reasonably well, I look at what he did during his time at UW-Superior and how he took an also-ran program from the depths of despair to WIAC contenders.  There's something special brewing over at St. Kate's and it's going to be a lot of fun watching it all unfold.   
 

 

Another Season Has Begun!

Today's another October 15th and that means teams are officially kicking off the brand-new 2018-19 season with opening practices.  It's always an exciting time of year to see new, fresh faces as well as those of returning veterans.

While my time is kind of tight now that I'm back working at Canadian Pacific Railway again (plus the fact that my LA Rams are 6-0 right now :)   ) I won't get to visit every practice I'd like to but I am hopeful to get around here over the next few weeks and take in some of the practices around town and offer up thoughts on the upcoming season.  Should be fun and I'm looking forward to it!