St. Kate's Practice 10-18-19

Ran over to the St Paul side of town on this Thursday afternoon to catch one of the early practices of Head Coach Don Mulhern's St. Kate's team.  I arrived shortly after 4:00 P.M. on this sunny, pleasant day; early enough to spend some time with both Mulhern and Assistant Coach Tim Kjar as well as fellow Assistant Coach Trent Davis as well.  The team was already warming up with shots when Mulhern got this practice going at 4:30 P.M.

Mulhern starts this practice by having the team do a variety of stretching and movement exercises to prepare for the tasks ahead on this late afternoon.  After a short team talk, Mulhern has the team work on a variety of passes; including bounce passes that would make former Iowa Head Coach Tom Davis proud.

After another short team talk, Mulhern has the team split into groups of three players at each basket where they do a 2-on-1 drill to incorporate some of these passing skills they worked on previously.

Next, Mulhern has the squad do what is essentially a full-court drill where you have two players on each baseline feed players coming off the sideline.  One player completes a lay-up, another player does a short- or mid-range jumper and the third player shoots a "3".  Mulhern also has the team do a round of full-court sprints afterward as well.

Next, Mulhern has the team do a 3-on-2 full-court drill but with different defenders on each end.  After that, Mulhern has the team an interesting full-court drill.  On the initial trip down, it's essentially a 5-on-0 "shell" drill with Assistant Coach Davis as a lone "defender" with a pad on the post player.  But on the return trip back, the five offensive players are met by five defenders where they play it out.

Next, Mulhern has the team do a 5-on-0 "shell" drill with the squad split into three different groups to work on spacing and movement in addition to setting proper screens.  A bit later, Davis has the team split into six different groups of 3/4 players where they work on jump shots with a defender on them.

Next, Mulhern has his team do a 5-on-5 half-court drill where the emphasis now shifts to defense and how to react to ball movement and switching properly after screens.

The next drill has Mulhern setting out four cones on the three-point arc with players in line near each cone and the player has to move over to the next cone where they get a ball fed to them for a jump shot.  One line at the baseline has a player come out and they get fed a ball near the free throw line for a jumper.  It's a bit of a complicated drill but fun to watch.

Next, Mulhern has the team do a 5-on-0 half-court drill and the team is split into three groups for this.  Again, Mulhern is trying to emphasize proper movement and spacing.  A bit later, Mulhern has the team together and does a 5-on-5 half-court drill that emphasizes zone defense and how to properly move with the ball.

Then Mulhern has to team conduct a 1-on-1 full-court drill to emphasize toughness and allowing the team to push each other which is important in the early part of the season.  A bit later, Mulhern modifies this drill to make it a 2-on-2 situation.

Lastly, Mulhern has the team do some 5-on-5 full-court work to try and put some of the earlier work together to see how it all works.  Needless to say, nothing is perfect in October and there'll be plenty to work on in the coming weeks but it's easy to see there's a lot of potential.  At the end, Mulhern has the team at center court for a final talk and invites your's truly to come up and join which is incredibly cool to do.


Outtakes:  The first thing that struck me when I took a long look at this team is that Mulhern finally now has some size on the Wildcat frontline; something they've desperately needed for a long time to compliment their solid backcourt.  The other encouraging sign is that junior guard Brooke Torvik is now back and healthy after the ACL injury she suffered last year and she looks very solid right now......The energy at the practice was through the roof and you can just tell that this group is hungry and wants very much to take the next step.  The early part of the schedule for the Wildcats is something of a mixed bag.  They start off with an exhibition game across town at Concordia St Paul on 11-4 and then head out to Redlands, CA to take on two SCIAC teams the first weekend in November - Chapman on Friday 11-8 and then host Redlands the next day on Saturday 11-9.  The following weekend, the Wildcats have a date with UMAC opponent Northwestern at Butler Center.  Where it gets dicey for the 'Cats is that their first three MIAC opponents are all playoff teams from last season - hosting UST on Saturday 11-23 as well as Augsburg three days later on Tuesday 11-26 and then a week later it's a trip down the mighty Mississippi and the Canadian Pacific River Sub mainline to Winona to take on a very good SMU team.  The Wildcats then make a trip down to Northfield to take on a tricky St. Olaf team on Monday 12-9 and then two days later host yet another MIAC title contender - Bethel - on Wednesday 12-11.  Additionally, the Wildcats will host a non-conference game against WIAC opponent UW-Eau Claire on Saturday 12-14 before laying off for the holiday break.