Made the trip over to the St Paul side of town on this dreary, rainy Thursday evening to Butler Center on the campus of St. Kate's to take in the practice that Head Coach Don Mulhern and his team would be holding on this night. I made sure that I arrived early and was soon greeted by Assistant Coach Travis Dedina and it wasn't long before Mulhern strode into Butler Center. We were able to quickly get caught up on things and before long I headed upstairs to the arena as players were already getting warmed up for the night ahead.
Mulhern had me come up and join the team at midcourt to get me introduced to everybody and welcomed which was incredibly nice. The team would soon begin various shooting drills; first working on short range jumpers from the elbow areas and then the drill would expand to include three-point shooting.
Next, Mulhern has the team do a full-court drill with a "rover" player getting ahead in a simulated transition opportunity. "Passing ahead" as Mulhern says; stressing the importance of finding the open player down the court. Soon after, Mulhern conducts a similar drill - this time without the rover, however, to work on some finer points of transition opportunities.
Next is a 3-on-3 half-court drill that emphasizes ball movement on the perimeter as well as setting correct picks. On the defensive side, it also helps players understand when and how to switch and when to double-team an offensive player.
After Mulhern has the team briefly split up into five different groups to work on some individual shooting, he then has the team in three lines to work on dribbling and then pivoting correctly; a finer skill that is often overlooked. Then another half-court drill is on tap: This one being a 5-on-4 drill to emphasize ball movement and how to stretch out a zone defense.
Mulhern then modifies this last drill to make it a 5-on-5 situation that includes a post player with Dedina doing the post duties. Dedina definitely has his hands full when he gets the ball passed into him on several occasions with the defense players collapsing around him.
After Mulhern has the squad break into groups of three to do some work on passing to the wing player and post, he then conducts a 5-on-0 "shell" drill to work on ball movement and spacing. This later gets upgraded to 5-on-5 to put things together.
Next, Mulhern has the team work on some items he feels that need to be worked on from their scrimmage on Wednesday night down at Wartburg in Waverly, IA. He has his team work especially hard on trapping situations. Then it's time for some more 5-on-5 half-court work to iron out some kinks from the night before as well.
To wrap things up on this night, Mulhern has the team at one basket to finish up with free throws and your's truly was able to get involved into this as well. :p Given that I hadn't shot any free throws in nearly five years or more, my first two attempts were a little off but the third and final attempt (thankfully) found its mark so it just took a few attempts to find my touch again. 😉 The team has its final huddle of the night but many members of the squad hang around to work on some individual shooting which is a sign of how dedicated this team really is.
Outtakes: Mulhern told me that having the trio of seniors Brooke Torvik (grad student), Katie Benjamin and Sam Orth healthy and presumably ready to go is just a blessing considering the injuries all three players have endured over the last few seasons. Although he didn't say who is starting five would be, one would have to presume that it would include the three aforementioned players along with fellow senior Mackenzie Kurczek and junior Bree Glynn which, IMHO, is a pretty solid starting lineup. Again, the two things that will make or break the 'Cats this season will be (1) avoiding the injury bugaboo and (2) developing some of their younger players so they can provide quality minutes off the bench. Mulhern does, in fact, have some young backcourt players on the team this season and sophomore Karis Zezza out of STMA could be a big contributor off the bench. Junior forward Sarah Lavell of Centennial will presumably play a big role coming off the bench in relief as well. If the stars align just right and the Wildcats get some breaks, there's certainly no reason why they can't be one of the top four teams in the conference; certainly a playoff contender anyway. But their margin for error is not large either.
