CSB Practice 10-17-24

 Made my way up US Highway 10 and the BNSF Staples Sub mainline on this sunny but windy and dusty day to St. Cloud and over to nearby St. Joseph to the campus of CSB to take in this early season practice by the Bennies.  I got there in plenty of time into the parking lot on the east side of Claire Lynch Hall and started walking toward the building when, lo and behold, I happened to catch up with one of the CSB players; senior Morgan Chmielewski who was wearing a black cast on her left leg and when I asked what happened, she didn't hesitate to give me the bad news - ACL - that she suffered on the first open gym earlier this semester and had the surgery a mere four weeks ago.  There's nothing worse than seeing an athlete have to suffer an injury and especially one like this as the road to recovery is frustrating and long.  Nonetheless, I had a very nice conversation with her as we walked into Claire Lynch and made our way downstairs where we eventually caught up with CSB Head Coach Mike Durbin who half-jokingly asked me if I had any miracle cures for Ms. Chmielewski's unfortunate ACL injury setback.  I had to reply in the negative but sure wish that I did.  

The first order of the day was a team meeting in the team room downstairs that Durbin and his staff graciously invited me to sit in.  After Durbin went over a few details for the team with regards to faculty letters and other details, Assistant Coach Rick Canton then made a presentation on the difference between working hard and competing and it was really interesting to watch and listen to.  As someone who played tennis competitively for a long time (my body can vouch for that, thank you), I had to learn the difference and I had to learn mental toughness as well and it was something that took me a while to really learn and understand because when I was in high school and playing a lot of tournaments, I really had issues with mental toughness and I really had to work on it and it wasn't until I was an adult that I finally started making strides with that but it was still something that I had to work on constantly.  It's the same deal for basketball players in college too because when you walk into a hostile environment, you've got to learn how to handle pressure situations against a tough opponent and inevitably, you're going to run into those situations.  And it's something that you're going to have to work on constantly.  Props to Coach Canton on that solid presentation.  

Once the team hits the floor, Durbin and the coaching staff has the team go through various warm-up and stretching drill to get ready for this evening's practice.  Former CSB standout and now Assistant Coach Alison Kendall leads the squad through their first important drill of the day as each player has two basketballs.  The first objective is to bounce both balls low but hard as you work across the floor.  It then gets modified to bouncing the ball higher as you work across the floor.  But Kendall is far from finished from challenging the squad as the next part of the drill has each player working across the court while bouncing each ball alternately.  Then, to complicate things further, Kendall has each player keep the alternate bounce and then switch each ball to the other hand.  Then, Kendall has each player bounce the ball alternately working across the floor and then bounce one of the balls behind their back.  Trust me when I tell you, it's not as easy as one might think.  

Next, Durbin has the team split into two groups on each side of the court where he has both groups work on a 5-on-0 "shell" drill to simulate proper offensive movement in the half court and setting proper screens.

The next drill is entitled "Mid-range Off D-Man (tempo)".  Here, Durbin has two dummy-like plastic poles (can't remember the exact name of them) with outstretch hands on them on each end of the floor.  You then have players coming off the side of the arc and they get fed a ball and they have to make a move around these dummy defensive poles and make a requisite number of lay-ups, mid-range jumpbers and then three-point shots.

Next is "Warrior 33-Corner 3".  Here, you have players coming off the side of the arc and they get fed a ball and then players have to make a requisite number of lay-ups, jumpers from the elbow/free throw line area and then three-point shots.

Next is an odd kind of drill called "3 vs 3 Pass To Corner/Close/Slot Drive".  It's odd because it initially looks like a 3-on-0 "shell" drill from the center court line but once the top player passes the ball to a teammate, she then has to immediately go over and defend her and it becomes a 2-on-1 drill.  Durbin has the team split into two groups for this.  

Next, Coach Canton brings the defensive aspect to center stage.  As the team is once again split into two groups, you have two players on each side of the basket and a defender comes off the baseline to defend.  Canton modifies this drill where players have to dribble the entire length of the floor with a defender on them.  With the team still in two groups, Canton also has each group do a 3-on-3 drill to work on defense around the perimeter area and proper switching.  A bit later, Canton switches this up to make it a 4-on-4 drill that makes things a bit more complicated.

Assistant Coach Steve Howe-Veenstra talks to the team about the jump-stop aspect and the three options a player has on the jump-stop:  (1) shoot (2) pass and (3) fake.

Then Coach Canton has the team do a full-court 5-on-0 "shell" drill to work on proper movement and passing in transition opportunities.  A bit later, he makes it a full-court 5-on-5 situation to see if the team is practicing what he's preaching.  

A bit later, Durbin has the team do some 5-on-5 half-court work in hopes of find-tuning a few things such as screening.  Then Durbin returns to the full-court 5-on-5 to see what things look like after the fine-tuning.  

Finally, to wrap up this evening, Durbin has the team gather around cetner court for a talk before calling it a night but several players stick around afterward to do some free-throw shooting.  

Outtakes:  As one can tell by looking at the CSB roster, this is an incredibly young roster with only two seniors - Chmielewski and Sophie Jonas.  And with Chmielewski out for the season with the ACL injury, that's a huge loss.  And that's not even talking about trying to replace three great seniors from last year's team who have now graduated - Carla Meyer, Morgan Ebel and Lydia Hay.  Still, with Jonas, fellow senior Olivia Boily and junior Megan Morgan, the Bennies still have an array of weapons and I have to figure that they'll ultimately be one of the four teams circling around like a buzzard with their eye on the 3rd place slot behind the first two teams (and we know who they are).  The big question then obviously is how quickly Durbin and his staff can bring the young ones along.  And Durbin certainly has some good ones.  Talking to him and his staff after practice, he sang praises about freshman Alyssa Sadlovsky out of Pierz whom he think will do big things..........You look at the schedule and you see either opportunity or a lawn full of thistles.  They start things off at home with UM-Morris out of the UMAC on Saturday 11-9 and then face UW-River Falls out of the WIAC the next day on Sunday 11-10.  On Wednesday 11-20, the Bennies travel to UW-Eau Claire out of the WIAC and then on Thanksgiving weekend, CSB makes a trip down the CPKC River Sub mainline down to La Crosse, WI where they'll take on Simpson out of the ARC on Saturday 11-30 and then face off against host UW-La Crosse the next day on Sunday 12-1.  Then the Bennies delve into MIAC play; hosting St. Olaf on 12-4 and Carleton on 12-7 before a return trip down the River to Winona to take on SMU - all three games winnable on paper anyway.  In mid-December, CSB will pack their summer gear and sunshades and sunblock and head to Puerto Rico where they'll face Caltech out of the SCIAC on 12-16 and then John Carroll out of the OAC on 12-17 before getting into the meat of MIAC play after the first of the year.  So obviously it will be important for CSB to take care of business where they're supposed to to avoid getting behind the proverbial 8-ball come early January.  

St. Kate's Practice 10-16-24

 Made my way over to the St Paul side of town on this pleasant October afternoon to take in one of the opening practices of the St. Kate's team.  I arrived at Butler Center shortly after 3:00 PM which gave me some time to catch up with Head Coach Don Mulhern who was in his office along with sophomore sensation Hattie Fox who played a huge role as a freshman last season in helping the Wildcats to there best record so far in program history at 19-8.  After some good conversation, I then headed upstairs to the Butler Center Gymnasium where players were already getting a good shoot-around in preparation for today's practice.  I also was able to catch up with Assistant Coach Geno Bullard who was upstairs as well.

After Bullard leads the team through various stretching and warm-up exercises to prepare for this practice, Mulhern has the team split into groups of three where each group does a 5-on-0 "shell" drill to simulate correct movement on offense and to set screens properly.

The next drill Mulhern has his team do is an interesting one entitled "1 2 Mabel Boston" (don't ask this former competitive tennis player what that means because I have NO clue).  Here, you have two offensive players at each elbow area and two more at the low ends.  Then you have a player inbounding the ball.  The idea here seems to be to have the two players down low come up and set screens for the two players on the elbow areas.  Mulhern again has his team split into three groups to do this and adds variations to the drill as necessary.  Things get somewhat more complicated when Mulhern adds five defenders to make this whole thing a bit more realistic.  

The next drill Mulhern has his team do is one that I've seen and heard of before - "Kentucky Shooting".  Best put, it's a pressure shooting drill and Mulhern has the team split into two groups.  Here, three players do a variety of lay-ups to start with and have to make a requisite number of them before they can move onto the next level which is short/medium-range jumpers from the elbow or free throw line areas.  Then, after a requisite number of shots are made from that area, then players graduate to three-point land where things obviously become a bit tougher.  

The next drill is called "Perimeter Post Breakdown" where the team is split into two groups and is a 4-on-4 half-court drill.  The idea here seems to be to force the ball out to the perimeter and deny the entry pass to the post player(s) down low.

Next, Mulhern again has the team split into two groups to do some 3-on-3 work with the emphasis appearing to be defensive pressure and correct switching.  A bit later with the team still in two groups, Coach Bullard has one group work on various dribbling drills and then they work on lay-ups as Bullard has one of those big pads to simulate contact by a defensive player down low.  Assistant Coach Paul Richie meanwhile has the other group work on post play and he, too, uses one of those big pads to simulate contact from a defensive player down low.

After Mulhern has the team do some 4-on-4 work with the emphasis being applying full- and half-court pressure, the next big drill is call the "Run & Jump Box & Diamond Drill".  This is a 5-on-5 situation with the defense near the center court area while the offensive players are closer to the basket.  In this drill, Mulhern throws the ball off the board for the (new) offensive team to rebound and head downcourt where they'll face the defensive players.  The goal here is to have the defensive team initiate half-court pressure and make things difficult for the offensive team to get set up in their half-court offense.  

Before this day is through, Mulhern has the team in a 5-on-5 half-court situation to work on some of the fine points they were working on earlier and put those into action.  At the end, Mulhern has the team at center court for one last talk before they call it a day.

Outtakes:  When I had some time to speak with Mulhern alone, I asked him how he felt about this upcoming season and he said, "We're fired up!"  And they should be considering the fact that the Wildcats are coming off their best season in program history with 19 wins and a third place finish in the MIAC regular season standings.  True, they lose last year's starting point guard and vocal lead Karis Zezza to graduation and I was surprised not to see Sydney Elliott on the team for her senior season.  However, the rest of the pieces from last year's team are back and healthy and seemingly ready-to-go.  The 'Cats will be led by lanky senior forward Greta Schimnowski who can unleash terror from behind the arc and also provide a lot of rebounding help.  Another player with a lot of length is junior Emme Golembiewski who really started coming into her own last season and is poised for a big year this season.  Senior Rachel Randleman is a very versatile player on both ends of the floor and arguably is the "glue" that holds this team together.  Junior Kaylee Miron looks to be the heir apparent at the coveted point guard position vacated by Zezza's graduation.  Don't let her 5'6" size fool you.  She's one of the toughest and grittiest players in the MIAC.  Then, of course, there's last year's freshman sensation - now sophomore - Fox who brings so much to the table and is so coachable per Mulhern.  And she's only going to be better this year.  Mulhern also seems pleased with his depth and that'll be important for the 'Cats this season if they hope to take that proverbial next step forward........The Wildcats schedule this season is an interesting one as they venture out west to the Motherland (aka California) to take on two SCIAC teams:  Redlands for the season opener on 11-8 and then Chapman the next day (11-9) in Orange County.  The next weekend, St. Kate's is back home in the comfy confines of Butler Center taking on UW-River Falls out of the WIAC on Saturday 11-16 and a few days later on 11-20, Martin Luther out of the UMAC will pay a visit.  Then on Saturday 11-23, the Wildcats will venture to the frigid shores of Gitche Gumee to take on Mulhern's old employer, UW-Superior.  Three MIAC games next (at Bethel, at SMU and hosting St. Olaf).  Right after the Christmas break, the 'Cats will pay a visit to Storm Lake, IA to take on Buena Vista out of the ARC and then hurry back home for a New Year's Eve afternoon tilt with UM-Morris out of the UMAC.  It'll be important for St. Kate's to come out of this early stretch with as few nicks as possible as their first two conference games after the first of the year are - gulp - GAC at home and then Concordia up in Moorhead.      

Anoka-Ramsey Practice 10-15-24

 Made my way up to Coon Rapids yesterday afternoon to a place I hadn't been to in a while - Anoka-Ramsey Community College - to cover the Anoka-Ramsey team's practice on this sunny but cool October afternoon.  I was able to catch up with Head Coach Samantha Doucette shortly upon my arrival and she's very excited and upbeat about the new season ahead.  The Golden Rams actually have some in-game experience already as they participated in the ICCAC JUCO Jam back in my home state of Iowa earlier this month where the team went 1-2.  Though far from being a barometer for how the team will perform this season, it gave Doucette a bit more vision as to where her squad is at and what they need to work on and improve.

After the team does various stretching and movement exercises to get themselves loosened up and ready to go on this Tuesday afternoon, Doucette has the team at the baseline for the first drill of the day where you have groups of three players come out and they have to make a requisite number of easy lay-ups in order to progress to the next level which is knocking down short/medium-range jumpers from near the elbow area.  After the requisite number is met there, the drill then transitions out behind the arc to knock down a requisite number of three-point shots which is obviously a bit more challenging.

Next, Doucette has the team split into groups of two players where one player works on a variety of jump shots while their partner rebounds for them and after a bit, the roles reverse.  Doucette goes by each basket; carefully watching her players' techniques with their shooting and offering encouragement and advice.  

On the next drill, Doucette has her squad near the center court line for a 2-on-2 drill where the emphasis is defensive pressure in full- and half-court pressure situations.  After a bit, Doucette changes up this drill whereby the players start at the baseline in a 1-on-1 situation to the half-court line to simulate pressure defense and some of the correct tactics to use.  

Then it's time for the team to work on their free throw shooting as Doucette has the team split up into groups of two again where each player has to make a requisite number of free throws.  

Next, Doucette has the squad to a 5-on-0 full-court "shell" drill where the emphasis is moving correctly in a transition situation.  After a bit, Doucette modifies things to make this more challenging by making it a real 5-on-5 situation to see if the offensive squad can execute what the were practicing a bit ago.  

Then, Doucette has the team doing a 5-on-5 half-court drill in hopes of doing some fine-tuning with both the offensive and defensive sides.  Doucette has to stop the drill on a number of occasions to point out flaws with the defense as she sees too much standing around.  In the first part of this drill, Doucette is experimenting with her 2-3 "match-up" zone defense to make sure her defensive players are moving correctly with the ball movement as they should be in any half-court situation.  Doucette also changes it up a bit by having her defense in man-to-man to oversee movement and switching.  Just judging how many times Doucette has to temporarily stop things during this whole drill seems to point out that there's a lot of work to be done here over the course of the next several weeks.  

Next, Doucette wants to try and put it all together in a full-court 5-on-5 situation and it becomes clear after a bit to this observer that the team still has a lot of work to do on both ends of the floor.  Specifically, the two things I saw - jacking up a few ill-advised three-pointers and a lack of defensive intensity - indicates that there's work to be done here.  But you also see flashes of potential when you see the athleticism and speed that this team has.  It's just a matter of harnessing it properly.  Shortly before 6:00 PM, Doucette and the team gather near the center court area for one last little pep talk before wrapping things up for the day.

Outtakes:  First, as I mentioned a bit ago, you definitely see the speed and athleticism that this team has and the potential that goes along with that.  Keep in mind, too, that Doucette still has a couple of players involved in fall sports (volleyball and soccer) that should be with the team in about 3 weeks or so that will provide depth and stability once the season gets fully underway.  A couple of items that Doucette and her new assistant are working on is (1) developing better team chemistry given some of the new players in the program this season and (2) working carefully but in a determined manner in getting her squad in top shape when they delve into the meat of this new season.  Doucette and I talked a bit about how difficult the transition can be for some players coming from high school basketball to college basketball as the game is simply faster and more physical at the next level and there's that inevitable adjustment period for the new players coming into a new situation that's never easy.  So that has to be factored in........Two players on this Anoka-Ramsey team definitely caught my attention during my visit:  Sophomore combo forward/post Jordan McMahon from St. Louis Park and sophomore guard Sydney Hazuga out of Eau Claire, WI.  Doucette will undoubtedly be counting on McMahon to patrol the area down low in the paint and one can definitely see her being a very versatile player at either the #4 or #5 spot and a rebounding machine as well.  Hazuga may very well turn out to be the three-point threat that Doucette needs in her offensive attack.  Her technique is very solid and you can tell she also has great touch in her short/medium-range jumpers as well.........You have to figure that Anoka-Ramsey will at least be one of the primary contenders for MCC honors this season in addition to RCTC (Rochester).  Again, for the Golden Rams, it's going to come down to how quickly they can put things together on both sides of the floor and develop that consistency that's needed to be a top team.  The tools are there for them to do that.   

Another Season Is Upon Us!

 Well, here we are as another October 15 is now here with a brand new 2024-25 season; always a great time.  And, with me being on vacation this week, I'm planning on visiting three practices and will provide a full report of each visit and am definitely looking forward to it.

Here we go!