Made the trip up to Coon Rapids on this gloomy, overcast November today to take in a practice of the Anoka-Ramsey Golden Rams. I arrived early enough to meet up with Head Coach Samantha Doucette and get caught up with her and how the team and the season so far has been progressing. After the men's team concludes its practice, we filed into the gym as the team prepared for a very important practice session on this day with a big Friday night game with Northland Community & Technical College looming.
First, Doucette has the team go through various warm-up dynamics to get ready for this day. Then, the first drill item on this day has the team getting a variety of shots up. Lay-ups are worked on first followed by shot fakes and mid-range jumpers. After a requisite number of both are met, then it's time for the team to work on its three-point shooting. Then it goes back to mid-range jumpers from the free throw line and elbow areas. After this, Doucette has the team run lines.
The next area of emphasis that Doucette has her team work on is post/guard separation. The way this initially starts off is that a player near the top dribbles into the lane and then kicks the ball out to a shooter in the corner. Doucette modifies this drill as the designated post player dribbling to the low post area kicks the ball out to the guard in the corner. Then the post player down low moves back to the high post and the guard from the corner drives in and passes the ball back out to the high post player for the mid-range jumper. After the required number of reps on this, Doucette then has the team work on free throw shooting for a few minutes where players have to make ten free throws.
The next area of emphasis in this day's practice is guard/post combinations. The way this works is that you have a guard at the top with the ball and another guard on the opposite wing along with a post player down low. The guard with the ball at the top gets the ball to the post player and the other guard on the opposite wing gets into position for either a jumper or a lay-up and the post player kicks the ball back out to this guard while Doucette and Assistant Coach Sharon Miller act as would-be defenders down low. Doucette does different variations of this involving more passing between the post player and the guards to point out specific situations. Afterward, Doucette has the team shoot more free throws and then the players get a well-deserved water break.
Then Doucette and the team delve into the meat of today's practice - preparing for the huge game with Northland Community & Technical College on Friday night. Here, Doucette and Miller have the team work on a number of concepts for the Friday night tilt:
A. Offensive Matchups - Here, Doucette has the team do a 5-on-0 "shell" drill to first walk through and then run a variety of plays that they hope to use Friday evening.
B. Defensive Plan - Doucette and Miller review some of the defensive strategies that they hope to employ against Northland.
C. Doucette also has the team go over some concepts should Northland employ full- or half-court pressure defense.
Finally, Doucette has the team put up some more shots and then she and Miller have the team gather at center court for one final pep talk before calling it a day.
Outtakes: One of the first things you'll probably notice when you take a look at the Anoka-Ramsey roster is that they have only nine players on the team. I asked Doucette if that was an issue or not but she pointed out that typically, many teams at the JUCO level have nine to ten players. Obviously the key is going to be keeping all these pieces healthy over the course of a long season........Thus far, the Golden Rams have compiled a 4-1 record with the only blemish coming earlier this month down at Boone, IA to DMACC. Last weekend, the Golden Rams had dominant wins over both Vermilion and Rainy River but the game Friday night (11-21) with Northland Community & Technical College will be a challenging one for the Golden Rams in their home opener........The players on this Anoka-Ramsey team that stood out to me include sophomore post Mariam Alowonle (Park Center), sophomore guard Jada Lussier (Hastings) and sophomore combo guard/forward Tereya McDaniel-Vaughn........This is also a very athletic team that knows how to get up and down the floor very well and they can play an up-tempo game with ease. The biggest challenge, as Doucette pointed out to me, is finding a level of consistent play on both ends of the floor; an area that's still something of a work in progress. However, I would expect that this team will get better and better as the season progresses and should find themselves in the thick of things for MCAC title hopes.
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