CSB Practice 10-21-26

CSB team getting at it in practice this week!  

 Made a good trip up US Highway 10 and the BNSF Staples Sub mainline to the St. Cloud area and over to nearby St. Joe on this beautiful Indian Summer afternoon to take in an early season practice at CSB.  I arrived early enough to catch up with Head Coach Mike Durbin and his staff as the squad started doing various light running and stretching exercises on the Recreation basketball floor while the volleyball team was finishing up its practice on the main floor in Claire Lynch Hall.

Once the team was able to get onto the main floor, Durbin first has the team split into six small groups.  The smaller groups of two people had one shooter practicing jump shots from the free throw line area with one rebounder while the groups with four players had two shooters - one who would take jumpers from the free throw line area and another shooter practicing shots from different wing positions with a rebounder for each.  After five minutes, the roles would be reversed so all players would get a chance to get some mid-range jumpers in.  

For the next drill, Durbin has the team in 5 lines in different spots on the floor at one basket - one line at the top, a line at each wing spot and a line at both corners.  The emphasis on this drill is to have crisp, sharp passing between the different spots in a half-court offensive set and its little wonder why Durbin's CSB teams over the years are some of the best passing teams that you'll see.  

For the next drill, Durbin has the squad in two lines at the top.  Each player at the top of the line has a ball and the two players drive into the lane, crossing each other in the process and complete a lay-up.  After a bit, this drill is modified where the two lines are split wider to the wing positions and then modified once more as the groups have to start out from the corner spots and have to drive along the baseline.  It's not as easy at it initially appears.  

Next, Durbin has the team split into four groups where two players initially work on a variety of jump shots with two rebounders to keep things moving and players rotate roles every five minutes.  This drill then gets modified where a ball handler has a defender on her along with two offensive players near each elbow area who act strictly as passers or catchers for the ball handler which makes for a difficult assignment for the lone defender in each situation.

Next, Durbin has the team split into two different groups.  One group at one basket works on one-on-one situations while the other group at the other basket works on three-point shots and shots in the lane.  After some time, these groups switch.

After a well-deserved water break, Durbin again has the team split into two different groups at each basket but this time around, the drill is set up where you have two groups of one defender up against two offensive player and the defender in each case has to come up against the offensive player to contest the pass.  After a bit, Durbin modifies things to two defenders taking on three offensive players where the two defenders have to contest the passes and also defend against the score in the paint.  After some time, this drill is modified once more by Durbin where it becomes four defenders going up against five offensive players in a half-court situation.

After another well-deserved water break, Assistant Coach Rick Canton conducts a 5-on-0 "shell" drill to have players working on cutting and setting proper screens.  After a bit, this gets changed up to a 5-on-5 half-court situation to put some of these concepts learned into practice against defenders in a pressure situation.  This gets modified a bit more as you have three groups of five players with one group on the opposite end of the floor.  If a shot is missed by the offensive team on the other end and the defensive team rebounds, that defensive team then has to take the ball the other way and get ready to go up against the five players on the other end.  

After another well-deserved water break and a chance for the team to work on free throw shooting for a bit, Durbin conducts a very interesting drill that starts out as five offensive players initially going up against three defenders in a full court situation.  But after the ball is inbounded and the five offensive players have made their way up the court, two more defenders from the baseline come in and have to rush up the court to join the three other defenders in a half-court situation.  Regardless of what happens on this end, they return the other way going 5-on-5.  

The next drill which is conducted by Assistant Coach Steve Howe-Veenstra is essentially a 5-on-5 full-court situation but with a twist - the five defenders have to start going in a small circle that allows the five offensive players to get up court in an up-tempo situation before the defenders can release and race down the floor to match up.  It's very interesting to watch.  

Lastly on this night, Durbin has the team do some 5-on-5 half-court work with different groups to work on some different plays and some different situations.  To close out the evening practice, Durbin has the team in a circle for a departing pep talk before the team calls it a night.

Outtakes.......Unlike many of the other teams Durbin has had during his long tenure at CSB that seemed to have an abundance of players with length, this particular team definitely appears to be much more guard-oriented.  Not to say that he doesn't have length - he does - but this team is much more guard-oriented than in years past.  Towards that end, Durbin mentioned after the practice session was over that he's in the process of changing his offense and his offensive mindset to fit this team and, from what I could tell, it seems to be working even if it's only mid/late-October.  The other thing that stands out when you look at the roster is how young this team is as the squad is dominated by freshmen and sophomores.  And there are most definitely some exciting new faces on this Bennie team that hold a lot of promise but the one that stood out to me the most was freshman Liz Vitt out of Edina.  While she may arguably have room to grow on the defensive side of the ball, don't be surprised if she indeed works her way into the starting rotation and with some experience and time in the weight room, she'll pose some real matchup problems for MIAC opponents.  The core of this group that will make up the remaining portion of the starting rotation looks to be junior point guard Lauren Arnold, fellow junior wing guard Alyssa Sadlovsky, fellow junior wing Drew Buslee and lanky sophomore post Emma Theisen and that's a pretty solid starting five, IMHO.  If one takes a look at MIAC stats for 2025-26, you'll see that the Bennies were in the top four in team offense and they were tops in the conference in team free throw percentage which is absolutely where you want to be.  Beyond that, it isn't so rosy as CSB was tenth in the conference in combined team rebounds and in next to last place in defensive rebounds.  And while we know the Bennies can score, they were ninth in the conference in team FG percentage and tenth in opponents FG percentage.  Team three-point shooting percentage was also a concern last season where CSB finished in ninth place in that category and the Bennies were in the middle of the pack when it came to assist/turnover ratio.  So obviously there's some things that will have to be cleaned up and worked on - especially on the defensive end - if CSB hopes to be a primary factor in the MIAC Playoff race this time around.  Given the youth trend on this team, Durbin told me that "We'll be tested early on" and a look at the early part of the schedule explains a good amount of that concern as the Bennies will start things off with their own Tip-Off Tournament Classic going up against UM-Morris out of the UMAC on Friday 11-6 and then Loras out of the ARC the next day on Saturday 11-7.  The following weekend brings another exciting outing in Claire Lynch Hall with the Iowa vs Minnesota Clash where CSB will take on two teams out of the ARC - Central on Friday 11-13 and then Simpson on Saturday 11-14 which should be fun.  On Thanksgiving weekend, CSB takes a trip to Mankato to face one of the favorites in the UMAC in Bethany Lutheran on Saturday 11-28 and then getting three conference games after that:  At Hamline on Wednesday 12-2, at home vs St. Olaf on Saturday 12-5 and at home vs Augsburg on Wednesday 12-9.  Just before the holidays, the Bennies will pack their sunglasses and sunblock lotion and head to Naples, FL where they'll face Wooster out of the NCAC on Saturday 12-19 and then Penn College out of the UEC on Sunday 12-20 before getting back into conference play for good right after the first of the year.