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.