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.
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