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Productive practice for Huskies
As Geno Auriemma walked through the doors and onto the Gampel Pavilion court yesterday around 3:30 p.m. I heard one of his assistants ask 'how long do you want to go today." The door shut before I heard his response but judging by the intensity and duration of the practice, I pretty much figured out the answer.
We were able to witness more than an hour of practice and it was time well spent. For all the attributes Auriemma receives praise for, I am not sure teaching the game is one of them. Anybody who was there Wednesday afternoon would have come away impressed with what they saw.
The first portion of the practice we were able to witness featured work on the half-court offense with the focus on ball movement. In some ways I think it was a good thing that Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis' quad contusion kept her out of these drills because there are times when they run an offensive set and one pass to Mosqueda-Lewis results in a 3-pointer. Without Mosqueda-Lewis out there, UConn needed to work even harder on offense.
On the first possession I witnessed some good inside-outside ball movement resulted in an open 3 for Caroline Doty which she promptly drained. The second one was a perfectly-executed high-low post offense with Kiah Stokes scoring off a sweet feed from Stefanie Dolson. Then it was Kelly Faris slashing to the basket for a layup. Then UConn's blue or starting team began to struggle a bit as Auriemma stressed the importance of setting and properly utilizing screens. After a few empty possessions, the starters once again got back into the flow. First it was Stokes returning the favor with a pass to Dolson in the low blocks before Bria Hartley blew by a male practice player for a layup and then Breanna Stewart hit a hook shot in the lane.
In the middle of this portion of practice Auriemma could be heard bellowing "good ball movement." But there was another time when an irritated Auriemma told his players "know who you are trying to get a shot for." With final exams coming up, these next couple of weeks are always a tough time for all the players to get together for spirited practices so Auriemma decided to put those 2 1/2 hours to good use.
Following practice I asked him about the focus on the ball movement during the practice.
"There is a huge plus to playing six or seven players because you know you are going to get good ball movement because there is a chemistry there that is easy to acquire and they just know each other really, really well so the ball moves, they know where it is going," Auriemma said. I watched our ball movement from last year (against Penn State) and I couldn't believe our ball movement because we didn't put anybody else in the game except the guys that knew how to play. That is the plus side. The negative side is we can't play like we want to play, the way I want us to play unless we get eight/nine minimum guys in the game. That ball movement when you play eight, nine (players) that gets crazy because now all of a sudden you have some bad combinations out there and you have some guys who just aren't quite sure what to do and they screw it up for everybody else. We spend a lot of time every day on trying to make sure our combinations are right, the younger guys and in with the right guys that we can help them out. Seven games into the season we are leading the country in assists and field goal percentage so we are getting there."
After spending all that time on getting his players to move more fluidly and with a greater sense of purpose on offense, it was time to prepare for tonight's test against Penn State.
One male practice player was asked to mimic Penn State's leading scorer Maggie Lucas and another assumed the role of point guard Alex Bentley and then the Huskies worked on their press. It was a pretty interesting give and take. Auriemma was down at one end of the court ready to pounce if the wrong pass was made available and UConn associate head coach Chris Dailey underneath the other basket coaching up the quintet which was acting as the scout team version of Penn State. At one point Dailey bolted to her feet and raced to the other end of the court to give some additional instructions.
We were able to witness more than an hour of practice and it was time well spent. For all the attributes Auriemma receives praise for, I am not sure teaching the game is one of them. Anybody who was there Wednesday afternoon would have come away impressed with what they saw.
The first portion of the practice we were able to witness featured work on the half-court offense with the focus on ball movement. In some ways I think it was a good thing that Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis' quad contusion kept her out of these drills because there are times when they run an offensive set and one pass to Mosqueda-Lewis results in a 3-pointer. Without Mosqueda-Lewis out there, UConn needed to work even harder on offense.
On the first possession I witnessed some good inside-outside ball movement resulted in an open 3 for Caroline Doty which she promptly drained. The second one was a perfectly-executed high-low post offense with Kiah Stokes scoring off a sweet feed from Stefanie Dolson. Then it was Kelly Faris slashing to the basket for a layup. Then UConn's blue or starting team began to struggle a bit as Auriemma stressed the importance of setting and properly utilizing screens. After a few empty possessions, the starters once again got back into the flow. First it was Stokes returning the favor with a pass to Dolson in the low blocks before Bria Hartley blew by a male practice player for a layup and then Breanna Stewart hit a hook shot in the lane.
In the middle of this portion of practice Auriemma could be heard bellowing "good ball movement." But there was another time when an irritated Auriemma told his players "know who you are trying to get a shot for." With final exams coming up, these next couple of weeks are always a tough time for all the players to get together for spirited practices so Auriemma decided to put those 2 1/2 hours to good use.
Following practice I asked him about the focus on the ball movement during the practice.
"There is a huge plus to playing six or seven players because you know you are going to get good ball movement because there is a chemistry there that is easy to acquire and they just know each other really, really well so the ball moves, they know where it is going," Auriemma said. I watched our ball movement from last year (against Penn State) and I couldn't believe our ball movement because we didn't put anybody else in the game except the guys that knew how to play. That is the plus side. The negative side is we can't play like we want to play, the way I want us to play unless we get eight/nine minimum guys in the game. That ball movement when you play eight, nine (players) that gets crazy because now all of a sudden you have some bad combinations out there and you have some guys who just aren't quite sure what to do and they screw it up for everybody else. We spend a lot of time every day on trying to make sure our combinations are right, the younger guys and in with the right guys that we can help them out. Seven games into the season we are leading the country in assists and field goal percentage so we are getting there."
After spending all that time on getting his players to move more fluidly and with a greater sense of purpose on offense, it was time to prepare for tonight's test against Penn State.
One male practice player was asked to mimic Penn State's leading scorer Maggie Lucas and another assumed the role of point guard Alex Bentley and then the Huskies worked on their press. It was a pretty interesting give and take. Auriemma was down at one end of the court ready to pounce if the wrong pass was made available and UConn associate head coach Chris Dailey underneath the other basket coaching up the quintet which was acting as the scout team version of Penn State. At one point Dailey bolted to her feet and raced to the other end of the court to give some additional instructions.
After the game tonight, the focus will turn to the final exam period for the players. For the coaches, it will be time to hit the recruiting trail. A recruiting source indicated that Auriemma is headed out to California this weekend. On Friday he will see Windward School junior guard Jordin Canada play in a game against Washington Prep High and then will head over to Mater Dei's game to see highly-touted sophomore Katie Lou Samuelson in action on the final day of the Matt Denning Girls Hoop Classic hosted by Mater Dei. On Saturday he is expected to head to Phoenix to check out Class of 2014 commit Courtney Ekmark during a practice with a mid-week visit expected to Texas to see Brianna Turner in action (likely at the Dec. 11 game against Pearland).
Remaining on the subject of recruiting, UConn's only incoming freshman Saniya Chong's Ossining (N.Y.) plays its season opener tomorrow at 4:30 p.m. against Archbishop Molloy
Remaining on the subject of recruiting, UConn's only incoming freshman Saniya Chong's Ossining (N.Y.) plays its season opener tomorrow at 4:30 p.m. against Archbishop Molloy
posted by Jim Fuller at
11:11 AM
1 Comments:
I've always enjoyed watching player development over the course of a season. Geno and his staff do a remarkable job with fundamentals. If you can look at tape of Tina Charles from early in her sophomore season and late in her senior season, for example, the difference in body positioning and footwork is remarkable.
similarly with Stephanie Dolson, from early in her first season until now. She always had a deft passing touch, now she is so much better positioned and so much more mobile it is extraordinary.
i'm really looking forward to see how Breanna Stewart develops. I'd love to see Geno get another run of 2 or 3 NCAA titles, at least to bring him to 9!
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