A Breakdown of Women’s Basketball Practice
Here’s a minute-by-minute breakdown of the women’s basketball practice on Oct. 28 in Reynolds Coliseum:
~ 1:45 p.m. Players stretch and Coach Harper talks with Don Shea for a video story to come on GoPack.com
~ 2 p.m. Players jog once the length of the court and back
~ 2:01 p.m. the team huddles at center court and coach Harper first talks about defense. She asks Sophomore Kim Durham of Apex to read a quote: “The [woman] who does not take pride in [her] own performance performs nothing in which to take pride.” The players break the huddle by yelling “Work hard!”
~ 2:01 p.m. Full-court drill to work on long passes and transition offense
~ 2:06 p.m. One-on-one boxing out drill in which each player takes turn boxing out a male practice player
~ 2:10 p.m. Half-court, five-on-five defense drill with specific instructions about what to do when an offensive player cheats on you
~2:20 p.m. Guards and post players split up, and then work on one-on-one defense drill in which a male practice player play offense and drives the paint while each player takes turning defending him. The drill is called “1 on 1 Close outs.”
~2:26 p.m. The guards and post players, still separate, work on setting screens and defending against screens with a four-on-four drill. Assistant Coach Stephanie McCormick works with the post, and assistant coach Jon Harper works with the guards. Coach Kellie Harper walks back between the two groups.
~2:35 p.m. The guards and post players come back together at center court for a short huddle so Coach Harper can provide instruction for the next drill.
~2:36 p.m. Four-on-four defense drill working on guarding your player when she doesn’t have the ball and how to shift positions during ball court movement.
~2:43 p.m. Three-on-three defense drill on defending the corners.
~2:52 p.m. Five-on-five defense drill and working on guarding in transition.
~3:04 p.m. Guards shoot free throws while post players drink water on the side.
~3:07 p.m. Post players shoot free throws while guards drink on the side. Players tell a manager at the scorer’s table how many free throws they made and shot.
~3:10 p.m. Huddle at half-court.
~3:12 p.m. Players work on saving the ball as it goes out of bounds on the sideline and throwing it to a teammate being guarded by a player. “I know it sounds silly,” Coach Harper tells the players, “but we’re going to be doing this in games, so we need to practice it. We can get a lot of extra possessions by doing it right.”
~3:16 p.m. Five-on-five defense drill against male practice players and then scoring on transition when getting a defensive rebound.
~3:27 p.m. Guards and posts split up and work on position shooting.
~3:34 p.m. Team comes back together and work on their offensive plays against no defense
~3:43 p.m. Drill to work on trapping in the corners and transition offense
~3:55 p.m. Post players shoot free throws and guards drink water on the sideline.
~3:58 p.m. Guards shoot free throws and post players drink water on the sideline. They tell a manager at the score table how many shots they took and how many they made.
~4:01 p.m. Work on scoring in transition
~4:07 p.m. Full-court sprints
~4:09 p.m. Free throws
~4:10 p.m. Practice plays for throwing the ball in-bounds under the basket
~4:26 p.m. Practice guarding the ball on in-bounds under the other team’s basket
~4:37 p.m. Five-on-five, 5-minute scrimmage
~4:42 p.m. Scrimmage ends. Coach Harper gives her evaluation.
~4:46 p.m. Players who had turnovers during the scrimmage run full-court sprints. They must run the length of the court and back twice in under 24 seconds. If they don’t make it that time, they must run them again.
~4:50 p.m. Every player must shoot and make a free throw. For every missed free throw, every player must run the length of the court and back in under 24 seconds. If they don’t do it that time-frame and if they don’t touch the baseline, they all must run another one until they do. Every time a player makes a free throw, the whole team circles around the player and gives her a five. Based on the number of free throws they missed during their breaks, some players must run the full length of the court and back in under 11 seconds.
~ 5 p.m. Team huddles up for final talk. They break the huddle by yelling “Together!”
~5:02 p.m. Practice ends and the players head to a short weightlifting session.
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