University of Minnesota Athletics
Golden Gophers Report to Practice For Italy Trip
8/11/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
This afternoon, the trip to Italy started to become reality for the Golden Gophers women’s basketball team. The Gophers gathered in the warm confines of The Barn to prepare for their Italian excursion with a week of practice.
During the week, Becky Bohm, the associate director of athletic communications, will post reports on the Gophers’ preparation for the first summer international tour in the program’s history.
Monday, Aug. 11
It’s nearing 12:30 p.m. and the players are beginning to arrive for the 1 p.m. practice. Now, if any of you have been at Williams Arena for a basketball camp, you know how warm it can get in The Barn in the middle of the summer. Well, my computer tells me it’s 82 degrees outside. I’m glad to report, for the players’ sake, it’s warm but certainly not unbearable in Williams as practice commences.
When I arrive at Williams, I find Abby Kalland taping the international trapezoid lane on the Williams court. It is one of the most obvious rule changes the Gophers will have to adapt to in their games in Italy. As the players hit the court, Zoe Harper is the first to notice, “Just like home!” she exclaims. It’s a bit of a novelty for a few minutes. Note: later I’ll list a number of the international rules the Gophers will have to get used to.
On the other end of the court, I wander down to find a few of our new freshman Jackie Voigt and Kiara Buford shooting a few hoops. They have been in summer school and working out with the team but don’t get to now per NCAA rules.
Coach Borton is all smiles as she comes up the stairs for practice. One gets the feeling that she has looked forward to taking her team on this kind of trip for a long time. She has a brief meeting on the court with her three team captains (Emily Fox, Ashley Ellis-Milan and Brittany McCoy), then gathers everyone at center court. “This won’t be your normal week of practice,” she tells them. “This will be a special experience for all of us.”
Borton then tells her team that her assistant coaches will be running practice. She wants to watch and interact. To start with, you could find her going from the posts to the guards with notebook in hand. Lots of notes already and we’re only 45 minutes into practice. No doodling we checked!
As practice begins, the freshmen take up spots watching practice Nicole Mastey and Jackie with the posts and Kiara and Brianna Mastey with the guards.
I won’t get into the specific drills, let’s just say it’s your basic, fundamental stuff. With only eight players in uniform, the four backcourt players on one end of the court and the four frontcourt players on the other, it’s seems a bit strange though. I can tell you one thing that is expected, just as during the regular season, there is chatter. If there is one thing Coach Borton dislikes, it’s a quiet gym. Chatter, chatter, chatter!
The Gophers have a special visitor at practice today Leslie Knight. She’s working out with the team as she prepares to leave in 11 days (Aug. 22) to play professionally in Switzerland.
Practice will run about two hours. The team has already lifted weight this morning. Looks for the practice itinerary that the last 35 minutes will be spend with the team together.
We are into the team portion of practice. They are running through some simple offensive sets with associate head coach Barb Smith calling the shots. Katie Ohm just switched a three-pointer from the left wing let’s hope we see lots of that next season!
Tomorrow we’ll check back in with the Gophers. In addition to a 5 p.m. practice, the team will be taking the team photo in the afternoon.
Thanks for reading. Have a good evening and thanks for supporting the Gophers.
Some thoughts from the Gophers...
Coach Borton on heading into practice:
Everyone’s excited. We are sort of starting our season early for next year and getting on the floor and seeing what kind of chemistry we have.
On practice plans:
Keep it simple.
On the trapezoid lane and if Zoe’s international experience will help:
We’ll see. Hopefully Zoe can back it up. It’ll be fun. It will be a learning experience for most of them.
Ashley Ellis Milan on the first day of practice:
I’m excited. It’s weird. We’re never in here practicing at this time of year and it’s August and we’re going.
Kristen Dockery on getting to practice:
I’m super excited to be out here on the practice floor, to work with the coaches and see where everyone is at and play together as a team. It’ll be great preparation for our games in Italy.
Kristen on the trapezoid lane:
It’s very interesting. I noticed that the first thing when I came up on the court. It’s definitely wider so it’ll be fun to mix it up a bit.
Emily Fox on starting preparation for Italy:
I’m so excited for this experience. We were just talking about how weird it is to be practicing right now. We are excited and ready to go even though we really don’t know to expect from these practice.
