The scene seems innocuous: UALR women’s assistant basketball Coach Jocelyn Love pulling freshman forward Hannah Fohne aside during a recent practice to explain the intricacies of reading ballscreens in the Trojans’ complex motion offense.
With six freshmen on the roster, the brief teaching moments are a frequentoccurrence for the Trojans’ staff in a sometimes-hurried preseason environment.
Yet, the Trojans are benefiting from a new NCAA rule this season allowing teams to start practices two weeks earlier, giving coaches time for finelycalibrated instruction and players precious time to recuperate.
“We didn’t have to worry about getting so much done so quick with the young ones,” UALR women’s Coach Joe Foley said. “If you’ve got three or four, it’s beneficial. When you have six like we do, I don’t think much will help us. It will take awhile, but it’s nice to have that time.”
And for freshmen whose heads are spinning from new schemes and veterans coming off injury, the newfound break makes the daily grind a more tolerable slog.
“Even if it’s just one day, or just an easier practice or walk-through, you get to see what they’re trying to teach,” Fohne said after Wednesday’s practice. “You can clear your head, rest your legs at that, too.”
Women’s programs can hold 30 practices over a 40-day period under the new rules. Yet the guidelines also note that any day that a team has a workout, no matter if it’s weightlifting or running, it counts as a practice day even if players don’t see any time on the court.
The switch was mirrored after the structure imposed on football programs during fall camps, where the aim is to give players’ bodies a chance to acclimate to strenuous workouts, said Muffett McGraw, who is chair of a Women’s Basketball Coaches Association committee monitoring rules changes.
“Everyone was a little anxious,” said McGraw, who is the coach at Notre Dame. “It’ll be interesting to see what happens come February. We will all be hitting a wall or will it be a good thing?”
McGraw said the change had the unintended consequence of cutting into the period before practicestarts when players go through strength and conditioning and work oneon-one with coaches for two hours a week.
But for Sun Belt coaches, the extra time was hailed as a godsend during the conferences media days this week in a year where roster turnover is a common theme with each program adding an average of six newcomers.
Denver, for instance, is breaking in nine new players - including six freshmen - to a squad that dressed a scant seven a season ago.
Denver Coach Erik Johnson said his staff missed out on its top choices of recruits and took a “calculated risk” by saving scholarships, waiting a year and signing a larger class this season.
“We were a sprained ankle away from disaster,” said Johnson, who piloted his team to an 18-12 season. “We felt of building relationships, and establishing credibility would be good. And the gamble paid off.” Johnson’s staff faced a problem similar to Foley’s in terms of balancing the polishing of individual skill sets and installing complex offensive and defensive schemes.
“Under the old system, the gun goes off and it’s a race six days a week, three hours a day to get your system in before your first exhibition game,” he said. “It’s just go, go, go.”
Now? The Pioneers get two off-days a week, Thursdays and Sundays, while scheduling earlier morning practices to accommodate their schedules, Johnson said. During the week, he said theextra time affords his staff the chance to add off-court team-building work, such as meeting with a sports psychologist.
“Sometimes as coaches, we can be pig-headed about getting stuff in that we don’t do,” he said. “This helped me say, ‘Let’s do what we know is important.”
At UALR, Foley said his staff delayed starting practice until Oct. 7, allowing the Trojans a couple of days off the first two weeks of practice before settling into their usual routine of six practices a week. For upperclassmen, the change had little effect, but its allowed his freshman to adapt to the faster pace of college - on and off the floor.
“Once we start practice, the speed really hits them,” he said. “The veterans are ready to go. They know games are fixing to be right around the corner, and that pace - even in preseason - is totally different from what they’ve seen in high school.”
To adapt, Fohne uses her off days to lift weights, catch up on homework from a loaded schedule featuring sociology, English and drawing courses, and spend time looking over a packet outlining the principles and sets in the Trojans’ motion arsenal.
“It helps to look it over and have time to think about it,” she said. “Read it, digest it, cram it and then go out on the court and try to do it.”
Sports, Pages 26 on 10/24/2010