More improvement from young players as week two of practice continues

By Danielle O’Banion

Head Coach

Last week was very good for us because it is important with a younger team to get as many repetitions as possible. That daily contact and those daily repetitions are vital for this group.

During this second week we have started to talk about the importance of establishing consistency, whether that is individual consistency or team consistency. In this phase we are starting to look at particular combinations. 

One of the things we have done intentionally this preseason is spend more time playing five-on-five. That doesn’t mean we have gone away from teaching and breakdowns. But to truly integrate those five freshmen and eight total freshmen and sophomores, we are having more opportunities in a controlled setting to see what people do in the five-on-five venue. It has been a good start to the second week because we have seen our younger players continue to assert themselves in that setting.

Larissa Lurken was our lone outside shotmaker last year. Assistant coach Wyketha Harrell has been working very hard with Larissa and now Madison Ridout, who is one of our freshman, on being ready to shoot it when they catch the ball. That sounds simple, but it is not, especially for Madison, who is making the jump from high school to college. She is realizing that she has to not only hunt shots, meaning find a place on the floor where she can be available, but also catch the ball and be ready to release it. So much of that is footwork.

We are starting to see both Larissa and Madison take and make shots quicker, which is going to be vital as soon as the scouting report gets out. They are making better decisions about being dangerous, which is important. That gives us more balance, which is vital to any team’s success.

We are seeing some real growth in Naddiyah Cross. The hardest position to play as a freshman is point guard. She and senior Mikell Chinn are expected to run our team, and while Naddiyah has good instincts, she now has to try to manage four other people on the team. Some of those she has to manage are older, and Naddiyah is a very respectful young lady and respectful teammate. We are starting to see her take control of the team.

In her high school program, Naddiyah was not relied upon to score very often. It wasn’t what they needed her to do. Centerville had a number of Division I players, including a center who just committed to play at Stanford. Naddiyah’s role was always to distribute the basketball. What we are starting to see here is exactly what we thought during the recruiting process. She is a capable scorer. In the early part of this week, she is really starting to step up in that way. It’s fun to see that she will probably surprise some people by showing she does have three-point range and she does have an ability to hit a pull-up jumper. You just didn’t see it in that high-school setting that was pretty loaded.

There are lots of examples of young players improving. Tyra James keeps getting better and better. She is probably the most natural scorer of our five players because she has such an ability to get to the rim. She also has a great mid-range pull-up, and we are starting to see her take more of those shots. It’s exciting.