Notes of Interest from Sharon Versyp Show for Monday 11/23/2020 (with Tim Newton)
(Quotes are Coach’s - more or less accurate - unless otherwise noted.)
First a correction of my notes from last week. The Kissel Center is in Ross-Ade stadium, not Mackey as I wrote last week.
My biggest surprise from the program was that McLaughlin could possibly play as early as mid-December.
General:
COVID Testing:
(Quotes are Coach’s - more or less accurate - unless otherwise noted.)
First a correction of my notes from last week. The Kissel Center is in Ross-Ade stadium, not Mackey as I wrote last week.
My biggest surprise from the program was that McLaughlin could possibly play as early as mid-December.
General:
- Sunday (In Mackey at 6PM against North Alabama) is the first game against someone else. We “tried to have some scrimmages with other schools but did not work out.”
- “Until you play against someone else you don’t really realize how your defense is, if everybody is a shooter, if they’ve got some big post players how our rebounding is.” “I feel like we’re continuing to get better… But it was a lot of repetition. You hope that they’ve grown quite a bit.”
COVID Testing:
- We are in a day-to-day situation. Until the tests come in before a game you really don’t know who you will be playing. “You never know. If a kid says “Hey I have a positive - it could be a false positive but you don’t (immediately) know.” So you have to adapt.
- How do you get tested as a team? “It’s an antigen test. We test 6 out of 7 days. We usually have an off day on Sunday. We test between 10 and 2 depending on their class times.” When they don’t have classes it is going to change - get them up at 9:30 and give them breakfast and then test between 10-11:30 and have practice at 12 Noon.
- So the antigen test comes back pretty quickly but not as reliable. If the antigen test is positive then they get a more accurate PCR test which does not come back as quickly (8 to 24 hours - longer now due to the increased demand all around the community) but until that comes back they cannot practice. If we have to wait on a PCR right before a game but if it does not come back right away “a kid could lose that game.”
- On game day everyone is tested when the arrive the night before. In the B1G it will be a little different. But “in the non-conference if someone tests positive the game is canceled.”
- The other change is that tomorrow (11/24/2020) is the last game of in-person classes at Purdue until Jan. 19th. That will be a different challenge. “It will be a ghost town so that will be different.” But our students may go to a few classes in-person but mostly are at their homes/apartments or at practice. They are being very careful because they don’t want this season taken away from them. So it will not be “so different for a lot of people who really are not in the classroom or on campus.”
- You had a scrimmage against the male practice players - what did that tell you? “It was a normal game.” (A full 40 minutes) “We had different line-ups… We scored the ball pretty well which was good. We tried different defenses. We were limited…” by having only 7-8 players at the time due to minor injuries. “The speed of the game was really fast… We had 4 players in double figures. Obviously the game was sped up…. Our defense will continue to get better when we have all the pieces back. But I was really pleased.”
- It was in front of an empty arena. The players had to wear masks when they weren’t in the game, they had to be 3 ft. apart. “They're the ones who had to bring the energy. We had piped in crowd noise… When there was a dead ball they obviously turned it down… It gave you a situation of what it’s gonna be like."
- “We are going to scrimmage again on Wed (11/25)… another opportunity to see what it is going to be like.”
- The cardboard cut-outs are not up yet. If you want to be in Mackey, contact the website and send in your picture. (For $35)
- The B1G schedule came out today. 20 (B1G) games on the schedule -10 at home and 10 away. Overall there are 25 games, 15 at Mackey and 10 away.
- We have 3 games in the B1G before Christmas. “Yeah… I look at some schedules and some have 2 and some have 3. I thought with the protocol here we probably wouldn’t be ready to play Dec 31st… and now we’re starting Dec 17th with Northwestern at home. We have 5 ranked team in the top 25 and we are getting it right away. But we get them at home which is really exciting. Then we go to Penn State on the 20th and then have Nebraska on the 23rd at home. And then we come back in on Jan 3rd against Michigan State. So we have 3 out of the first 4 at home - very important.” Those games right around the holidays are so “very important.”
- So the men are playing on Christmas but we have that week off. Are the players going to be going home? “I mean our international students cannot go home.” The players will have the 24th, 25th and 26th off. “A lot of them will stay local. I’d say a couple will go home.” Some teams are letting their players go home and others are not. They “have to have so many negatives when they come back” so we “have to be smart.”
- The B1G Tournament is going to be March 9th (Tuesday) to March 13th (Saturday) so it has been moved up a day because Banker’s Life Stadium is already scheduled on Sunday.
- “We asked since WBB went up to 20 games to move our BiG tournament back” so the schedule isn’t so compressed. MBB has 2 more weeks. That will really benefit the conference because it is a tough conference with 5 teams ranked in the top 25 and quite a few that will be receiving votes.
- As of right now for home games it is only friends and family allowed. We have no idea what it will be like for the tournament.
- Twenty years ago you could pencil in W’s and L’s but those days are gone. The conference is very balanced and no one knows who will be playing game to game.
- Five of our players are from outside the U.S. (Farquhar and Makolo from Canada, Grant from England, Diagne from Senegal and Doumbia from Mali.) We only had 3 international players in the history of the program before that. How is it different finding those players?
- Most of those players were already in the States except for the Canadians and we do have a pipeline there. We don’t spend a lot of time looking over there but we did find “another kid who is committed but we cannot talk about that and she came over too.”
- The more you get that kind of helps. But we’ve been lucky. We just recruit the best ones we see - they are amazing human beings, great students and great talented basketball players.”
- What does that bring to your program? “It’s diversity, it’s culture, it’’s everybody understanding differences. It’s very unique.” We find out what kind of food they eat and try to cook that for them. Religions are different and we just learn to be accepting and that we all come from different backgrounds. The diversity creates “amazing team chemistry.”
- And Leony Boudreau had to retire from basketball for medical reasons but is from Canada. She is a biomedical engineering major. She was selected as a finalist for the Rhodes Scholarship. “She was obviously disappointed she didn’t win but I told her… ‘Leony you’re our rock star, you’re our best. Continue to knock down walls.’ The things she is doing for the paralympics and for prosthetics… she’s just amazing. We will continue to hear about her for years to come… She is brilliant and she’s great for our team… She’s finally handled herself not being able to play. That’s really tough but she wears big shoes.”
- You can’t teach height and this year we have a very tall team. We have 7 players at 6’ or more. The team’s average height is 5’ 11 1/4’ and Kyle at 6’6” is among the tallest player we’ve had here. It gives us a lot of versatility. “That’s what we’ve always hoped. Being able to play different D’s and hopefully being able to pound the ball in when we play against other teams that don’t have our height.”
- Tall players are hard to find. Good mobile post players that are 6’4” or 6’5” don’t fall off trees. “Fatou and Rickie are the most mobile right now. Nyagoa can play the 5-4 but Fatou and Rickie with the speed of the game and understanding that” they are ahead. Ra Shaya is learning. There is a lot of confusion at first so we’re just telling her to play as hard as you can for 2 1/2 minutes. “Defensively, offensively and rebounding at this point that’s going to be a big key. Play as hard as you can and get that rest and get back in.”
- Another thing is we have a lot of seniors. A couple are hurt and a couple might come back for another year. But this is the most seniors we have had since 2012. “Yes, we have Tam and Fatou and Janelle and if Karissa comes back and plays for us this year that gives you that experience."
- "And then you have your junior class that is really good - especially with our transfers. There will be no excuses” because we have that experience and we “are kind of upper-loaded which is fine. This is where that experience is really going to take hold and in game situations we need to be really solid in the beginning.”
- With McLaughlin, based on the fact that now with the exceptions for COVID, players can get a free season. If she could play at the later end of the season there would be no reason to hold her back. “Right, if she is ready to play in mid-Dec or early Jan - we don’t know yet… why not go out and play and then continue to play for another year.”
- If you look at the staff you have 70 years of head-coaching experience. There is coach Versyp, Beth Couture, Melanie Balcomb and of course Malcom Scruggs has had great mentoring along the way. What does that bring with 1300 career wins on the bench? “Obviously it brings a wealth of basketball knowledge to us. Everyone sees things differently, and studies film differently. It can bring a lot to the table with adjustments and what’s going to work for our group. Just the experience of handling adversity and if they get hurt or go through the COVID and managing. It’s just not about coaching. it’s about relationships. When we’re in a tough situation we’re going to figure it out because of that experience.”
- You have to have people you can count on and with a coaching staff like that you can do that. “This is a group (our team) that continues to ask questions and starves for coaching and coaching hard and explaining.”
- Have you or your assistant coaches had to change anything - especially the empathy level because of COVID? “Yeah it definitely did and it has.” It has changed from the beginning when it was just 3 students to now. And we ask about home and family more. “People can’t go home and can’t see their family. Those are the things that are the most difficult right now and have that tug or touch from their parents and now we are the key ingredient. Those are the toughest things.”
- Zoom has been a tremendous tool but there is no substitute for human touch.
- I would have to think with the COVID uncertainty that you have someone in the drawer that if this game gets canceled here is a team we could call. “Oh yeah, there is so much going on. Terry (Kix) is on a text thing with ten different schools that are within driving distance right now.” The B1G protocols are very rigorous and we have to meet those. And each state has different protocols. We are going to have postponements and we have to be flexible enough to deal with them.
- Have you talked to other coaches to see how they are handling this. There is no textbook. “I talk to other B1G coaches… We talk but no one can help each other. Because it is what it is.” We have to figure it out as we go.
- “We talk to our players and I think they are handling it well.” We think we’re going to have a scrimmage and then 5 minutes later we tell them “Nope, the scrimmage won’t work so we will scrimmage ourselves… It’s the 5 minute rule” that every 5 minutes something may change. I hope by next year if the vaccines work well we will be 75% or 50% normal.
- The North Alabama Lions will provide the competition this coming Sunday in Mackey at 6PM. They are from the Atlantic Sun Conference and they were 21-9 last year and they have a preseason All-Conference player named Olivia Noah. She is a 6’1” senior forward. She played two seasons at Incarnate Word under Kristy Smith. “They are very well coached. They had a great team last year. They did lose 4 out of their 5 biggest scoring threats. But Olivia is very good. They have two other players that are returning that are really good and they did a good job recruiting.”
- “We are going to have to be on our game. They shoot 3’s real well, they know how to put it down on the floor and make you totally commit. They kick it out. We gotta play solid D. They don’t really have that back to the basket post player but they can turn and face. They switch man-to-man. We’ve got to have our head on a swivel because if you don’t they’ll just come about and set a double screen and then if they don’t like it they’ll just set another screen on the back side. We can’t just be ball watchers and obviously we need to dominate on the boards.”
- We have a fairly experienced team but have some players who for the first time have to read a scouting report. That’s always a big question - can they follow a scouting report? “That’s why our inter-squad scrimmages are so good.” To see if they can follow the instructions you give them. For our freshman and sophs it’s always a work-in-progress. “If you’re smart and you use ‘what God gave you’ they should be okay.
- North Alabama plays at noon against Austin Peay on Wed (11/25) and again against Missouri on Friday night so we will be able to watch them play and have a better feel for what they do.
- You and your coaches have been through a lot of opening nights and there are always some opening night jitters. What is the biggest thing in your mind that opening game as you walk onto the floor. “I think the very first game is that it is totally different. No fans, no nothing, you have maybe 200 fans. You can practice it but now it is a real game” that is so different.
- “It will be so important to get that energy and that excitement. There is no band. There really isn’t that 6th player. There is no home court advantage. You just have to get out there and do what you’re supposed to do and focus and play as hard as you can with purpose and execute and be consistent. That will be new for all of us. And coaching for the first time with a mask on. They’re (the rest of the team) will not be able to hear anything - everyone will be spread apart. It’s just going to be totally different and it will be different for everybody.
- We need to get on with the season. It’s time. Everyone is going to have to adapt. “Absolutely. I just want to prepare for the next team.” To be on a regular schedule. Practice is great but when you play on a regular basis it gives you something to look forward to.
- How do you fine-tune these next days? “We just doing a lot of basic stuff today. Tomorrow we will do OOB plays, setting screens, sideline game situations. Things that looking at the next 5 teams we’ve seen them do” and getting ready for that.
- “Then on Wed a scrimmage and by Thursday we will have seen them play” and we’ll be preparing with that in hand. “We’ll have a nice Thanksgiving meal on Wednesday after scrimmage and then Thursday (Thanksgiving) is off. The players will probably get together and cook and do their thing.”
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