Getting Back On The Right Track
Words. Aron Phillips
When we got to the gym for practice, they met first to debrief on the previous night’s game. The phrase thrown out there was to “compete with excellence.” Sure we’re tired, travelled from far away and the food is much different, but all the teams (except France) are in the same boat. It’s time to dig deep.
To start off practice, the guys got in three lines and worked on pushing the ball with only two passes up the court. Ryan Harrow’s ankle was bruised from last night’s game, so he was sitting out and icing.
An early observation: When you’re working on execution as opposed to just fundamentals in practice, the game is very different. These guys expect to make every shot, and that’s the mentality that you need to have in order to make it to that next level.
In the early going, point guards Ray McCallum and Cory Joseph are looking strong in the drills. They’re not just running through them, but rather looking to do them with a purpose. You can tell their high school coaches made them a copy of the key to the gym the first day of their freshman year. Also with these two, it’s evident that their basketball IQ is very high. With Ray’s father being the head coach of Detroit Mercy and Cory’s brother a rising sophomore for Minnesota, it’s pretty clear that there might be some good genes there…
One thing that’s really nice, as I mentioned before, is that all the gyms here have skylights in the roof which makes for very nice daytime ball.
Today we’re preparing for Lithuania who was the second best team in the world last year. Working on the fastbreak and transition ball, we’ll have to come out looking to exploit our strengths of quickness and speed. It’s all about pushing the ball and spacing on the break. By getting to the spots early, it puts the whole team in a better position to score. If the set breaks down, then a side ball screen will get it done. Making that read will win or lose ball games. As Coach Schilling said, “The little things make a big difference.” (Coach also wanted to give a shout out to Champions Academy!)
