October 24, 2007

2007 Men's Hoop Practice Report #4


The Wazzu men's hoop team took the court for another week of practice with another voice in their ear - and a loud one at that.

Assistant coach Matt Woodley returned to practice after a long recruiting trip and went about his work as if he never left, yelling at players left and right.

The team opened up practice with the use of elastic bands once again. Head coach Tony Bennett watched over as the players used the resistance to work on their defensive shuffling and assistant coach Ben Johnson pulled players at the hip through a series of ankle-high hurdles.

At one point in the drill, a student-manager was pulling Kyle Weaver through. The manager stopped at the end of the drill, but Weaver kept running. The student-manager then let go, snapping Weaver in the behind, much to the enjoyment of players and coaches alike.


The team's first drill after warming up focused on perimeter defense. After some hands-on learning from Bennett, the team was ready to show off what they learned in a quick half-court scrimmage.

The perimeter defense was tight, only yielding three-pointers from Weaver, Nikola Koprivica and Abe Lodwick.

The Koprivica trey came at the expense of poor defense by Stephen Sauls. Bennett let the freshman guard know what he did wrong and the drill resumed. Sauls went to work some more with assistant coach Ron Sanchez and on his next time in the drill, he picked up a steal on Derrick Low.

An impressive possession on the offensive end came when Chris Henry collected two offensive rebounds. After he missed a turn-around jump hook, Thomas Abercrombie came flying in to tip the ball in the basket at the buzzer.

After the drill, the team moved to a full-speed scrimmage. For this scrimmage, the team split into crimson and white teams.

...More... To continue reading this article you must be a member. Sign Up Now for a FREE Trial