St. Kate's 7, Johansen at SW MN State, Coaches Corner

#2 posting 5.28.2008
your daily dose of girls basketball news & information

ST. KATE'S 7
Here is the 2008-2009 College of St. Catherine's Women's Basketball Recruiting Class

The St. Kate’s Basketball team will bring in seven new players for the 2008-2009 season. The incomers will provide some height for the Wildcats which should help with rebounding problems from a year ago. “We were just not tall enough to win this part of the game,” noted Coach Gary Rufsvold, “The team was solid and played well to their strengths but we need to improve in the rebounding area. I believe our 2008-2009 recruiting class will make this possible.” The Wildcats also brought in a couple of guards to help fill the void of two senior wing players, Ashley Busch and Rachel Berglund.

Laura Beach is a 6-2 Center junior transfer from Montana State University at Billings. Laura will give the Wildcats a physical presence in the lane with her rebounding, shot blocking and scoring abilities. Laura played high school ball at Baker High School in Montana.

Laura Kalbfell is a 6-0 sophomore wing player from Lakeville South High School. At Lakeville Laura led her team in scoring and rebounding and was the team MVP. She was also Lakeville South High’s Athena Award winner her senior year. Laura played her first year at Southwest State University in Marshall, MN.

Josey Madler is a 6-0 junior post player from Baker, Montana. The past two seasons Josey played for Dawson Community College in Glendive. Her sophomore year at Dawson she averaged 10.5 points per game and seven rebounds per game

Janelle Christensen is a 5-6 first-year guard from Bemidji High School. She played the point guard and two guard for her Bemidji varsity team her last two years of high school. Janelle also played the guard position for a very talented Northern Lynx AAU program.

Justine Grady is a 6-0 post player from Mound-Westonka High School. At Mound Justine averages ten points per game her senior season. This will be Justine’s first year of college basketball after two years at the University of North Dakota.

Jessica Hoffman is a 5-11 first-year from Champlin Park High School. Jessica is a post player from a very good Northwest Suburban Conference. She was Academic All-State and All-Conference Honorable Mention her senior year.

Megan Zillmer is a 5-9 first-year guard from Crosby-Ironton High School. In High School Megan played on a team that won twenty games. She averaged double figure scoring her last two years and was team MVP, All-Conference, and All-Area her senior year. Megan is also a soccer player.

COACHING NEWS
Jina Johansen has been named an assistant women's basketball coach at Southwest Minnesota State. She replaces Katie Huschle who resigned to pursue high school teaching positions. Johansen assisted at Augustana last year. Before that she was a grad assistant at South Dakota State.

SKILLS & INSTRUCTION
The WNBA has a nifty feature on their site called Coaches Game Plan. It offers tips and skill instruction for coaches, players and fans. This week's featured skill is Sliding Behind Screens. You can print out the information and watch a computer animated demonstration. It is quite clear and I would recommend it.

MORE BASKETBALL ON TRACK
Whitney Rawdon, Team Wisconsin Select Samuels, missed this last weekends tournament in Menomonie because she will also be in the state track meet for two events: 100M High Hurdles and 4 x 100M Relay.

Next up: The Team WI Select Doucette vs Southern Minne Magic 19 semifinals

Tea's Peeves; 12u AAU Nationals

#1 posting 7.2.2007
your daily dose of girls basketball news & information

MORE DAKOTA SHOWCASE
The Metro Stars program went 14-4 at the Miss Basketball Dakota Showcase in Sioux Falls this past weekend. With 32 teams in the expanded field this year the Metro Stars Black squad went 6-0 and took the tournament title, the 15U squad earned 10th place with a 4-2 record , and the White squad placed 17th by also going 4-2. These three teams will now play in the Adidas Midwest Classic in Hopkins this upcoming weekend before finishing the season at the Nike Summer Jam in Chicago July 13-15

AAU
In the 12u Division 2 tournament the Minnesota Thunder ended up losing Sunday's game against the Baltimore team. It's now on to bracket play Monday at 3:30 p.m. where the Thunder will face off against the top team in the E bracket. Likely another "Thunder" named team--Gateway Thunder from Ozark region.

North Tartan and the Minnesota Lady Suns have made the bracket play in the 12u Division 1 tournament in Rochester.

The 13u brackets are now up for the AAU National tournament.
The Minneapolis Lady Cats are in pool B
The Minnesota Lady Suns are in pool L
the Midtown Lady Monarchs are in pool U
and St. Paul Central is in pool W
From Iowa the Cedar Rapids Panthers are in pool G

INSTRUCTION
Here is today's photo and it is all about putting the ball under the chin and getting those elbows out after grabbing a rebound. Here you can see the proper stance. No one wants to get their dental work redone with an elbow to the mouth. It gives the player operating room and space to do the things they want.

COACH TEA'S PET PEEVES
Of course it is Monday and that leads us to another edition of Tea's Peeves: Defense numbers #6 to #4

#6: Failure to bump someone crossing the lane. Hips are not just for hockey. It also may throw their offensive timing off a bit.
#5: Playing defense too high. A great example of doing this right is Jordan Barnes, guard at the University of Minnesota from Hopkins. So often quickness can be defeated by good body position.
#4: In man (or individual) defense letting your person make a ball side cut to the basket.

Thanks to the readers for your help. this site wouldn't be the same without you. if you have news, go to my profile and email me.

Out & About Schedule:
TODAY
Dakota Hardwood Threat vs Iowa Elite II
ECI West Gold vs Kansas Hoop Service
Pinnacle Bank Nebraska vs North Tartan Crosby
South Dakota Riders vs Iowa Lightning I
TUESDAY
All Iowa Attack I vs Mid-Missouri Hustlers
Kansas City Hustle vs Iowa Elite I
Dakota Hardwood Threat vs Pinnacle Bank Nebraska--Quarterfinals
Metro Stars Black vs Kansas City Hustle
WEDNESDAY
ECI Gold West vs Dakota Hardood Threat
Metro Stars Black vs All Iowa Attack I
Metro Stars Black vs ECI Gold West

Next up: more states, college reports then the quick hitters

Teas' Peeves: Defensive 9-7

#1 posting 6.25.2007
your daily dose of girls basketball news & information

THE GAMES AT AMES
MSB Elite 15U played in the Adidas Midwest Classic in Ames, and went 3-2. MSB Elite had some great shooting out of two particular players: Britanie Olson averaged 15 points per game and Kelsie Ammann of Lakeville North had 4 3’s in one game and 5 3’s in another game.
MSB played two teams twice over the weekend.

COACH TEAS' PET PEEVES
Here are the latest editions of coach Teas' pet peeves. Last week I listed #12-10. You can find the entire list on the right side in the links. Look under the gbbrecruit links 'instruction'

#9: Letting offensive players beat you down the floor. A coach I know well is famous for yelling "Get ahead!"
#8: Not knowing how to switch and recover on screens.
#7: Trying too often to block shots looking for the roar of the crowd. Boys are more guilty of this than girls on this. Bad things happen when you lose your feet: fouls, coming down out of position to block out, mad a fool of by a good ball or head fake.

MORE INSTRUCTION
I came across this on Brian McCormick's site. It is all about ball handling. There is a YouTube video lasting 2:01.

I have updated the scores on the Walker tournament that I posted on Sunday Morning.

Thanks to the readers for the help in getting me news & information. If you have news, go to my profile and email me.

Next up: college reports, and later the three championships games from the Rogers Showcase event that was held on Saturday. The Ames games will follow on Tuesday and Wednesday.