Report from Gampel from Monday afternoon skills work

I had the opportunity to see some limited action in Storrs Monday afternoon.

Strictly FWIW:

Shea was working [hard] with Bria and Kaleena on a variety of dribbling and shooting skills.
There were lots of drills involving dribbling 2 balls at once....with lots of switching and cross-overs etc. Bria did fine with these....I'm sure she is familiar with them. KML struggled a bit with some of them. The shooting was varied...treys, pull-ups, free throws etc. Bria shot well....KML shot very well. Bria still looks slender but she also seems clearly stronger...looks great. I saw KML up close last January in Springfield when Mater Dei came to play at Springfield College. Seeing her now....about 8 months later....it is perfectly clear that she has done a lot of work to better prepare herself for college ball. She is trimmer...looks fitter and stronger. A tip of the hat to her....she looks just great. Her spot-up trey shooting is going to be one serious weapon from Jump Ball #1.

Marisa worked with Heather on the side. I tell ya'....Heather looks good in these drills. Sets screens at the foul line....receives a pass...hits the 15' nicely...a la Stef. I guess we will see if it carries over to games. Even with Kiah Stokes on board our height depth isn't overwhelming this year [but next year!!] so I would think PT is available for Heather...if.

Mystery guest? At one point Lauren walked in [street clothes] with a guest [?]...dressed partially in hoop clothes. For all I know she was merely a friend from around here but my recruit-loving mind did wonder if she might be here on an unofficial/official visit with Lauren her host. At one point someone asked her 'what do you think so far?' She had a bit of a California look to her....she was guard-sized. As I drove away I did spot Bria, Lauren and Ms. Mystery headed back to the dorms.

Anyway...that' about it. Hopefully next week I'll get to see a scrimmage.

BTW: later this morning I'll post a guy-side message on the skills work being doing on the other end of the court with Glenn Miller working with the posts....including Andre Drummond.

Great stuff, Blake - did you see Kiah doing any individual workouts while you were there?

Not surprised that Bria would handle the dribble-drills more adeptly than KML, especially at this point in their careers, but as you say KML will be juuuuuust fine in a number of other areas Nice to hear yet more confirmation re: her improved fitness/conditioning. And Heather is still the "X Factor" !! I am hoping she can do some great things but we'll simply have to wait and see how she performs under the big lights.

Thanks very much for the report.

No players involved other than the ones I mentioned.

[quote="blakeon18, post: 15918"

Mystery guest? At one point Lauren walked in [street clothes] with a guest [?]...dressed partially in hoop clothes. For all I know she was merely a friend from around here but my recruit-loving mind did wonder if she might be here on an unofficial/official visit with Lauren her host. At one point someone asked her 'what do you think so far?' She had a bit of a California look to her....she was guard-sized. As I drove away I did spot Bria, Lauren and Ms. Mystery headed back to the dorms.
[/quote]Really appreciate these updates. Thanks! Also wonder about a Cali connection if Lauren is showing her around - anyone we suspect from SoCal?

Really appreciate these updates. Thanks! Also wonder about a Cali connection if Lauren is showing her around - anyone we suspect from SoCal?[/quote]

BTW: they had student managers recording hits/misses on the shots

Geno is reportedly interested in Karlie Samuelson, a 6' guard (2013) from California. She visited UConn last year with her sister Bonnie who is a freshman at Stanford.

This link includes her photo:

http://espn.go.com/womens-college-basketball/recruiting/player/_/id/102712/karlie-samuelson

Thanks for the link. Not her.

Thanks for the run-down. Much more meaningfut, to me, than an analysis of some box scores(which I can do on my own). I just wish I could watch Shea in action as a coach. She is one of my all time favs.

great stuff as usual blake. thanks a lot!!

Timedout: Shea is very, very vocal with the kids....lots of praise when things are going well....very quick to coach them up if things aren't. She is very enthusiastic in demeanor and in some way clearly seems to 'own' their misses and hits. Takes it personally if they miss. When the session is over she will sit down and chat like a normal person with them [lol]. In mid-August she was coaching all the guards and wings at a session I was at....and yesterday it was just the 2 kids.....but she pretty much has something to say all the time....she runs out of words hardly ever.

Thanks Blake!!!

Great stuff...........Hopefully we can get a look at Banks and Stokes at some point in drills as well......Keep it coming.

This is what I like to see on this board, real news or intelligence...go Blake!

Blake, thanks for the report.

But, geez, don't you have a camera in your phone?

if Blake knew how to answer his alerts/messages/whatever they're called he would've had a camera man with him.(or maybe Im on his ignore list)

Thanks, Blake.....looking forward to BBall season.....

Nice work.

If not Karlie Samuelson, then who???

Has Jordan Adams committed yet? Are we still recruiting her? Is this Jordan?

Thanks for the report, Blake..but I'm confused (as I often am)--The whole team wasn't practicing? I am inferring this from the fact that Lauren was in street clothes.

I think you can work with only a few at a time if the coaches are involved. Players cant even be on the sidelines, normally they're peeking thru the windows of the double doors. The scrimmages before Oct. 15th are unsupervised.