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Message: [QUOTE="JoePgh, post: 2582889, member: 1131"] There were four male practice players at yesterday’s practice, and they all appeared to be in the 5-10 to 6-0 range, i.e., guard sized in the men’s game. (I realize that UConn’s guards other than Crystal are that size.). They appeared to be in great physical condition, and a couple of them had KML form on their 3-point shots. One of the longest drills of the practice was was a 4-on-4 defensive drill, with the guys on offense and different sets of four women defending them in a zone. The guys were told to try to penetrate as far as they could, and kick it out if they were stopped. The defenders were usually successful in defending against penetration, but the guys were generally able to get an open 3-point shot after 7 or 8 passes, and it seemed like they made three quarters of those shots. Geno’s emphasis during the drill was on having defenders take the shortest and most direct route to their help assignment as the zone was pulled out of shape by the passing. This involved calling out changes on the help assignments to achieve this. One observation that surprised me was when Molly tried to steal a cross-court pass and did not succeed, then tried to move back to her original defensive position. Geno blew a whistle and made a comment about a 4.0 student not being smart enough to use the correct hand for her steal attempt. Then he said that once that happened, the defense had been pulled to Molly’s side of the court, so her teammate was actually closer to her former position than she was. So the correct move for her would have been to go the opposite side, away from the ball, where her lateness would have been less problematic. How many coaches would think of that, stop play to correct it, or have the luxury to be coaching points like that in mid-February? [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach