Jim Flanery’s team retooling for the 2019-20 season. (Williams / WBR)
Women’s Basketball
The Jays finished up their team practices for the summer with a couple of sessions on Monday and Tuesday. The main objective over the summer was a commitment to having some more teeth defensively with a few more question marks on the offensive side of the ball now that All-Big East forward Audrey Faber isn’t here anymore to just “go get a bucket.”
The team devoted a majority of their time on the court to applying extended ball pressure, defending weak side actions, switching and communicating on dribble hand-offs, helping on slips and cuts, and moving on air time. Each practice throughout the summer session usually concluded with a 5-on-5 mini scrimmage. Most of them came down to the final possession or two as well, which might be an early indicator of a competitive fall camp when it comes time to nail down a starting lineup and a main rotation.
Jim Flanery on revamping the defense: “I’m pleased at the buy-in. I think it helped that we had some early success. When you see that you’re getting tips and deflections and steals, and making things more difficult, then the buy-in increases. We felt like it was necessary. We’ve said for the last few years that we need to force more turnovers, but maybe haven’t had the personnel and have been more sure of what we’ve had on offense to the point where we didn’t feel like we needed to force it. Losing Audrey makes it a little more likely that we’re going to have to generate something off of our defense, and it fits our personnel and our guard depth better.”
Jim Flanery on freshman point guard ‘Dee Dee’ Pryor: “We’ve seen some growth already. Going from being somebody who is quick and can make plays in high school to doing that in college is a jump. To sustain that against someone like Tatum or Temi or Liv every day that’s something that she is learning. That’s been good for her. She’s good enough in enough areas to be a good player. I wouldn’t say she’s exceptional at anything, but I feel like she’s solid, she’s coachable, and she’ll push to play. Whether she can get on the floor or not, she’ll push to play, and she’ll make us better.”
Jim Flanery on freshman center Mykel Parham: “Mykel probably exceeded my expectations. Offensively she’s still got a ways to go, but defensively she’s very impactful. We can do some things with what we’ve seen defensively that we haven’t necessarily had in the last several years. She’s a little better passer than I thought and she’s really coachable. She’s a learner, and she can go out on the floor and guard, too — not only can she make defensive plays at the rim, but she’s pretty good away from the basket at sliding her feet, so we’ll be able to do some things with ball screens and switching with her.”
Jim Flanery on freshman forward Carly Bachelor: “Defensively I think she’s got a little more versatility than I thought. I think she can guard up and guard a bigger player. She’s a little more athletic than I thought and she uses her length pretty well, and she likes to rebound. At both ends. I think that’s the biggest thing we’ve seen from her is her willingness to rebound and her ability to score in different ways. She’s not a high volume, great 3-point shooter, but she’s a good enough 3-point shooter, and she’s really good at moving without the ball. I think you can put her out there with lineups that can shoot and she can be really effective as somebody who can get you extra possessions. But I also like her fight defensively.”
Practice will get going in preparation for the Australia trip coming up (Williams / WBR)
Men’s Basketball
Not a whole lot worth highlighting on the men’s side of things as group workouts wrapped up on Wednesday before the players headed off to their various Independence Day destinations. The first official practice of the 2019-20 season kicks off on Monday, July 8 when the team starts preparation for their foreign trip to Australia that runs August 1-13.
Notes:
- Idaho State grad transfer Kelvin Jones is expected to arrive in Omaha this weekend and, pending a physical, should be on the floor for his first practice as a Bluejay on Monday.
- 2020 center Matthew Nicholson was on campus this week for an official visit. Nicholson, a consensus 3-star big man from Clarkston, Michigan, is listed at 6-foot-11 on Rivals and an even 7-foot on his Nike EYBL roster bio. He averaged 6.1 points, 5.7 rebounds, 1.2 blocks, and shot 61.7% from the field in 13 games on the EYBL circuit this offseason after putting up 13.6 points, 12.6 boards, and 5.2 blocks per game during his junior year at Clarkston High School. Along with Creighton, Nicholson holds offers from power conference programs Northwestern and Xavier.