University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
Bulldogs Kickoff Practice For 2010-11 Season On Monday Night
10.04.2010 | Women's Basketball
ASHEVILLE, N.C. - With UNC Asheville's exhibition opener against Mars Hill a little under a month away, the Bulldogs began preseason practice on Monday evening at the Justice Center. Head coach Betsy Blose is looking forward to improving upon last year and explains how that journey will begin.
"We've been going since Aug. 23rd with our conditioning and some individuals, wanting them to get their feet wet. Tonight we're going to have a two-hour practice," stated Blose. "Women's basketball has some new legislation where we get 30 practices 40 days out from our first contest. I think the focus for this particular group this year will be our half-court man-to-man defense and rebounding.
"We feel like that's something we can control and something we can be good at," added Blose. "The next couple of days we're going to practice taking charges and rebounding drills."
Blose is excited about the newcomers on this year's team.
"We're excited about the young kids," Blose also said. "I think we've got some size, and I think another strength that this group is going to have is that we can shoot the three-point shot pretty well. We're hoping to make more than we did a year ago."
Defense will be a key component to first few practices.
"We meet as a staff to discuss our focus. One of the biggest things we're going to teach is the transition to defense when you've got to defend a 2-on-1 or a 3-on-2," commented Blose. "We're also going to work hard on the half court. We like to do a lot of drill to close out and pressure the shooter.
"Another focus is going to be defending flash cuts, basket cuts and bumping cutters," added Blose. We've also got to be a better defensive team on the help side this year. I think that this is a more cohesive group and I think they like each other and trust each other , so we're going to work on what I call our "peel and rotate" concept help side defense."
The Bulldogs will also work on game situations.
"We're going to do a lot of full-court conditioning with the ball," stated Blose. "Players like to condition with the basketball and that's something we're going to do. We're going to put our group into some free throw situations where they've got to make a 1-and-1. This will simulate a game-type situation.
"We're going to try to create a culture at practice tonight that has a lot of spirit and positive energy and that starts with me the head coach," Blose also said.
The Bulldogs play their first exhibition game on Wednesday, Nov. 3 against Mars Hill starting at 7 p.m.
