Saturday, October 19, 2019

October 19th, 2019: Fordham open practice

Basketball never stops. For some really big rings, testing out mobile tech, and dubious eggs, join your intrepid blogger after the jump.



Good morning! Or something like that. It's too early for this. It's always too early for this, but we were out the door at quarter to seven in order to make it to Fordham for open practice at 9. There are other associated events like a brunch and a football tailgate, but I don't need breakfast or a football tailgate. I just want basketball and a ring ceremony for your 2019 Atlantic 10 champions.

We're not going all the way out, but fans need practice too, so we're working on names, free throw timing, shot clock cadence, defense rhythm, and all that jazz. It's who we are. It's what we do. So I'm writing GNoD and he's doing names. I'm also getting used to my keyboard and trying to figure out why the shift key seems to occasionally be stuck. It's not just me running on permanent CAPS LOCK.

I think I saw one of the scout team players trying to work the officials. It seems to be working. We're having trouble not fouling the scout team. I'm not okay with this.

I like what I'm seeing out of Vilisi Tavui in this practice. She hasn't really had a chance to show what she can do, and she looks ready to prove herself. If we have a real center in this conference, with the guards that we have, we're in very good shape, even with the experience that we lost in Lauren Holden and Mary Goulding. Heh. Good eye by the ref noticing the shot clock hadn't started. Very professional, even in an open practice.

Now we're getting more whistles on both sides. (Kene was working the officials during the quarter break too, although it seemed to be more of a “this is what a travel is” tutorial.) And we've got our first egregious bad call of the season, with a collision between Kaitlyn Downing and Zara Jillings (both on the white team) somehow resulting in a foul on the scout team. It's not even November yet!

Next up: intros! Hi, everyone. The coaches introduced themselves, and then Coach Gaitley proceeded to sing their praises for them. Ice Young describing herself as “super old” was worth a giggle. Then there were trivia questions.

And now we have rings! Rings are the best thing. I'm pretty sure at least two players squeed. Alexa Giuliano and Lauren Holden returned for their rings. And hugs. There were lots of hugs. Everyone was hugging.

The floor was opened to questions, but people were pretty reticent. I know I couldn't think of anything to ask. Someone eventually asked the squad why they chose Fordham, and a frankly distressing number of the answers were “because it's close to home”, which made it funny when the mic got to Zara, who started her response along the lines of “unlike everyone else I'm not 20 minutes from home”. Vilisi openly said Fordham was the only door open to her and she took it with both hands.

I kind of get the sense that Coach Gaitley is way more gregarious than most of her players (except maybe Bre, who couldn't stop dancing even during the Q and A, and Ice). She was out there greeting everyone by name. So yeah, that was a fun event, short as it was, because it was actually basketball-related.

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