Lorin Dixon keeps Matthew Lisi while teams scrimmage Guido Vitti for Bloomberg Businessweek
It is time that three practice of Eurobasket women University of Connecticut in Storrs, Conn., coach Geno Auriemma are not happy. One of his team players practice 15, a sophomore unknown keeps hitting shots of jumping on Maya Moore, senior all-American three times. "How the hell is happening?". Application for Auriemma. "Show us exactly what happened," that it requires. "How it it a break."
That's right, it. Connecticut head team is among the two-thirds of the Division I women's basketball programs this practice against male players, a National Collegiate Athletic survey. Assn.. 2007. Coach Pat Summitt, the most victorious coach unprecedented in the history of college basketball, the University of Tennessee has used men since their engagement at the school in 1974. Duke, Michigan and UCLA play also against male, just as sex teams the half of the women's National Basketball Association teams. Auriemma has started using men shortly before its first championship UConn Huskies in 1995 when Greg Yeomans, who later marched on the team male and some of his friends came to a practice. Auriemma liked what he saw, and since then, he said men were "one of the most important aspects of our program."
Because men, less those who gravitate competition round ball, are generally built larger, stronger and faster than women, teams use them as a form of overload training. It's like wearing ankle weights at run time. "As far as the speed and force, you will not find better teams" Moore said, comparing the UConn Huskies practice squad with his game-day opponents. "We have to have something extra to follow with them."
If it were not for the guys, starters would practice against the bench players, which, in General, are not as good as the first team. In addition, a coaching point of view, guys are the dream of superfluous work management. "We do not have to worry about whether they will be ready to play," said Auriemma. "We do everything we want with them, and they love it." Tell you to play defence for an hour, they play.
Incentives for men are less obvious, other than to have a story to tell their friends in 15 years. Rules of the NCAA prohibiting them to receive financial assistance to participate, so the most they are allowed to obtain is practical. At UConn Huskies, where Nike (NKE) is passed to $ 46 million over 10 years for the outfit, practice players teams get Dri-FIT underwear, socks, shorts, sweaters, shoes and occasionally costume of sweat and jacket. Yet, he obtained there be ways easier to get the sneakers that devote up to 15 hours in a practice of the week with a team that will never let you in a game. So why do?
"Play every day, you can abandon that," said senior Eric Carroll. Practice players are usually hoops junkies, who played in high school, but were sentenced by the same genetic coding that makes them ideal practice fodder: they were not grand, fort and enough fast to hack into Division I ball. "Playing basketball all your life and a Division I school where you are not then a Division I basketball player, kind you of go through withdrawal," said senior Stephen Mahier. "" "". You can play all pick-up, you want to, but part of a team is something that I really miss. ?
UConn Huskies wants his practice team to look like a team. Matt Gade, a 24-year old student and practice player old, took over the team in 2009. "When I started it was kind of one-of-mouth thing", he said. "It was almost a bunch of bums". The players wore their own equipment and are only sporadically. Since then, he has formalized the process. With assistant coach of the women Shea Ralph, he scouts games intramural and brings potential readers for pre-season training. Auriemma, who has the control final squad, said that he is "guys who do not have an ego - the guys who do to go and come home here and say,"Hey, I've blocked Maya Moore shot five times."" "
Chest-shocks ego gratification is out of the question. Therefore some of the physical exhibit associated game of men. Shot blocking, for example, is often limited since few opponents of the UConn Huskies featured advocates who often do. But for the most part, men compete with women in terms of the level. ("If one of them hit me in the mouth or something, it is," says Moore.) Pats congratulations on the thigh after the good parts are same in both directions in practice.
Camaraderie carries off the coast of the Court. Men and women stroll around campus, including a pumpkin sponsored by the team of sculpture in the fall. Although none of the guys would be ' fess to any ballads. ("Probably lots of guys on the wish of the practice team," said Mahier.) The floor, men also have the opportunity of basking in reflected glory: last April, during Final Four women in San Antonio, 10 of them to watch the team play.
However, the stamp of the practice team is limited. Friends of Mahier ridicule him regularly. "I would like to see you come here and Maya custody for a piece, not to mention a practice any", he tells them. It is something else, the guys in practice obtain: rare overview of the gender gap. It may be a surprising experience. "Everyone thinks, guys against girls, we're automatically going to win," said Mahier, "which is completely not the case, because I get my ass kicked day and out." For Auriemma, it is one more reason to have men autour. "They help to spread the Gospel to all the guys here."
This is a reversal of roles stark for a group of guys who were often at the top of the social hierarchy in high school. This is something not lost on Maya Moore. "The coolest part is humility," she said, "because I know in our society, if a girl beats, you..." Auriemma sees same altruism. "They love to improve the quality of our players," he said, "of which they know they are." And sports shoes are not bad. "All my friends are speechless that I bring in new shoes," said Mahier, "they like,"dude!"" "
Boudway is a reporter for Bloomberg Businessweek.
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