Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Practice Players Have Aided WVU's Postseason Run
March 26, 2018 02:31 PM | Women's Basketball
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - It's late March and West Virginia University's depleted women's basketball team is still playing in the Women's National Invitation Tournament as we are about to flip the calendar to April.
It's a great opportunity to extend the careers of outstanding seniors Teana Muldrow, Kristina King and Chania Ray, and it's also a great opportunity for returning players Naomi Davenport, Katrina Pardee, Ashley Jones, Theresa Ekhelar and Destiny Harden to continue learning and developing.
Helping make all of this possible is a handful of male West Virginia University students recruited from campus to practice with the team.
They're volunteers who get nothing out of it other than maybe a t-shirt, some sweat pants and a pair of sneakers for their efforts.
"I'm glad we have them," assistant coach Christal Caldwell said. "They're giving up their spring breaks or Christmas to be here. They give up a lot, so I definitely respect them and appreciate them so much."
Staff member Craig Carey is in charge of locating them and working with the Athletic Compliance Office to make sure they are full-time students in good academic standing.
Once the guys are cleared, they show up right before each practice just like the team. Sometimes they come in wearing red sneakers or their mismatched high school practice gear, munching hamburgers and sipping sodas, but they come ready to learn the scouting report of the team West Virginia is about to face so they have to understand basic basketball concepts.
Scouting reports are rotated from assistant coach to assistant coach, and Chester Nichols is in charge of the scout for Wednesday night's opponent Virginia Tech.
So, when the guys arrive for practice later today, Nichols will spend about 20 minutes with them going over all of Virginia Tech's sets and defenses. And Virginia Tech is likely doing the same thing right now in Blacksburg.
"We all work with them," Caldwell explained. "When it comes time for us to present the scout, we just pull them together right before practice and literally go over every play offensively and defensively of how we want it to look in practice."
Using male practice players is not new in the women's game, nor is it groundbreaking. Lots of teams do it. Caldwell played against male players her entire career at WVU, and when she was an assistant coach at LaSalle, the program used a couple of male players to practice against the women.
But, some women's coaches are adamantly against the practice because they believe it robs developmental opportunities for their backups.
Mike Carey is not one of them.
He knows without male practice players his team's season would have been over three weeks ago because West Virginia simply doesn't have enough healthy players right now to prepare for the teams it is facing.
"I'm big on having male practice players," he admitted. "It helps us. It helps us get stronger, quicker and play more aggressively. Why not use male practice players?"
Carey has instituted a couple of ground rules whenever male players take the floor and begin practicing against the women. One, they are not allowed to dive on the floor for loose balls and, two, they can't leave their feet when they are in the paint.
"I don't want them diving on the floor for loose balls at someone's knees," he said. "Other than that, go and be aggressive and play."
Years ago, one male practice player went to the ground for a loose ball and ended up injuring star center Asya Bussie's knee.
There have also been instances when Carey has chewed them out during practice when they mess up - just like any other player.
"I can tone them down," he laughed. "I'll be honest, I've put them on the treadmill, too. I have run players in practice. I had one that I had to do it this year. They need to listen, and they need to do what we ask them to do."
The coaches and players all agree, though, that the benefits of having male practice players far outweigh the negatives.
Having them helps preserve the regular players who have gotten worn down during the season. They can also more closely simulate the teams West Virginia is going to face and give the regular players a better look than the backups can at times.
Carey will even adjust the practice group he puts out on the floor to match the personnel of the team they are facing. One of the male players is close to 6-7, and he was used when the Mountaineers prepared for Baylor's 6-foot-7-inch center Kalani Brown.
Other times, he might use the guys standing 6-foot-1 or 6-foot-2 at forward to more closely match the typical size of a women's college forward.
"We definitely try to match it up to the next team that we're going to play," Caldwell explained. "For instance, Oklahoma State was one of my scouts this year and their point guard is a lefty. We had a left-handed practice player and I'm like, 'Hey, go out there and this is what I want you to do.' That makes it more realistic."
"You match up personnel so that's why we have a lot of them," Carey added. "Our compliance office asks, 'Why do you need so many practice players?' Well, some of them aren't here, some of them get sick, some of them get hurt, some of them go home over Christmas and then we've got different styles that we prepare for.' You have to have a lot of different options."
Carey also wants to make sure what his practice guys do out on the floor against his team matches the women's game. There have been occasions when he's had to explain that to them.
"Sometimes you have to say, 'Girls don't do that. Settle down a little bit,'" Carey admitted. "They're not going to jump up there and dunk it on us or pin it against the glass and do all that stuff."
When Caldwell was a WVU player she recalled one of the male practice players actually being good enough to earn an invitation to walk on for the men's team.
Senior Chania Ray said this year's group of practice players are all pretty good players as well.
"Yeah, they're solid," she said.
In some instances, Ray admitted the practice guys actually ran the opposing team's offense better than the teams they faced.
"They definitely give us a good look with who we are going to play," she said. "They execute everything well, and we're really appreciative that they come out every day for every practice and work hard."
2018 Women's Basketball Practice Player Roster
Jacoby Vault (Virginia Beach, Va.)
Joey White (Lancaster, Pa.)
Evan Purvis (Lancaster, Pa.)
Ryan Sprouse (Bridgeport, W.Va.)
Chase Robey (Bridgeport, W.Va.)
Dylan Purcell ((Bridgeport, W.Va.)
Haden Miller (Bridgeport, W.Va.)
Will Collier (Clarksburg, W.Va.)
Michael Gazkill (Fairmont, W.Va.)
Nicky Solomon (Morgantown, W.Va.)
James Ross (Charleston, W.Va.)
It's a great opportunity to extend the careers of outstanding seniors Teana Muldrow, Kristina King and Chania Ray, and it's also a great opportunity for returning players Naomi Davenport, Katrina Pardee, Ashley Jones, Theresa Ekhelar and Destiny Harden to continue learning and developing.
Helping make all of this possible is a handful of male West Virginia University students recruited from campus to practice with the team.
They're volunteers who get nothing out of it other than maybe a t-shirt, some sweat pants and a pair of sneakers for their efforts.
"I'm glad we have them," assistant coach Christal Caldwell said. "They're giving up their spring breaks or Christmas to be here. They give up a lot, so I definitely respect them and appreciate them so much."
Staff member Craig Carey is in charge of locating them and working with the Athletic Compliance Office to make sure they are full-time students in good academic standing.
Once the guys are cleared, they show up right before each practice just like the team. Sometimes they come in wearing red sneakers or their mismatched high school practice gear, munching hamburgers and sipping sodas, but they come ready to learn the scouting report of the team West Virginia is about to face so they have to understand basic basketball concepts.
Scouting reports are rotated from assistant coach to assistant coach, and Chester Nichols is in charge of the scout for Wednesday night's opponent Virginia Tech.
So, when the guys arrive for practice later today, Nichols will spend about 20 minutes with them going over all of Virginia Tech's sets and defenses. And Virginia Tech is likely doing the same thing right now in Blacksburg.
"We all work with them," Caldwell explained. "When it comes time for us to present the scout, we just pull them together right before practice and literally go over every play offensively and defensively of how we want it to look in practice."
Using male practice players is not new in the women's game, nor is it groundbreaking. Lots of teams do it. Caldwell played against male players her entire career at WVU, and when she was an assistant coach at LaSalle, the program used a couple of male players to practice against the women.
But, some women's coaches are adamantly against the practice because they believe it robs developmental opportunities for their backups.
Mike Carey is not one of them.
He knows without male practice players his team's season would have been over three weeks ago because West Virginia simply doesn't have enough healthy players right now to prepare for the teams it is facing.
"I'm big on having male practice players," he admitted. "It helps us. It helps us get stronger, quicker and play more aggressively. Why not use male practice players?"
Carey has instituted a couple of ground rules whenever male players take the floor and begin practicing against the women. One, they are not allowed to dive on the floor for loose balls and, two, they can't leave their feet when they are in the paint.
"I don't want them diving on the floor for loose balls at someone's knees," he said. "Other than that, go and be aggressive and play."
Years ago, one male practice player went to the ground for a loose ball and ended up injuring star center Asya Bussie's knee.
There have also been instances when Carey has chewed them out during practice when they mess up - just like any other player.
"I can tone them down," he laughed. "I'll be honest, I've put them on the treadmill, too. I have run players in practice. I had one that I had to do it this year. They need to listen, and they need to do what we ask them to do."
The coaches and players all agree, though, that the benefits of having male practice players far outweigh the negatives.
Having them helps preserve the regular players who have gotten worn down during the season. They can also more closely simulate the teams West Virginia is going to face and give the regular players a better look than the backups can at times.
Carey will even adjust the practice group he puts out on the floor to match the personnel of the team they are facing. One of the male players is close to 6-7, and he was used when the Mountaineers prepared for Baylor's 6-foot-7-inch center Kalani Brown.
Other times, he might use the guys standing 6-foot-1 or 6-foot-2 at forward to more closely match the typical size of a women's college forward.
"We definitely try to match it up to the next team that we're going to play," Caldwell explained. "For instance, Oklahoma State was one of my scouts this year and their point guard is a lefty. We had a left-handed practice player and I'm like, 'Hey, go out there and this is what I want you to do.' That makes it more realistic.""You match up personnel so that's why we have a lot of them," Carey added. "Our compliance office asks, 'Why do you need so many practice players?' Well, some of them aren't here, some of them get sick, some of them get hurt, some of them go home over Christmas and then we've got different styles that we prepare for.' You have to have a lot of different options."
Carey also wants to make sure what his practice guys do out on the floor against his team matches the women's game. There have been occasions when he's had to explain that to them.
"Sometimes you have to say, 'Girls don't do that. Settle down a little bit,'" Carey admitted. "They're not going to jump up there and dunk it on us or pin it against the glass and do all that stuff."
When Caldwell was a WVU player she recalled one of the male practice players actually being good enough to earn an invitation to walk on for the men's team.
Senior Chania Ray said this year's group of practice players are all pretty good players as well.
"Yeah, they're solid," she said.
In some instances, Ray admitted the practice guys actually ran the opposing team's offense better than the teams they faced.
"They definitely give us a good look with who we are going to play," she said. "They execute everything well, and we're really appreciative that they come out every day for every practice and work hard."
2018 Women's Basketball Practice Player Roster
Jacoby Vault (Virginia Beach, Va.)
Joey White (Lancaster, Pa.)
Evan Purvis (Lancaster, Pa.)
Ryan Sprouse (Bridgeport, W.Va.)
Chase Robey (Bridgeport, W.Va.)
Dylan Purcell ((Bridgeport, W.Va.)
Haden Miller (Bridgeport, W.Va.)
Will Collier (Clarksburg, W.Va.)
Michael Gazkill (Fairmont, W.Va.)
Nicky Solomon (Morgantown, W.Va.)
James Ross (Charleston, W.Va.)
Players Mentioned
G/F
/ Women's Basketball
C
/ Women's Basketball
F/G
/ Women's Basketball
F
/ Women's Basketball
F
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's Basketball
G
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