CAREY: FOREIGN TRIP BENEFICIAL
June 27, 2011 01:46 PM | General
Every four years basketball programs are permitted to take their teams on a foreign tour and veteran West Virginia University coach Mike Carey plans to get great use out of this year’s 10-day trip to France and Italy in mid-August.
“This is a great time to go on a foreign trip because we have so many young players,” Carey explained. “Nine of our 12 players are either freshmen or sophomores and that will give us an opportunity to know them better.”
Perhaps more beneficial than the three games the Mountaineers will play are the 10 practices the team is permitted to have before they depart on Aug. 8.
“To me that’s big,” Carey said. “That’s more important than playing three games over there. Having those practices and then to play … to have that on film will help us when we get into the fall as far as what we did well and what we didn’t do well; who needs extra work and so forth. This is going to be a great learning experience for everybody.”
The vast majority of Carey’s returners are post players where they will be working with new assistant coach Lester Rowe. And Carey only has one senior on this year’s roster: 6-foot-5 center Natalie Burton.
Plus, he will also have to work in touted Florida transfer Christal Caldwell, a 5-foot-9 guard from Charlotte, N.C., and four outstanding freshmen who are now enrolled for the second session.
“I feel sorry for the freshmen,” Carey said. “We normally bring freshmen along through individual workouts and then you get into the regular practices in October. Our freshmen are going to have to jump into a three-hour practice and that’s going to be an eye opener for a lot of them.
“But that will be good for them. That just means they we be tested early and we’ll see where they are at.”
Asya Bussie, a 6-foot-4 junior center from Randallstown, Md., is the team’s top returning scorer (8.2 ppg.) and rebounder (4.7 rpg.). She started all 34 games last year as a sophomore for the Mountaineers, which finished the year with a 24-10 record.
“This is a great time to go on a foreign trip because we have so many young players,” Carey explained. “Nine of our 12 players are either freshmen or sophomores and that will give us an opportunity to know them better.”
Perhaps more beneficial than the three games the Mountaineers will play are the 10 practices the team is permitted to have before they depart on Aug. 8.
“To me that’s big,” Carey said. “That’s more important than playing three games over there. Having those practices and then to play … to have that on film will help us when we get into the fall as far as what we did well and what we didn’t do well; who needs extra work and so forth. This is going to be a great learning experience for everybody.”
The vast majority of Carey’s returners are post players where they will be working with new assistant coach Lester Rowe. And Carey only has one senior on this year’s roster: 6-foot-5 center Natalie Burton.
Plus, he will also have to work in touted Florida transfer Christal Caldwell, a 5-foot-9 guard from Charlotte, N.C., and four outstanding freshmen who are now enrolled for the second session.
“I feel sorry for the freshmen,” Carey said. “We normally bring freshmen along through individual workouts and then you get into the regular practices in October. Our freshmen are going to have to jump into a three-hour practice and that’s going to be an eye opener for a lot of them.
“But that will be good for them. That just means they we be tested early and we’ll see where they are at.”
Asya Bussie, a 6-foot-4 junior center from Randallstown, Md., is the team’s top returning scorer (8.2 ppg.) and rebounder (4.7 rpg.). She started all 34 games last year as a sophomore for the Mountaineers, which finished the year with a 24-10 record.
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