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It has been a long time since I actually blogged on my own about women's basketball, but with the start of the season upon us, I thought I better get back in the game.
The Huskers start their third week of practice today and the intensity level has looked good in my brief glimpses at practice.
I spent a couple hours at Saturday afternoon's practice sitting both on the sideline on the court and in the stands with the Fastbreakers who got to see a special open practice for booster club members.
In my brief looks at practice, Jordan Hooper has shown the most striking changes since last season. She is crisper, stronger and more explosive in several areas of the court. The first couple times last week that I saw her on the court doing post drills against the guys, the changes were striking. She still has a lot of work today, but the kind of improvement she is making around the basket looks good right now.
Although the additions to J-Hoop's game are impressive, they might not be as impressive as the changes made by the Hendricks Training Complex to the southwest corner of the Devaney Center.
What an awesome facility. Great practice courts. Beautiful team room and players' lounge. Terrific video room, spacious and well thought-out locker room area. Everything a player needs to improve in one technologically-sound area. Perfect.
The ribbon-cutting was Thursday and Coach Yori was on hand for that event, although Coach Smallwood and Kaitlyn Burke did the talking on behalf of the program.
Coach Yori is making progress on her way back from complications with knee surgery. She has endured a long, hard road so far since the first of September, but it has been great to see her at practice.
On Saturday, I got to hear her preaching the importance of defense and taking away the middle, and talking about how hard it was going to be to win games this year. It's hard to win games every year in NCAA Division I basketball.
Her comments have more impact on me from afar when I see her standing on crutches at practice, knowing how hard it has been for her to just get back to the court for practice.