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Blue Devils Getting Stronger, Faster, & Tougher
9/14/2019 10:43:00 AM | Women's Basketball
By Jim Sumner, GoDuke.com
DURHAM, N.C.-- Stronger, faster, tougher.
That sounds like a military recruiting poster.
But it's actually Joanne P. McCallie's assessment of where her 13th Duke women's basketball team is right now, coming off summer workouts, only a few short weeks away from the beginning of fall practice.
The NCAA allows college coaches to work with their players for up to eight hours per week during the summer as long as the players are enrolled in summer school. And, of course, they can work out on their own pretty much anytime they want.
But how much is that? It's a delicate balance. The off-season is a great time to work on your body, work on your skill set, blend with your teammates. Champions are made in the off season and all that.
But it's also a great time to rest, decompress and recover from injuries.
Duke gave its players the first session of summer school off. Some players went home, some didn't, some traveled.
And then there was Miela Goodchild, the sophomore guard who helped Australia to the silver medal (second place) at the 2019 FIBA World Cup.
That tournament was played in Bangkok, Thailand and as soon as it ended in late July, Goodchild went home to Australia for the rest of the summer with instructions to stay off the court until fall semester started back at Duke.
McCallie says Goodchild is rested and ready to get back to work.
She says the same thing about redshirt senior Haley Gorecki, who led Duke with a school-record 36 minutes per game last season. It's not easy to keep Haley Gorecki off the basketball court but she rested enough that McCallie says Gorecki "feels better than anytime she's been at Duke."
McCallie adds that she needs to "watch her rep level. We're looking to be playing into April and we need her fresh. Then she'll go straight into the WNBA season and we owe it to her to keep her fresh for that."
The same thing applies to senior forward Leaonna Odom. She stayed at Duke all summer, prepping for what she hopes will be a speci\al senior season.
Sophomore center Uchenna Nwoke also stayed all summer, working her way back after a knee injury sidelined her down the stretch of her freshman season.
If all goes well, a healthy Kyra Lambert will join Gorecki and Odom in providing veteran leadership. McCallie won't venture a return date for Lambert or Mikalya Boykin, both recovering from knee surgery but says both are running and lifting and are where they need to be for a full return.
Lambert has missed two seasons due to injury and likely could receive a sixth-year from the NCAA. But Lambert should finish her MBA next spring and will not pursue that option.
Junior Jayda Adams had knee surgery earlier this year and will sit out this season.
Junior post player Jade Williams may have had the most productive summer of anyone on the roster. She went home to Texas earlier in the summer and worked hard on her game.
"Right now, she's our best player," McCallie says, while cautioning that this changes every few days. "She's improved her handle and her range. She still needs to get stronger. But she's become a true stretch-4."
Gorecki, Lambert and Odom have been around long enough to understand how it all works and that helps with the younger players.
But there's a new element. Wanisha Smith joined the team as an assistant after playing in the WNBA and spending eight years as an assistant at Longwood and three seasons at Towson.
Smith was McCallie's only senior during her first year at Duke and she came to value her toughness, her rebounding and her defensive prowess.
McCallie says Smith has brought those qualities back to Duke.
"She's made a huge impact; her energy, her experience, her Duke pride. You know when she's on the floor."
Much of the summer work is on individual skills. When working as a unit Duke has focused almost exclusively on offense, seeking more flow; McCallie calls it an "amoeba" offense. Both Williams and sophomore Onome Akinbode-James--Duke's biggest rotation players--have worked on developing their all-around games, which should lead to more so-called "positionless" basketball. McCallie says she has more interchangeable parts than ever before, more athletes, more depth, especially as Duke integrates freshmen Azana Baines, Jada Claude and Jaida Patrick into the system.
Only a few teams are still playing in April and that's a lofty goal. But if it's one that Duke is able to achieve a large part of that foundation will have been laid this summer.
Stronger, faster, tougher.
#GoDuke
DURHAM, N.C.-- Stronger, faster, tougher.
That sounds like a military recruiting poster.
But it's actually Joanne P. McCallie's assessment of where her 13th Duke women's basketball team is right now, coming off summer workouts, only a few short weeks away from the beginning of fall practice.
The NCAA allows college coaches to work with their players for up to eight hours per week during the summer as long as the players are enrolled in summer school. And, of course, they can work out on their own pretty much anytime they want.
But how much is that? It's a delicate balance. The off-season is a great time to work on your body, work on your skill set, blend with your teammates. Champions are made in the off season and all that.
But it's also a great time to rest, decompress and recover from injuries.
Duke gave its players the first session of summer school off. Some players went home, some didn't, some traveled.
And then there was Miela Goodchild, the sophomore guard who helped Australia to the silver medal (second place) at the 2019 FIBA World Cup.
That tournament was played in Bangkok, Thailand and as soon as it ended in late July, Goodchild went home to Australia for the rest of the summer with instructions to stay off the court until fall semester started back at Duke.
McCallie says Goodchild is rested and ready to get back to work.
She says the same thing about redshirt senior Haley Gorecki, who led Duke with a school-record 36 minutes per game last season. It's not easy to keep Haley Gorecki off the basketball court but she rested enough that McCallie says Gorecki "feels better than anytime she's been at Duke."
McCallie adds that she needs to "watch her rep level. We're looking to be playing into April and we need her fresh. Then she'll go straight into the WNBA season and we owe it to her to keep her fresh for that."
The same thing applies to senior forward Leaonna Odom. She stayed at Duke all summer, prepping for what she hopes will be a speci\al senior season.
Sophomore center Uchenna Nwoke also stayed all summer, working her way back after a knee injury sidelined her down the stretch of her freshman season.
If all goes well, a healthy Kyra Lambert will join Gorecki and Odom in providing veteran leadership. McCallie won't venture a return date for Lambert or Mikalya Boykin, both recovering from knee surgery but says both are running and lifting and are where they need to be for a full return.
Lambert has missed two seasons due to injury and likely could receive a sixth-year from the NCAA. But Lambert should finish her MBA next spring and will not pursue that option.
Junior Jayda Adams had knee surgery earlier this year and will sit out this season.
Junior post player Jade Williams may have had the most productive summer of anyone on the roster. She went home to Texas earlier in the summer and worked hard on her game.
"Right now, she's our best player," McCallie says, while cautioning that this changes every few days. "She's improved her handle and her range. She still needs to get stronger. But she's become a true stretch-4."
Gorecki, Lambert and Odom have been around long enough to understand how it all works and that helps with the younger players.
But there's a new element. Wanisha Smith joined the team as an assistant after playing in the WNBA and spending eight years as an assistant at Longwood and three seasons at Towson.
Smith was McCallie's only senior during her first year at Duke and she came to value her toughness, her rebounding and her defensive prowess.
McCallie says Smith has brought those qualities back to Duke.
"She's made a huge impact; her energy, her experience, her Duke pride. You know when she's on the floor."
Much of the summer work is on individual skills. When working as a unit Duke has focused almost exclusively on offense, seeking more flow; McCallie calls it an "amoeba" offense. Both Williams and sophomore Onome Akinbode-James--Duke's biggest rotation players--have worked on developing their all-around games, which should lead to more so-called "positionless" basketball. McCallie says she has more interchangeable parts than ever before, more athletes, more depth, especially as Duke integrates freshmen Azana Baines, Jada Claude and Jaida Patrick into the system.
Only a few teams are still playing in April and that's a lofty goal. But if it's one that Duke is able to achieve a large part of that foundation will have been laid this summer.
Stronger, faster, tougher.
#GoDuke
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