Skill in women’s basketball is jumping
Young women playing in university are now more versatile and adaptable
They are multi-faceted basketball players adept at all aspects of the game, not just young women who play simply because they’re tall and they feel they should, or because they are athletic and it’s something to do.
If there is one thing that’s stood out as the U Sports women’s championship unfolds at the Mattamy Athletic Centre, it’s that women’s basketball is like all basketball: The skill level is growing, everyone can do a little bit of everything and it’s a welcome sight for those who appreciate the game.
Bigger players are excellent ball-handlers who don’t simply plop themselves in the post and muscle themselves to the rim, while smaller players are quick and get into the paint and finish in traffic. If the game overall is evolving into a positionless sport that requires every player to have myriad skills, the Canadian university game is evolving as quickly as any.
The overall skill level has become the most noticeable improvement over the last decade or so.
“I think for sure, yeah,” said Haley McDonald, the five-footfive guard of the Acadia Axewomen.
“When you’re young, the tallest kid is normally taught that they’re the post or they have to go post up, and now you’re seeing huge six-foot-four point guards coming up the floor handling the ball.
“I think everyone can do a little bit of everything, even … fivefoot-10 posts who can get in with other larger players, and I think the height advantage that used to be the stereotype for basketball isn’t quite like it used to be.”
There is little doubt that the depth of talent at the highest rung of the U Sports ladder is higher than it’s ever been. One only has to watch a bit of any game at the national championships to see that.
The better athletes — stronger, quicker, more dedicated, more capable of doing more things — have taken the game to unprecedented heights. There are still big steps to be taken by some of the lower-level teams across the country, but the improvement has been rapid — startling, to some degree — and very, very important.
“Back in the day, we were focusing on dribbling with our left hand and making passes with our left, and executing our offence, but it’s been really fun,” Saskatchewan Huskies coach Lisa Thomaidis said. “You get some players who are capable of a lot of different skills and you can play around with that and have some different tactics, and you have a level of athlete who now can cover the floor and play different positions … just a lot of things have changed in the game that now challenge you to also adapt.”
The challenge, of course, is to continue that overall advancement, and that’s where coaching becomes a key component. Better athletes deserve the best instruction they can get, and U Sports coaches are cognizant of that. They need to keep up with the game at the same speed as the athletes are developing.
“It’s not always easy to find coaches, to pay coaches, to make sure that they stay … We try to keep those coaches,” Laval coach Guillaume Giroux said. “I know all around U Sports, there’s a lot more fulltime assistants now. We can work with the kids … at least the kids that stay, we can really work with them.”
Often in the past — and that’s in the dark old days, when women’s sports were too often an afterthought — coaching was little more than supervising. Today, coaching the coaches is almost as important as coaching the players and many U Sports coaches are dedicated to professional development.
“This is no disrespect to the coaches before, but I think one thing at the university level is that coaching professions have changed,” Ryerson’s Carly Clarke said. “I started assistant coaching 13 years ago, you got $2,000 honorarium if you were lucky. Now there’s full-time assistants positions at universities. There’s more well-rounded, high-performance development for coaches.”
McMaster’s Theresa Burns has spent more than three decades coaching in the Canadian university system. As she takes the Marauders into a semifinal Saturday afternoon against Saskatchewan, she knows that the coaching battle will be as interesting as the matchups on the court.
“I think the growth in the game has been amazing to watch,” she said. “It’s just so wonderful as a longtime basketball person to see the growth.”