Coach, Nelson expected to be back
Richardson, point guard both exited Delaware game early
After a brief health scare, coach Diane Richardson and point guard Aleah Nelson are expected to return for the Towson women’s basketball team’s first game in the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament, which begins Wednesday.
Richardson left the second half of the team’s 86-55 setback at Delaware on Sunday and was taken to an area hospital “out of an abundance of caution,” a team spokesman said Saturday morning. The fourth-year coach was released from the hospital that same night.
It is unclear whether the incident was related to Richardson’s bout with the coronavirus in January. After the Tigers lost 89-85 at James Madison on Jan. 3, Richardson tested positive for COVID-19 and did not return to the program until Jan. 27. Two games were canceled and three games were postponed as the team went into quarantine for 14 days.
After Towson defeated the Dukes 83-74 on Feb. 10 in a game rescheduled from Jan. 5, Richardson admitted the toll the illness had taken on her.
“I just remember going to Harrisonburg and coming back with COVID and barely making it out,” she said at the time.
Nelson, the team’s starter for the first 19 games, also left in the second half of that game at the Blue Hens, suffering a head injury after colliding with an opponent. The Baltimore resident and McDonogh graduate had entered the series against Delaware ranked sixth among her NCAA Division I peers in assists at 6.8 per game. She also ranked second among the Tigers in scoring at 13.6 points and first in freethrow percentage at 78.1.
Neither Richardson nor Nelson participated in the Tigers’ back-to-back series at UNC Wilmington. Associate head coach Zach Kancher ran the team in Richardson’s place, and junior Skye Williams started both games at point guard.
Towson won the first game 77-66 on Thursday, but the last-place Seahawks pulled off the upset in the second game, 75-65, on Friday. The loss dropped the Tigers (13-8 overall and 8-6 in the CAA) from the No. 2 seed to the No. 4 seed in the conference tournament.
They will meet No. 5 seed Hofstra (7-11, 5-7) in a quarterfinal on Thursday at 11 a.m. at Elon’s Schar Center for the right to advance to Friday’s semifinal date against either top-seeded Delaware (19-3, 16-2) or the winner between No. 8 seed College of Charleston (6-8, 2-6) or No. 9 seed UNC Wilmington (5-14, 2-11).
SARASOTA, Fla. — A year ago Saturday, the Orioles sent catcher Adley Rutschman down from his first major-league spring training with nearly a month’s worth of experience of what will be expected of him when he’s in the big leagues to carry into his minor-league season.
When he started at designated hitter for Saturday evening’s spring game against the Detroit Tigers, a year of stunted development largely outside of the public eye hasn’t changed the fact that Rutschman’s progress is still among the more significant things happening in this Orioles rebuild as the future face of the franchise.
“I think it’s a very fortunate and humbling position to be in, to have people say that, but you know I think it gets easier every day,” Rutschman said. “Every single day that I’m here playing baseball, it gets a little easier.”
The No. 1 overall pick in the 2019 draft remains one of the best prospects in all of baseball, and a year without minor-league baseball for his development to be showcased to the world hasn’t changed that.
After he was sent to minor-league camp last March, Rutschman had barely a week there before everyone was sent home.
Eventually, he got three months at the team’s alternate site to develop with the Orioles’ other top prospects and majorleague depth players. He told The Baltimore Sun in October that he used the time there to really experiment with “what stance, what load [and] what swing played the best” against higher-level pitching than he’d seen before in his career. By the last month of camp, he was dominating at the plate.
He also got experience calling games behind the plate to a specific report and learning how to deal with veteran pitchers, many of whom had major-league experience.
“I think the alternate site helped quite a bit,” Rutschman said Saturday. “Just being able to get those three months in, facing
pitchers live again and being able to catch some of the guys over there, helped a lot. I’d like to think some of the stuff we’re trying to do as far as pitch-calling, controlling the
game, and [me] being able to work on my swing or whatnot [that] I’m an overall better player from that.”
At the team’s instructional camp for prospects in October, Rutschman was among the leaders in helping promote the new hitting staff ’s methods to a group of players who hadn’t had much experience for it, allowing those coaches to enjoy immediate buy-in and get better results with the larger group early.
This spring, it’s been just as much about baseball for Rutschman as it has been simply dealing with his profile. When he got his first start earlier this week, manager Brandon Hyde said Rutschman was swinging a little out of control for his first three at-bats before calming down for his fourth one and hitting a run-scoring double.
Rutschman believes he can compete at any level. He doesn’t know his timeline to get to the big leagues and only wants to get better every day until that comes.
But the last year has also been important for him in further enhancing his thought control and not letting himself try and overextend himself, the way Hyde believed he was on Wednesday.
Rutschman said the team’s offseason book clubs and mindset work with mental skills coach Kathryn Rowe were helpful for him.The latter taught breathing techniques and mindfulness, which were helping Rutschman as the games — and the attention — come back this spring.
“I think the most important thing for me is understanding, having the ability to be able to step back from the game and just realizing how fortunate you are to be able to play the game,” he said. “[That] just puts everything in perspective, first and foremost. You’re able to step back and just see everything as an opportunity as opposed to a pressure situation.
“That’s the first thing. Then, just being able to control your mind and your body and being able to relax and breath, I guess.”