This Saturday, beginning at noon, the Connecticut Sun will host tryouts at the Mohegan Tribal Government Building for practice squad players who will spend the summer helping the Sun prepare for each game.
Assistant coach Steve Smith oversees the practice team, which is usually comprised of male college players. Anyone interested in trying out, can register here.
Steve discussed Saturday’s tryout earlier this week.
What is it you want from practice players?
“We look for players who have a skill set that’s comparable or as close as possible to what we’re going to see in the league. Strong, fast, athletic and an ability to play basketball.”
How has the search for candidates been going?
“We have been reaching out to all the local colleges, both on the men’s and women’s side. On the women’s side, looking for superstar (male) practice players they may have. Last year, we really benefitted from having three UConn practice players who regularly came, which was phenomenal. We were also fortunate enough to get some kids from Mitchell College and Conn College. They did a great job for us.”
What kind of mentality are you looking for from your practice players?
“The mind-set we want from them is, come in and compete without, knock on wood, injuring our players. Come in, be smart, compete. Give us a competitive opportunity to go up against physicality and strength and speed and fitness and good basketball players.”
How much of an impact did the practice squad players have in 2017?
“It was vital for us last year. Coach (Curt Miller) felt our practice team players who came last year were instrumental in helping us develop the way we did. By going up against those types of players, the caliber of player we had in practice, it really prepared us very well for the league. We played faster, we played stronger because we were playing against good competition in practice.”
But it isn’t just athletic ability, right? You need players who also understand the game.
“That’s what coach (Miller) is looking for. These are NBA and WNBA sets we are running and schemes we are trying to emulate, so we definitely have to have players who have a high (basketball) IQ. If not, we are wasting our time.”