Providence women’s basketball continue innovative system

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This article was published 18/01/2024 (487 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The future of basketball could be on display inside the Niverville Community Resource and Recreation Centre, as the Providence College Pilots women’s basketball team looks to refine their game.

Last year the team moved to a system with three ‘lines’ of players, while substituting out all five players at the same time. Head coach Joel Coursey said the entire program is better equipped to play that style this year compared to last year, adding he had also improved as a recruiter, in explaining the team to potential players.

“The team as a whole is a lot more responsive to what we’re teaching them than they were last year, and I think we’re miles ahead of where we were,” Coursey said.

While the team was strict with running three separate lines one after another last year to establish their style, this year there is more variation, with different playing times and lineups depending on opponent and game situation.

“Part of it is us understanding what we’re doing as a coaching staff, and the other side of it is now that our players understand what we’re doing we can take the whole thing to another level,” Coursey said.

As an example, Coursey said he changes the rotation to bring in a line quicker if they excel at out-of-bounds plays.

“It maybe breaks the shift-length cycle that you’re going for, but you put someone on that’s going to get you that bucket right there,” he said.

Multiple lines of players can punish a traditional basketball rotation, as Providence aims to wear out star players who are not used to playing at such a high pace throughout the entire game.

“We’re going to make you run, we’re going to make you play fast, and there’s not a lot that you can do to stop that,” Coursey said.

“I think it’s a lot more fun, I’d like to see more teams running and playing fast. I think the fans enjoy it.”

The strengths of Providence’s system were on full display against an undermanned Sisseton Wahpeton College in Niverville. With only five players making the trip to Canada, the Mustangs were in tough to get results on back-to-back nights against a team as ready to run as the Pilots are.

Providence came out of the weekend with two strong results, first winning 99-56 on Friday night, before an 84-50 victory the next afternoon. The game on Saturday was more lopsided than the score indicated, as a Sisseton Wahpeton player forced from the game due to injury in the third quarter. With only four players on the court, coaches decided to end the game after only 30 minutes.

Coursey said the team had struggled in similar situations in years past, but made the most of their opportunity against the Mustangs.

“It’s weird when the game feels like it’s not the highest level and you let yourself slip to your worst performance,” he said.

“I felt like the last two games we didn’t do that… Yeah, we made mistakes that I would like us to eliminate in a tighter game, but I think we shot the ball pretty well two nights in a row and did our best to stay engaged in a tough situation.”

Playing with less players hasn’t meant a complete blowout in other basketball games. In 2017 Alabama was forced to play with only three players for the final 10 minutes of a top-tier NCAA game against Minnesota due to ejections and injuries. Despite playing three-on-five, Alabama managed to cut the deficit to three points before finally falling to their opponents in the final minute.

No such miracle run was in the cards for Sisseton Wahpeton, as their players appeared exhausted after playing the night before.

“I think the game was done pretty quickly today,” Coursey said.

“We set the tone last night and carried it in (today). It was kind of ‘wave the flag,’ at halftime.”

More competitive games should be in the cards this weekend, as Trinity Bible College makes the trip up to Niverville for more Northern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (NIAC) action on Jan. 19/20. College basketball teams in Manitoba play in NIAC as well as a provincial schedule, with teams in Canada hosting more games now that COVID-19 travel rules have relaxed.

Coursey said his team is aiming to win multiple banners this year, and hopes the system will be the key to victory.

The men’s team split a pair of games with the Mustangs this weekend.