Slow and steady doesn’t always win the race, Jon Kreiner said.
He plans to put his hypothesis to the test this season, taking a new-look, run-and-gun Lakehead Thunderwolves women’s basketball squad and daring the opposition to compete in a track-meet each weekend.
Gone are twin towers Lacey McNulty and Lindsay Druery and the down-low power the all-star forwards brought to the team in years past. Their departure forced Kreiner to take a new tack with his team, a club that finished 10-12 last season and barely missed the OUA playoffs.
The plan is to wear down the other teams, starting this weekend on the road against Ryerson and Toronto and negating what the competition brings to the table, attacking them and hoping they get into foul trouble and forcing them to go small.
It’s had mixed results in pre-season, he said.
“We’re starting to become a little more successful in making other teams play our style of game, so now they’re having a few extra holes in their game,” said Kreiner, whose team finished 4-6 in non-conference play, including a pair of losses last weekend south of the border against Bemidji State.
“That’s the kind of battle we need to go into every game, and try to make other teams change to us.”
It takes time even to convince his own players to make the switch to a fast-break offence, and he’s still fighting their urges to stick with the tried-and-true formula that saw them work the perimeter looking for an opening down low for Druery or McNulty to exploit.
“We’ve always had an inside game, so really trying to transition our team has taken a bit of time to get that mindset,” Kreiner said.
It also means spreading out the offence, which has been carried by fifth-year guard Carolyn Fragale in the pre-season.
Kreiner said having different players step up each night is an absolute must, if only so their opponent can’t gang up on one or two players and smother the Thunderwolves offence.
“If we’re going to play this style, we need 10 players every game who can step up and play double-digit minutes. We need to limit Carolyn’s minutes, she played 33 to 34 minutes every game last season and we can’t have her play more than 27, 28 minutes,” Kreiner said.
Veteran Ayse Kalkan said Druery and McNulty won’t be easy to replace, but she likes what she’s seen so far in non-conference play and thinks the new style of play will help the team get back into the playoff mix.
“We did lose two really valuable players, but we changed up our game a lot and now we have a faster team that we can play different defence against. I think that will help us in the long run,” said Kalkan.
Diversity will be the key, she added.
“We have a deeper team this year, and anyone can step up on any night. And I feel like we’re a well-rounded team, where everyone is scoring and getting on the stat sheet.”
Kreiner singled out an improved Katie Ulakovic, outside shooter Kelsey Bardsley and rookie Jessica de Haan, as players who must step up their games for his system to work.
Bardsley, for one, is up for the challenge and said everyone has high expectations. So far, so good, she said.
“It’s working pretty well with the size we have.”
The Wolves home opener is Nov. 16 against Queen’s.
