Final tuneup for Oklahoma Panhandle St.

You remember this team, right? The Aggies are a member of the NCAA Division II Heartland Conference, and they open their season at home Saturday against Adams State.

Coach Brad Vanden Boogaard's squad had a final scrimmage Monday and reached four of its five goals. Here is what the totals were:

- Attempted 98 shots
- Attempted 62 3-pointers
- Rebounded 49 percent of its misses
- Forced 32 turnovers
- Attempted 15 more shots than the opponent

Coach Vanden Boogaard e-mailed me the update and added this: "In both of our scrimmages, we played teams that wante to play at an up-tempo pace, so our big challenge this week will be preparing for Adams State, who I don't feel will run with us."

I wish the Aggies the best of luck Saturday in their regular season debut with The System. All of us will be behind them for the opener, right?

Season opens with a bang for System teams all around the land (actually, it's mostly confined to the Midwest)

After typing that headline, I got to thinking -- what is it about the Midwest that seems to spawn System teams? A vast majority of them are centered around the guru of this wonderful style of play, Grinnell men's coach David Arseneault, so perhaps that is why.

Regardless, the season has sprung upon us with two of our favorite teams opening with a pair of victories. And another System squad who we haven't had the opportunity to check in with started off smashingly well, too. I won't waste any more of your time with my musings, on to the games.

OLIVET NAZARENE NAIA WOMEN'S TEAM

The 12th-ranked Tigers, coached by Doug Porter, got going with a 91-75 victory over Ashford University on Saturday in the friendly confines of McHie Arena. Danielle Tolbert, one of the dazzling D's mentioned in our season preview, led the way with 19 points for ONU, with teammates Stephanie Denius and Bridgette Jones adding 11 apiece. Danielle Pipal finished with 10 points.

Before we go any further, we'll go with The Formula stats for the Tigers:

- Attempted 96 shots
- Attempted 58 3-pointers
- Rebounded 35 percent of their misses
- Forced 58 turnovers (nope, not a typo)
- Attempted 30 more shots than Ashford

Looking at those numbers, you would think ONU had an easier time of it. The shooting percent on those 3s (20.7 percent) wasn't as high as Coach Porter would have liked, I'm sure, but all in all, a good effort to start.

And I would be remiss if I didn't give a shoutout to freshman Tai Peachey, who finished with eight points in her collegiate debut. I'm sure she did her coach from Galesburg (Ill.) HS proud, right, Evan Massey?

On Monday night, the Tigers hosted Judson University and cruised to a 125-87 victory thanks to 15 points each from Jaimie Buckman and Taylor Haymes. Liz Bart added 14 and Malory Adam chipped in with 13 for ONU. Anyone else notice those names are completely different from the opener?

Some Formula numbers:

- Attempted 96 shots
- Attempted 66 3-pointers
- Rebounded 39 percent of its misses
- Forced 29 turnovers
- Attempted 20 more shots than Judson

This one really could have gotten out of hand. I caught most of the second half and the Tigers were on the verge of running the Eagles out of McHie Arena. Coach Porter called off the press midway through the final 20 minutes, however, and slowed the pace.

All 18 players on the roster scored for ONU and 11 of them made at least one 3-pointer to set a school record; for the game, those 11 combined to make 27 3s to tie another school mark.

Everyone got at least 7 minutes of run, too.

The Tigers have a tough task Friday, hosting the NAIA Division II runner-up from a season ago, Davenport University. Game time at at McHie Arena is 6 p.m. EST, and I wish Coach Porter and his team the best of luck.

JACKSON (MICH.) CC WOMEN'S TEAM

The Jets, a Division II member of the National Junior College Athletic Association, also opened with a pair of Ws, reaching triple figures in both games.

With Jessica Vidalez connecting on six 3-pointers and scoring 22 points, Jackson rolled past Lakeland Community College 113-96 on Sunday. Five other players joined Vidalez in double figures: Davi'elle Thomas (20 points), DaJanae Wilson (15), Stephanie Berreth (12), Kelsey White (11) and Alyssa Havens (10).

Jackson took an amazing 141 shots and finished 19-for-70 from beyond the arc, on its way to attempting 45 more shots than Lakeland. The Jets forced 41 turnovers to push that pace.

Then on Monday, Vidalez again led the way with 28 points in a 109-73 victory over Mott. Thomas had 27 points, followed by White (14) and Tiki Malone (13). The Jets scored 61 points in the first half and finished 19-for-57 on 3-pointers while taking 112 shots.

Mott had 51 turnovers, if you can believe that.

"We played pretty well defensively," Coach Hoaglin told the Jackson Citizen Patriot. "We've got 11 sophomores on this year's team. They understand the pace of the game, and this was one of our better System games."

The Jets are off until Nov. 15, when they hit the road to play the junior varsity team at Davenport University (sound familiar?). I will be rooting for Coach Hoaglin and his team.

OKLAHOMA CHRISTIAN NAIA WOMEN'S TEAM

This is a new one for us, a team playing in the Sooner Athletic Conference which apparently took The System plunge for this season. I'll attempt to get more background, but for now, we'll simply talk about the Eagles first game.

They took a 26-point lead at the half and then held on to beat Texas Wesleyan 110-94 Saturday, setting an unofficial school record for points in the process.

As some of you know, I can be a bit of a System snob, so the numbers posted by Oklahoma Christian leave me a bit skeptical, but perhaps it was an aberration. Here are the stats:

- Attempted 66 shots
- Attempted 33 3-pointers
- Rebounded 27 percent of its misses
- Forced 22 turnovers
- Attempted 15 FEWER shots than the opponent

Now, part of this might have been the Eagles taking an apparent parade to the free throw line. They finished 37-for-44 for the game, and all those foul shots not only limits the number of field goal attempts, they can ruin the tempo of the game.

Katy Clift certainly seems to get The System. She made 7-of-16 from beyond the arc and scored 25 points, with Roz Hamilton (14), Katy O'Steen (12), Logan McKee (11) and Andee Wayne (10) also getting in double figures.

Oklahoma Christian travels to Waxahachie, Texas, for a two-game tournament beginning Friday night, and we'll check back in to see how it goes. I hope the trip down south of Dallas goes well.

It is on like Donkey Kong! (Or, perhaps a better way to say it, the season previews for two of my favorite System teams)

As amazing as it sounds, we will have actual System hoops to follow beginning this weekend (Saturday-Sunday, Nov. 5-6). The NAIA women's team at Olivet Nazarene opens its season at home against Ashford University at 3 p.m. EDT, while the women's team at Jackson (Mich.) Community College take the court for the first time Sunday against Lakeland CC at 1 p.m.

Are you as excited as I am?

There is no better time than now to get a little preview up for these two squads, both of which are coming off very successful seasons. The best of luck to both of them.

OLIVET NAZARENE

Coach Doug Porter had only two players graduate from last season's team which finished 27-7 and reached the Sweet 16 of the NAIA tournament. One of those was leading scorer Simone Coburn (12.8 ppg), who got her points in an odd spot for a Sytem team: the paint.

Among those back are point guard Danielle Pipal, an honorable mention All-American in 2010-11 despite averaging only 6.9 points. She also had a team-best 152 assists (4.6 per game) and 124 steals (3.8 per game, good for second best in the nation), all while grabbing 3.8 rebounds per game, as well.

Coach Porter is loaded with two veteran, talented point guards, with Danielle Tolbert (second-leading scorer from a year ago at 12.7 ppg) back to work with Pipal to get the Tigers going. If you've paid attention to this blog, you know that ONU is changing up things a bit this season, going to a more pure Grinnell-style offense.

What does that mean? Well, in simple terms, the initial start of this clears out the entire right side of the court for the point guard to get to the rim. The two Danielles certainly will be able to take advantage of this, and I can't wait to see the results.

Another point guard on the roster is Tai Peachey, a freshman who is no stranger to The System. She played for coach Evan Massey at Galesburg (Ill.) HS and brings that experience with her to college. She's always been one of my favorites (and not just because she is a fan of my blog on Facebook), so I'm hoping her first year at ONU goes very well.

Coach Porter was kind enough to answer some of my questions about the upcoming season, and here are the results of our e-mail conversation.

(With all the returning players from last year's team, what do you expect?)

Doug Porter: I am intrigued by the possibilities this season, but for an odd reason: defense. System teams don’t make a big deal out of the opponent’s scoring average because as David Arseneault once said, "We are all about scoring points." And I enjoy the teasing comments I get from coaches who say, "You guys don’t play defense."

Our team was last in the nation in scoring defense last year (83 ppg), but of course defense is relative to tempo. The real question is (or should be) "How did your defense complement your offense?" In our case, team quickness last year resulted in forcing 36 turnovers a game, and allowed us to set a college basketball record of 735 steals, about 100 more than the (NCAA) DI women’s record. So ... with only 2 seniors graduating from that team, I’m thinking defense will again spark our offense!

(What about your new players, specifically my girl Tai Peachey?)

Doug Porter: Our new players seem behind to me, but I’m hoping that this is because our veterans are so strong that the contrast is more apparent than usual. They will get spot play, some as much as 10-12 minutes a game, some 3-4, and Bridgette Jones (5-foot-6 guard from Seymour, Ind.) and Natalie Tunnell (5-9 Guard from Oklahoma City) have had good preseasons. Bridgette has that rare quality of having what I call a great "motor" meaning she just naturally plays hard. Most kids have to learn the tempo, but in her case, it seems hardwired into her nervous system already. Natalie is a pure shooter who doesn’t shoot enough (yet).

As for Tai, she’s doing just fine. Playing the System in HS at Galesburg for Coach Massey made the transition a little easier for her, I think, but there’s still the jump from HS to College basketball that she’s adjusting to. It usually takes time for any system newcomer to make the “transition” (no pun intended), and as I tell them, "Be patient… you can expect the light bulb go on about 15 games into the first season!"

(Tell us more about the Danielles and their ability to play the Grinnell-style offense.)

Doug Porter: The “D” sisters were born to play the Grinnell offense. I was watching one of Coach A’s clinic video’s last night and he made the point once again, "You have to have PGs who can get to the rim and be a scoring threat to run this offense." Having two this year is going to give our opponents some real problems, since the Grinnell "made shot fast break" as you know consists of a clear-out of the entire right side of the floor in transition for your PG.

The nice thing is that Pipal and Tolbert are completely opposite "types" as PGs. Tolbert is a converted 3-guard who has always been great at putting the ball on the floor. Physically, she’s a tank, easily our strongest player, and can take the pounding going to the basket.

Pipal is also a converted wing, but she’s more of a finesse player who likes the 8-foot pullup jumper. I don’t usually like that shot because it doesn’t allow you to draw contact and get to the foul line, but in Pipe’s case, she’s very accurate with it. Pipe was an HM all-American last year and was #2 in the country in steals (despite averaging just 13 minutes per game), and Tolbert could be at that level too. We’re really blessed to have two like that at once!

(Who do you see filling Simone Coburn's role, if anyone?)

Doug Porter: Honestly, nobody will fill that role this year, which is why we’ve moved to pure Grinnell, which doesn’t really require a post-up type player. The interesting thing about Coburn was that she shot almost 70% from the field last year to lead the nation in that stat, but she was in reality only 5-8.

The System can be designed to get a post player some very good scoring opportunities, but with two raw freshman and two converted upperclassmen forwards playing there this year, the Grinnell offense just seems to make more sense for us right now. Still, we’ll miss Simone because she was our leading scorer (quite a feat for a post player in a totally guard oriented system!)

(I get the sense you expect great things from this team. How has the preseason gone?)

Doug Porter: It’s been an unusually long preseason with such a big break between our first scrimmages and this Saturday’s games, and we are tired of practicing, so it’s hard to gauge where we are right now. We’ve also had some injury/illness problems which will hopefully work themselves out soon. With that said, this could be a pretty special team!

A huge thanks, as always, to Coach Porter, and I wish him and his team all the success in the world, beginning in that opening game.

JACKSON CC

Coach Andy Hoaglin's National Junior College Athletic Association Division II team came up one game short of advancing to the national tournament last season, finishing 19-12 in its first season running The System.

Not bad, considering the Jets started 1-7 before winning 18 of their final 23 games. Jackson CC set NJCAA Division II records last season by averaging 103.6 points and attempting 1,550 3-pointers, with sophomore Erika Bullock voted second-team all-conference and freshman Nicole Wurster getting a nod to the third team. Bullock averaged a team-best 14.2 points and Wurster was right behind with 12.4, while Bullock finished third in NJCAA Division II with 4.58 steals per game.

Coach Hoaglin was kind enough to answer our questions about this season.

(How has the second preseason with The System gone?)

Andy Hoaglin: Our second preseason has gone much smoother than our first year's. We have 11 returners that have a flavor for what we're trying to accomplish with our version of the Grinnell System.

One of the main benefits is not having to convince players that The System is viable method of playing the great game of basketball. All of our freshmen have seen our System in action and understand what we're trying to do with it.

The most beneficial piece this year is having a large group of players experienced in the extreme results (both positive and negative) of System basketball.

(Last season started slowly. What can you do to make sure it doesn't happen again?)

Andy Hoaglin: To put it as simply as I can: The teaching and the absorption is happening much quicker, which allows us to get "deeper" into other System aspects. For example: Finding the second level fade, when the RW is curling, two-man game with the PG, multiple press looks and other concepts we just couldn't unload on the team last year.

We also ran a "hybrid" last year, because frankly, I was hedging my bet on the System. We ran an ONU/Grinnell hybrid. My advice to other coaches: Don't employ hybrids. Choose your path wisely, and hold true to it and don't underestimate players.

One more thing is that we've got depth at the PG position. Our PG's can score from outside and at the tin. They're quick and athletic.

(How have the players accepted the "brand" of being a System team?)

Andy Hoaglin: Put it this way: We went and watched a couple of former JCC players playing against each other in a opening season contest last Saturday. They kept on saying, "Don't ever think about doing THAT to us!" or "Coach, I'll quit if you go back to this!" and finally my wife: "I'll divorce you if you go back to the way you used to coach!"

Our families and players are proud to say they're System. (great answer)

(What are the goals for this season?)

Andy Hoaglin: We've made it a goal to qualify for our National Championship this year. This means winning our district qualifying tournament in March. We can only do this if we work the process of our formula and not focus on that end state.

I think of it the way a teacher explained the process of showing my work in math: Knowing the answer isn't enough. You need to understand how you got there and you need to do this by showing your work. The same with The System formula. Don't get hung up on the results. Work the process and pay attention to the formula. Pay attention to the details of the formula and diligently work. The ANSWER will be there at the end.

125 shots per game + 50% 3FGA + 40% off. rebounds + 35 TO forced + 30 shot differential.

(Going into season two, what is the reaction around campus?)

Andy Hoaglin: We're still facing the same criticism, but we understand it better now and deal with it usually with a smile or a shoulder shrug. We had many people at both scrimmages and we always have people peeking in during practice wondering what we're doing to equip us to be so explosive. Most people just shake their head and ask the typical question, "How do you score all those points?" or say its not basketball.

I'll take our basketball over watching a local 4-year college team lose a game 44-29. Must've been a great defensive game.

Thanks so much to Coach Hoaglin. I hope everyone appreciated his answer about following The Formula for success. To enlighten any new readers, all System teams have five goals in each game, and none of them involve making shots, scoring points or keeping the other team from scoring.

Did you notice Jackson CC's goals? The Jets want to attempt at least 125 shots per game, with half of them being 3-pointers. They also want to rebound 40 percent of all their misses on the offensive end while forcing at least 35 turnovers. All this should lead to Jackson CC attempting at least 30 shots more than the opponent.

These are very ambitious goals; Grinnell, the original System team, wants to take 94 shots in each game, so you can see how high Coach Hoaglin has gone. I hope they do it, because that will mean monster numbers for the Jets.

A quick update from Shoreline (Wash.) CC

Remember this team, right? Coach Greg Turcott and the men's team at Shoreline (Wash.) Community College are System-bound this season, and I asked him for an update on the progress thus far in practice.

The Dolphins were 13-13 last season, including 6-10 in the Northern Region.

Greg Turcott: "So far it has been easier in regards to the coaching because we are doing the LMU system and have had workouts all fall to put it in. The difficulty is in helping the kids to understand the overall philosophy of shooting open shots and taking chances on defense.

"I really like the style, the pace, and the fact that the kids are in a system where they don't have to think too much as they are running to designated spots on every possession, make or miss! It is a different way of playing and coaching for sure but one that I really enjoy and believe in!!"

Very brief, but great information nonetheless. We'll check back in with Coach Turcott soon.

Also, I hope to have an update in the next day or so on the NCAA Division II women's team at Oklahoma Panhandle State, which was scheduled to scrimmage this week. Make sure you stop back by in a couple of days.

Knox College opens with The System

Emily Cline, the women's coach at NCAA Division III Knox College (a Midwest Conference rival of the original System team, the Grinnell men's squad), debuted with this wonderful style of play Monday with the Prairie Fire. As I said in an earlier update on Coach Cline, I'm amazed she is the first coach from the MWC to take the plunge, given all the success creator David Arseneault has had with the Pioneers all the years.

I e-mailed Coach Cline and asked for her thoughts on the opening workout, and here is her response:

Emily Cline: "It was great to get out on the court for the first time as a System coach. We put our break in tonight and got a lot of shooting, passing and ballhandling in as well. My players seemed to catch on pretty quickly to the concepts and they went really hard. So I was pleased by the effort.

"However, I know that I have so much to learn about the minutia of The System that I am even more motivated to study and learn as much as possible. Also, practice planning is different coaching The System than conventional basketball so I need to get a better handle on that as well. Overall, I think I will love coaching The System but the learning curve is going to be steep."

Man, that is such good information. I really appreciate Coach Cline taking the time to get back to me, and I wish her and her team the best of luck this season. We'll check back in with them soon.

Jackson CC goes off in opening scrimmage

OK, so it only was a scrimmage, against a team we really have no way of judging for competitiveness. It doesn't mean anything, right?

Well, perhaps it does, since I am downright giddy with the news about the effort put in by coach Andy Hoaglin and the Jackson (Mich.) Community College women's team Saturday. System teams normally need a few games to fully come together, given all the complexities of running this wonderful style of basketball. Coach Hoaglin's squad got going a bit quicker than that.

First, the details: the Lady Jets beat Sioux College 154-57 on the strength of some amazing shooting from the the 3-point line. Jackson, a Division II member of the National Junior College Athletic Association, finished 43-of-84 beyond the arc, which would be two more NJCAA records for the Jets. They finished last season, their first running The System, with the most 3-pointers attempted in a season (1,550) and the highest scoring average (103.6).

The totals from this one would shatter the NCAA Division I marks for 3s in a game as listed in last year's record book -- in fact, both the attempts and made shots would be more than the highest COMBINED total from two teams in a single game. Ole Miss (17) and Bowling Green (14) connected on 31 treys between them Nov. 26, 1999, and those two teams shot a total of 75 3s in that contest.

Pretty impressive, right?

Jackson forced more than 40 turnovers and attempted more than 125 shots, too. Here are Coach Hoaglin's thoughts:

Andy Hoaglin: "We did many things well today, and I was so impressed with our overall effort with a short bench of 12. We actually had 4 sophomores sitting out today because of minor injuries or participation in other sports. Still, the freshmen grew up in a hurry and surprised me on so many levels ... Just a fun day.

"Obviously one scrimmage means absolutely little, but they KNOW this team has special written all over it."

Great stuff for Jackson. I can't wait to check in with this team again soon.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Sure, I've used that before, but it doesn't make it any less correct. Basketball practice, at least for colleges, gets started in earnest this weekend around the country, which brings us even closer to the start of the season.

Can you feel the excitement?

Once upon a time, pretty much everybody started on the same day -- Oct. 15. The NCAA relaxed its rules a bit to allow more workouts in the fall, so most of the teams already have worked out together, leaving this weekend as more of a symbolic opening for practices.

I've asked a few of my favorite coaches to give me an idea of what they have planned for this weekend, and since Grinnell was the original System team, I'll let interim coach Dave Arseneault explain what is going on for the NCAA Division III men's program. Remember, he is taking over during his father's sabbatical:

Dave Arseneault: "Quite honestly, I don’t feel too different about this season compared to others in the past. I’m still just as ready and just as amped up for our practices to start as I have been for the last 6 years. I get a sense from the guys that they’re expecting some really big things from this season given that we are returning 12 out of our top 13 scorers.

"While it’s nice to have that kind of foundation to build on, I’m still not quite sure how good we are going to be for a few reasons: (1) We got a lot of lucky breaks last year and you just can’t expect that to happen again; and (2) I’m worried about our team chemistry.

"I’m hoping that we can find a way to avoid Pat Riley’s 'Disease of More.' Riley’s theory is that often times when a team is coming off a successful season all the returnees want more ... more playing time, more shots, more ball. The problem is that when everybody is returning, there isn’t more time, shots or ball to go around, so everybody has to accept a role that will help the team win.

"Even though we’re officially allowed to start practice on Saturday the 15th, we won’t actually start until October 20. Our Fall Break starts this weekend (the kids get a full week off from school plus the two weekends) so I’ve decided to be nice and send them home for the first part of break. I figure this way when I lay the hammer down on the 20th there won’t be any excuses.

"I live basketball, so the 20th can’t get here soon enough!"

I hear you, Coach Arseneault, I hear you.

Next we'll go to Bunky Harkleroad, the women's coach at NCAA Division II Glenville State. His day Saturday will include a special dinner for his team and the men's program, along with any fan who would like to attend. Chicken cordon bleu, lasagna, tossed salad and green beans all are on the menu, with chocolate cake for dessert. Man, that sounds good, right?

Bunky Harkleroad: "We are really excited about this year’s team and are looking forward to getting to work Saturday. I’m a little bit nervous because I really like this team’s energy level and chemistry so far. I’m great at finding things to complain about but so far our kids have really worked hard and seem hungry.

"We did suffer a big loss with LaToya Hambrick; she tore her Achilles during the preseason and she will be out this season. Losing a senior post player wasn’t something we’d planned on but we’ve recommitted to playing faster than ever before and putting more points on the board than ever before.

"With the NCAA rule changes this season we were allowed to have some full team workouts (two hours per week total). Initially we worked out in small groups of 4 and over the past few weeks we made all of our workouts team workouts. Believe it or not we’ve spent the majority of that time addressing what we do on dead ball situations. We’ve never done that before but with a pretty experienced group returning we are trying to clean up turnovers as early as possible and do a better job of executing early in the season.

"In addition to our on court workouts our players have open gym sessions in which they essentially played pickup games with a 15 second shot clock, sometimes 3 on 3 half court, and sometimes our seniors would lead shooting drills. Open gym has been time for our seniors to set the tone with our new players.

"Finally we have short, intense conditioning sessions that simulate a shift. So basically we’ve spent the preseason trying to introduce our tempo, show some X's and O's, and focus on taking care of the basketball when the season starts.

"Our first few practices will be really long ones, I know this seems somewhat anti-System but we have so much to get done there’s no way around it. We pride ourselves on spending most of our practice time focusing on the fundamentals (passing, shooting, dribbling) and we don’t want to ever get away from that. BUT we’ve got a lot to put in, a lot of mistakes left to make (there’s no way around that), and a lot of scrimmaging to do.

"This year’s approach has been a little different than the past but with the NCAA rule changes we think it only makes sense to mix it up."

Great stuff there, right? Look for Coach Harkleroad and the Pioneers to build on last year's trip to the NCAA tournament.

The NAIA women's team at Olivet Nazarene is coming off a successful season, as well, which ended in the Sweet 16 of the national tournament. Coach Doug Porter has nearly everyone back from that team, along with some talented newcomers, so the Tigers should be ready to roll again.

Doug Porter: "We are looking forward to the upcoming season at ONU. With 13 players returning off last year’s successful run, we’ve got good experience and a very quick squad. Defensively, we were strong last season, forcing over 36 turnovers a game, and we should be even more effective this year.

"A big change for us is our move to more of the pure Grinnell offense. In past years, we’ve used a very simple “dribble-drive” approach, running to spots and using penetration to create shots, along with some basic down-screening action and post play. With our experience and strong point guard play this season, we feel the Grinnell set will give us more room to get to the rim, and will allow us to create better looks for our perimeter shooters.

"Grinnell’s offense is more complex, but I like what I’m seeing from our players so far in the preseason!"

Seeing a new wrinkle from Coach Porter's team should be interesting, and I know he's right: the Grinnell break is perfect for his point guard tandem of Danielle Pipal and Danielle Tolbert.

The women's team at Jackson (Mich.) Community College got a head start of its four-year counterparts, beginning its workouts at the beginning of this month. Coach Andy Hoaglin has high hopes for this year's team, which led all the National Junior College Athletic Association in scoring a year ago (notice the banner with the story), and gave some insight into what he has been focusing on so far:

Andy Hoaglin: "Official practice actually started on October 1st and we've been at it 5 days a week, re-implementing the almighty System. We've got 12 returners from last year's record setting squad with 6 freshmen who are either skilled shooters or rebounders.

"I believe this team has the potential to be better than last year's squad for a variety of reasons.

"-12 players with one year under their belt WITH the experience of results garnered from the system. They know it works.

"-Instead of 2 skilled shooters, we have 7 skilled shooters that can knock it down from beyond the arc.

"-We're 2 deep at every postion, and 4 deep at the all important point guard position (all sophomores).

"-We're more athletic than we were last year. We've replaced traditional posts with pretty much all guards.

"We have our first scrimmage of the new season this Saturday and the ladies are excited for it. We're a little banged up right now, and will go into the scrimmage with 12 able bodies, which is fine, because its still preseason and scrimmages don't matter except from a standpoint of getting experience.

"I believe this team has the capability of winning a conference championship, winning our national championship qualifying district and rewrite many of our offensive and defensive records from last year.

"If we stay healthy and continue working intelligently, I think special things are in store for this team."

One of the new System teams this season will be at Oklahoma Panhandle State University, where coach Brad Vanden Boogaard has his NCAA Division II women's team ready to take the plunge. Following his progress will be exciting, starting with the opening of practice.

Brad Vanden Boogaard: "We are really excited about starting full team practice this weekend. Our individual workouts have gone well we have shot a ton of 3s this fall which is no surprise. Our players are really catching on to how fast we are able to play and are being able to see where we will force our opponents to play at our pace. It is a daily thing that we have to remind them of the aggressive nature they need to play at and that they can play without a fear of failure because they are going to play.

"That thought process is a hard one to get through ... and we are just looking forward to seeing how far we can go by playing The System. Some of our players will have the opportunity to play near their home towns, when we are in Denton, Texas, and Pocatello, Idaho, so they are excited for that. Idaho State is our only D-I on the schedule, it will be interesting to see how the system works against a team at that level. We were able to get that game because the head coach at Idaho State played his final two seasons of college ball here.

"That is all the excitement here it is homecoming week and we will be on the floor Saturday morning shooting and causing chaos on the hardwood."

Great stuff from a System "newbie." I wish all these coaches luck this weekend and throughout the season; I only wish I could be there for everyone's first practice.