With youth and inexperience prevalent throughout the University of Maine women’s basketball roster, the opportunity for extra time together, both on and off the court, is extremely beneficial. After spending the past couple of years planning for the right time to take part in a foreign tour, the Black Bears made the trip to Canada to compete in a four-game tour against Canadian competition.
For head coach Cindy Blodgett, the decision to take this trip to Canada was never in question after the enthusiasm her team displayed when the idea was first discussed.
“I addressed the team at the end of the season and just asked if this trip was something they would like to commit to,” Blodgett explained. “My team was excited about the opportunity to go to Canada for a week. Obviously, from a coaching standpoint, any time you can work with your team and your players, especially the newcomers, it’s a great opportunity.”
This extra week of practice and time together is even more important for a team that is as young and inexperienced as Maine.
“We are still very young,” Blodgett said. “We will have 10 freshman/sophomores on the team this season. This was actually a great time for us to be with our team. On the court, you get a chance to look at your errors and where you have improved. Even more importantly, the off the court bonding and being able to experience a different culture was great. We recognized that we needed to adapt because the other teams weren’t going to adapt their style of play to us.”
While much of the focus is typically on the improvement that the players make on a tour like this, the reality is that the coaching staff also is looking for ways to improve as a unit.
“I’m a firm believer in trying to know as much as you can about each opponent, but at the end of the day, it’s really more about your own team,” said the fourth-year coach. “I wasn’t concerned so much with who we were playing or how many people they had returning.
It was more about going out there and making sure we execute the things we had worked on the week before.”
One of the key things that Blodgett was able to take from the foreign tour was the impact that the incoming players should be able to make this season.
“I thought our incoming players did a very nice job in terms of the fact that they all played and competed,” Blodgett explained. “We have five newcomers, four freshmen and one Junior College transfer, and they all got considerable playing time. They got comfortable with our veteran players and the players that have been here for a year or two. It was nice being able to see how quickly they have been able to blend in.”
This experience should only serve to help bring together a very talented team as it prepares for the upcoming season. The Black Bears won three of their four games on the tour, and they will certainly be a team that is much-improved from last season.