The Trojans were back to practice today after taking care of CS Dominguez Hills 64-47, in a weekend exhibition match up at the Galen Center.
Practice started with routine warm-ups before getting into secondary drills. Head Coach Kevin O'Neill stressed the importance of working together as a unit, and the importance of help-side defense coming off of Sunday's contest.
Practice continued with a series of drills focusing on pick-and-roll scenarios. On the defensive side, an emphasis was placed on hedging and physical maneuvering over the top of the screens, exemplifying O'Neill's hard-nosed play philosophy. On the offensive side, directions focused on getting shoulder-to-shoulder with the screener and utilizing the first step off of the screen to its maximum potential.
Players then put this work to the test in a series of five-on-five full court sets. The offense would start with the ball facing four defenders, and then go five-on-five the other way. Much work was done on transition offense, which accounted for most of the Trojan turnovers in Sunday's exhibition game.
Practice closed by running a series of out-of-bounds plays, before cooling down with free-throw shooting.
Junior forward Alex Stepheson did not practice today, still nursing a sprained knee. Meanwhile, Freshman forward Evan Smith sat out the second half of today's practice after injuring his left shoulder in five-on-five action. The team returns to the practice court tomorrow at 3pm and will have Wednesday off.
