If practice indeed makes perfect, Duke's 93-71 win against North Carolina on Jan. 22 would have served as the exemplary model.
Women's basketball coach Gail Goestenkors had just witnessed her team torch then-No. 7 North Carolina by 22 at Carmichael Auditorium. But before mentioning the team's near-flawless execution or Michele VanGorp's 28-point game in her post-game comments, Goestenkors complimented a group of 11 people who weren't even sitting on the bench during the game.
Goestenkors first gave credit to the 11 male students who practice with the team for giving her team a phenomenal week of practice and preparation.
"[Carolina is] so different than anyone else we play, they trap in halfcourt a lot, and they switch on all screens, and no one else does that," Goestenkors said. "The whole week, that's what the guys did to us. They trapped us, they pressed us and they switch on all screens. It was very realistic to what we're going to see when we went over to Carolina. We played one of our best games over there."
For the practice team members who had spent the week imitating the Tar Heels' offense and defense, watching their work unfold in a lopsided rout of the seventh-ranked team in the nation was truly gratifying.
"When they played Carolina, they've seen everything and nothing was a surprise to them," Mychal Harrison said. "You had to be excited seeing them [beating Carolina by 20] because this was something you worked on for
"We knew it was possible for them to beat Carolina by 20, but you really didn't expect that. For it to happen, it was phenomenal."
The result might have been phenomenal, but it was exactly what Goestenkors and her assistants envisioned when they made the decision to begin practicing with male players two years ago.
The Duke squads just a few years ago carried the reputation of a soft, finesse team which would often get overmatched when playing tougher and more athletic squads. Goestenkors recognized a need for that to change, and the solution become obvious-practice against stronger, tougher guys.
"When we would play Carolina, they were much more athletic than we were and they were much taller at that point than we were," Goestenkors said. "We felt like we just didn't respond. We were a finesse team and we needed to get tougher. We needed to play against some guys to get tougher."
For the men who choose to play on the practice squad, the attraction was obvious-a chance to play a brand of basketball that is much more serious and competitive than the average pick-up game. Plus, the free stuff and the chance to play full-court basketball against a top-notch program in one of the most storied arenas in college basketball didn't hurt either.
With most of the players having played basketball in high school, the opportunity to become a part of a team again also proved to be a draw.
"I missed playing in a program after high school," said Lance Stern, who had played high school basketball in southern California. "I had a chance to go to Emory to play, but I didn't do that. Playing on the [practice team] has been a lot of fun and a lot more serious than pick-up ball.
"They play real hard; I feel like being a part of the program again. The players are thankful we're here. They're nice to us and I enjoy coming here."
So what do the practice team players think of the women after playing years of high school and pick-up basketball?
"They can play," Bob Cordell said. "There might be a lot of misconceptions about women's basketball, but they can definitely play. It wasn't a surprise for me because I expected it. It's a lot more physical than you expect."
With two full weeks off between the ACC and NCAA tournaments, Goestenkors feels the performance of the men in practice will prove crucial to how far her team can advance in the tourney.
During yesterday's practice, Goestenkors repeatedly asked the practice players to turn up the pressure and even encouraged them to foul her players.
"I've already said I want them to beat us up, make us really tougher," Goestenkors said. "Against Clemson, we weren't as physically and mentally tough as we needed to be."
And if two weeks worth of bumps and bruises pay off in an unprecedented trip to the Final Four for the Blue Devils, those 11 men who inflicted the damage will be smiling from ear to ear.
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