Christopher James

The dozen or so William Blount girls basketball players assembled to listen to their teammates talk to a reporter couldn’t hold back the giggles when Sami VanVranken was asked about a “16″.
“It’s a punishment,” VanVranken said. “It’s pretty rough. It’s not fun. I’d rather not do it.”
“And then get right back on defense,” interrupted sophomore Tatum Burstrom.
“Yeah, right back on defense. That’s tough,” VanVranken finished.

The 16 is not the suicide windsprint of old. Players line up on one sideline and must run 16 widths of the court in one minute.
“The first week was tough. We had a ton of 16s,” Burstrom said. “We ran for the littlest things, but it got us tougher I think. We’re way more in shape.”
Lady Govs coach Matt Fowler isn’t just running his team ragged in the first week to keep them fit. WB has to be a team that thrives on speed and stamina. It can go no other way when the Lady Govs platoon of guards struggles to crack 5-foot-6. It can only get worse after wing Brittany Tipton went down with a practice injury Thursday. Fowler had said the junior could be the district’s biggest surprise. Now her height of at least 5-foot-8 could be missing come opening night, leaving the pressure on the 5-foot-9 VanVranken.
“We work them so hard on getting the ball up and down the court, ’cause we have to,” Fowler said. “We can’t play a half-court game with Maryville when they have Miranda Maples and Torie Vaught and the Whaley girl. We want to run ‘em.”
A year ago WB hit a brick wall when the 3-point shooting it depended on at the start of the season was shut down. With the perimeter game defended, the Lady Govs couldn’t take advantage of quickness to penetrate and make tough 2’s. Not so this year, says Burstrom.
“I worked on my ball handling,” the 5-foot-6 Burstrom said. “Every time I drove in last year, I’d lose it. I worked on my shot and finishing inside.”
For tiny teammate Shelby Click (5-foot-3), her offseason focus wasn’t playing organized ball, but getting in the gym and keying on ways to get off the perimeter and to the hole.
“I worked on all the things I need to work on that wasn’t going to happen if I played AAU like shot off the dribble, better ball handling, finishing inside,” Click said. “It’s (made) a big difference.”
Building that second dimension to a guard-dominant offense is what Fowler sees as the key to becoming relevant in the county once more and making a return to the region tournament for the first time since 2006.
“(Last year) We could drive, but once we got in there we couldn’t make the shot,” Fowler said. “That’s what we’ve worked on all summer, being able to get in there and make a tough, 2-point shot against a bigger player.”

Stats courtesy Coacht.com