Texas women’s basketball gets boost from unsung squad of practice players

By Riley Zayas

AUSTIN, Texas — Behind every successful team lies a strong web of support. The Texas women’s basketball team is no different. Along with an experienced coaching staff that prepares the Longhorns each week, the players have another weapon in their training arsenal: a 19-man male scout team. This humble group consists of UT students from many different backgrounds who have a love for basketball and an even greater love of being part of the Longhorn family.  Spencer Johnson, Jake Pluenneke, Ryan Yablonsky and George Fisher are four respected members of this team who took some time to talk about the responsibilities of being a scout team member and the important role they play in game day preparation.  

The qualifications to be on the scout team are simple: hard work and passion for the game.  Beginning 30 minutes prior to the women’s practice, the guys[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] converge to watch film and study the positions and schemes they will be emulating later.

“We take it very seriously — not only for the coaches, but for ourselves,” Yablonsky said. “We feel like a team within a team. We always go in and think, ‘of course we’re there to help them get better’ but our mentality whenever we go into practice is, ‘we’re going to win this one, we’re going to win this drill, we’re going to win this scrimmage.’”

Even when they’re not in the practice, the men are involved, providing encouragement to their scout team counterparts, but to women’s players, as well.

“Being loud, cheering each other on in practice, bringing high energy is so important, and a big part of our culture,” Pluenneke said. “So even if you’re not in the game or in practice right at the moment, being on the sidelines and bringing that high energy is a great way to contribute.”

One of the main ways in which practice players prepare the team for the upcoming game is by studying and getting acquainted with the opponent, trying to become a mirror image of the opponent and provide a game-like feel during practice. It offers head coach Karen Aston and her coaching staff a preview of what to expect from the team come gametime, and where they’ll need to improve prior to the opening tip, in order to give the squad the best chance to win.

This aspect is especially critical in conference games, when a single win or loss could change the outlook of the rest of the season, and be the difference in making the NCAA tournament or watching from home. On the day that Horns Illustrated caught up with a few of the practice players, the Longhorns had been preparing all week for Texas Tech, a team known for its three-point shooting and high-speed offense, so that is the style of play the guys took on, running quickly up and down the court, swinging the ball around the key for three-point attempts. Their performance was reflected in the final stats, as UT held the Lady Raiders to just 30 percent from behind the arc and seven three-pointers made — a far cry from the 20 Tech had made in one of its recent games.

If there has been one team that has been particularly challenging to emulate, all four agree it would have to be the Baylor Lady Bears, the defending NCAA champions who against are among the nation’s best teams. The major reason for that is their physicality, something to which Pluenneke, a senior who typically plays forward, can attest.

“Baylor is just a physical team, so we really had to put an emphasis on being physical,” he said. “That was a fun week where we really got after it, and worked super-hard.”

While this huge responsibility to perform at a high level in practice in order to prepare the team could translate into pressure from the coaching staff, Johnson said he feels that more of the pressure comes from the scout team players themselves. They can’t bear to leave the court knowing they had given anything less than full effort. After all, they are competitors with a burning desire to win, and for them, that means “winning” practice. Plus, they understand their roles and the fact that they are not at practice to show how many points they can score, or how many turnovers they can force. They are there to be a part of something bigger. They do it for the good of the team, regardless of individual statistics.

“One really great aspect of our group of guys is the collective lack of ego. We have selfless guys who present no individual agenda, and instead work hard with a great attitude to help the team every day,” said graduate assistant Nick Bovine, who helps coordinate the scout team.

“I think there’s a certain amount of pressure we put on ourselves to do a good job,” Johnson said. “The coaches do a good job of preparing us for the plays we need to run and get a good game plan going forward. But I think it’s more up to us to put the pressure on ourselves and on the girls. Whenever we’re giving them the best looks possible it really just helps everybody in general. Everybody’s contributing to the same thing.”

The spotlight is not focused on the practice players. They know that nothing will be coming in return — except, of course, for the joy in seeing the women’s team succeed and knowing that their hard work played a key role in the victory.

“It’s definitely really cool to see them playing on ESPN and stuff, and you just watch the game and think, ‘I’m playing against these people like a couple of times a week,’” Fisher said. “You know you’ve kind of had an impact on it.”

Having to change his playing style to emulate a specific player is something with which each of the guys is familiar, as there are times when point guards will have to act as shooting guards, or in Johnson’s case, a perimeter player will be asked to play the post.

“I think they do a really good job of matching us to girls that play with our similar style, because obviously we give them the best look if we play like ourselves,” he said. “But there’s certain times when we have to adapt. Sometimes we’ll have guards playing post if we have to, but it’s always about competing. So as long as we’re pushing them in every way we can, it doesn’t necessarily matter.”

These committed basketball players spend much of their free time on the court, often going for two to three-hour practices. On home game days, they get to see their hard work pay off, as many of them sit behind the bench, offering encouragement and pointing out offensive and defensive schemes by the opponent, almost doubling as coaches. According to Associate Media Relations Director Sean Cartell, many of the practice players, including Yablonsky, are looking to go into the field of coaching. Yablonsky’s love for basketball was fostered as a teen after watching a YouTube video on the Xs and Os of the game, which inspired him to start playing seriously himself, although he never played for his high school team. From that time on, basketball always has had a special place in his heart, so one of the first classes he signed up for upon reaching UT was a basketball class, which he has taken every semester; he now serves as a teaching assistant for the class. One of the newer members of the team — this is only his second semester — he was introduced to this unique opportunity to become a practice player by another one of the other teaching assistants in the class.

“It feels like the team I was never a part of in high school,” Yablonsky said. “I really value brotherhood and being a part of this group and these guys … it’s definitely going to be one of the biggest highlights of my college experience. I absolutely love being a part of the practice team.”

For any UT student who has interest in joining such a great fellowship of basketball players, and wants the chance to be a part of something bigger than themself, the scout team is the way to go, Fisher said.

“It’s an awesome opportunity,” he said. “I’d definitely recommend it to anyone who loves basketball. The best part is meeting new people. I’ve become close with a lot of guys on the team I never would have met otherwise. I enjoy going to practice much more than just going to the rec center to play pickup, just because it’s more organized, and we’re all competitive. It’s cool to know that you kind of have a piece in their success.”

Top-of-the-line skills or a flashy shot are in less demand than a simple love for the game and desire to work harder than anyone else on the court.

“I think I kind of like it that way, that we’re a little bit unknown,” Yablonsky said. “I don’t do this for any benefit other than that I truly love being there and playing basketball. The girls have shown me what it means to be a true competitor.”
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