Jaylen Hoard, Andrew Nembhard Impressive During Scrimmages
TUALATIN – Coach Roy Rana of Canada, is in his 8th stint as World Team head coach at the Nike Hoop Summit, while his assistant coach, Marin Sedlacek of Serbia, has even more experience, in his 18th year. This week, I was able to watch three 2-hour practices at the Trail Blazers Practice Facility in Tualatin that were open to the media and various NBA and college scouts.
Rana, left, runs the show at practice. If he doesn’t like what he see during a drill, the whistle blows and everything comes to a halt until he explains what he wants to see, then practice moves on. Only Yago Dos Santos of Brazil had an interpreter nearby, and only on day one. Rana likes coming to Portland, but enjoys being around the players more than anything else.
“Just getting a chance to be around these really, really special athletes,” said Rana. “There always great kids. I don’t think people understand how hard it is to get to this level. Anytime I can be around them it’s a special moment for me.”
You can tell that the players respect and want to impress Rana (maybe they want playing time in a nationally televised game?). In addition to the experienced coaches, as many as 4 or 5 Nike employees helped to run the drills and even stepped in to play with the players when extra bodies were needed. The practices were fast paced and intense, with drills done at game speed and lots and lots and lots of shots put up. Rana spoke about the difficulty of having only a few practices with the full team in attendance.
“It’s always tough to try to bring a group together and play for each other and play selflessly in a very short period of time,” said Rana. “That’s always a challenge, fortunately we have a lot of character with this group, so I don’t think it will be that difficult.”
Rana believes the strength of his team is in the outside shooting and his practices have been geared to get his shooters looks from beyond the 3-point arc.
“I think we have the ability to make shots, we can shoot the three,” said Rana. Asked about his teams biggest weakness. “I don’t think we have a glaring weakness,” said Rana. “Just, our ability to come together on a short prep time and keep from turning it over.”
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