MORGANTOWN — The uniqueness to the style of play Dawn Plitzuweit wants to bring to the WVU women’s basketball team, she admits, is actually bits and pieces of other’s philosophies that she hopes to mesh together.
Such is the way of any coach, in any sport, in that styles are copied more than the smart kid’s homework in school, except in athletics, there are literally hundreds of styles and ideas to pick and choose from.
Plitzuweit, in her first season with the Mountaineers after six successful seasons at South Dakota, has her sights set on making WVU players versatile and always on the move.
She’s sees a tough-minded man-to-man team on defense and an offense that runs fast and attacks, while rarely doing the same thing twice.
“All of our players are built on their versatility of being able to do a little bit of everything,” Plitzuweit said. “That can be fun for a lot of players, because the smaller players all want to post up and the bigger players all want to shoot threes. What that means is we have to continue to develop versatility in all of our players.”
So, where did Plitzuweit get her bits and pieces from to form her own style?
You may seem some similarities to the old Phoenix Suns teams when Steve Nash was winning MVPs in the early 2000s. There may also be some shared philosophies with former WVU head coach John Beilein, who coached at Michigan during the same time Plitzuweit was the women’s associate head coach at the school.
Neither truly define who Plitzuweit is as a coach, but are simply ideas to build around.
She has brought her own ideas to the table, too, like not defining a player or a position by a number, such as one for point guard, two for shooting guard and so on.
It won’t surprise her if it’s the power forward bringing the ball up the floor rather than the point guard, nor would it be a shock if it’s the point guard catching a pass in the paint rather than the center.
“Everyone wants to play fast, and we have some speed, so why not?” Plitzuweit said. “There’s some similarities with other teams (in the Big 12) that want to space the floor and attack and shoot threes. We want to be able to do that, but also attack inside, so it’s a little bit different.”
There will be challenges along the way. Not only in teaching that style to 13 players this season, but also in matching up with some of the bigger and stronger teams on the Mountaineers’ schedule.
Of the 13 players on WVU’s roster this season, nine are guards.
Plitzuweit said that’s just sort of how it turned out, as she rushed into recruiting in April after replacing Mike Carey as head coach.
But, having a guard-heavy roster, especially if those guards have multiple talents, doesn’t seem to bother Plitzuweit in the least.
“With our style of play, we can make that work,” she said. “The bottom line is, can we get the ball around the rim and score it efficiently enough and can we limit good opportunities at the rim? Are we tough enough, even though we may a little bit smaller? That’s the challenge ahead of us.”
To this point, Plitzuweit said she’s working with an eager and competitive bunch that’s been willing to work and learn her ways of basketball, yet this transition stage will not be completed overnight.
“Our goals and expectations are to improve daily,” Plitzuweit said. “We need to compete and really get after it and we’ll see where that leaves us at the end of the season. We’re a process-driven program. We always have been and that isn’t going to change.”
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