Wings On The Rise

This post originally appeared at the Fort Worth Weekly's website. To view it there :  https://www.fwweekly.com/2017/04/18/sports-rush-dallas-wings-on-the-rise/

You know something’s happening when you see balloons.
 

Thursday at Arlington’s College Park Center, whomever had to blow them all up had to have been out of breath. (or hopefully they used a tank). The Dallas Wings held their 2017 WNBA Draft party, and in addition to multiple balloon towers, they had a stage, a huge video screen, big Wings logo gobos, and a stage populated with a podium and comfy chairs. They brought in former WNBA players, plus members of their current roster and assistant coaches to address crowd. Play-by-play voice Ron Thulin emceed the affair.

In between Q&As and on-stage announcements, ESPN’s broadcast of the draft played on the center screen as well as the ones affixed to the arena’s scoreboard. Fans occupied seats on the floor and in the lower bowl. Nachos were available for purchase at the concession stands. A handful of media members turned out.

So the Wings went to a bit of trouble to create this draft night event. What did they get from it?

With the third, fourth, and tenth picks overall, they chose three Southeastern Conference players. The Wings first picked Evelyn Akhator from Kentucky. Allisha Gray and Kaela Davis, both of whom just won an NCAA title in Dallas with South Carolina, went fourth and tenth, respectively.  They took Breanna Lewis from Kansas State in the second round and finished their draft by selecting UConn’s Saniya Chong.

After watching the team last year, my impressions had been that they needed more athletic post players and a pass-first point guard to support Skylar Diggins. Akhator and Lewis addressed the former need and Chong and mid-season acquisition Tiffani Bias may help with the latter. The stats indicated they also needed defensive help and three-point shooting, and Gray and Davis should be good at both of those. The Wings will also bring in undrafted frontcourt players Kalani Purcell and Kelsey Lang for a training camp look.

After watching the team last year, my impressions had been that they needed more athletic post players and a pass-first point guard to support Skylar Diggins. Akhator and Lewis addressed the former need and Chong and mid-season acquisition Tiffani Bias may help with the latter. The stats indicated they also needed defensive help and three-point shooting, and Gray and Davis should be good at both of those.

Perhaps the biggest addition that could push the Wings to the playoffs is a robust Diggins. The former All-Star had an up-and-down 2016 season coming off a knee injury. Thulin pronounced her “100% healthy,” which Diggins confirmed in her on-stage interview. She and Bias spoke to Davis and Gray via computer hookup, with Diggins encouraging applause from the crowd to help welcome her new teammates.

In addition to augmenting their roster the Wings also hope they enhanced their attendance for the upcoming season. Placards adorned lower bowl seats available for season-long purchase and reps stood ready to sell multi-game packages and individual game tickets.
Teams always look for opportunities to engage fans in the off-season, especially in prime ticket-selling situations. The draft fell at a good time during the sales season, and having three first-round picks made for a balloon-worthy setup. And while regulations mandated that the helium-filled variety could only add to the atmosphere outside the arena, the Wings hope their future in Tarrant County is indeed on the rise – on-court and off.


Rush Olson has spent two decades directing creative efforts for sports teams and broadcasters. He currently creates ad campaigns, television programs, and related creative projects for sports entities through Rush Olson Creative & Sports and FourNine Productions.




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Not Your Mother's Basketball

This article originally appeared in the Blotch section of the Fort Worth Weekly's website. To read it on that site :http://www.fwweekly.com/2016/04/27/sports-rush-my-mothers-basketball/

The WNBA’s Dallas Wings want you to know this is not your mother’s basketball game.

“My style of play is to get a lot of shots up and run,” said Wings head coach Fred Williams.

When I say “your mother’s basketball game,” I definitely mean your mother, not my mother. My mom once scored 57 points in a 1950s high school hoops game in Virginia. It was the old six-on-six version of the sport, but we can still surmise she got a lot of shots up and moved a good bit that day. So watching women’s hoopsters getting up and down the floor will be nothing new to her, but if you (or your mom) were expecting a plodding game from the area’s new women’s pro team, the Wings expect to show you differently.

“We get a lot of stereotypes as women playing in the professional ranks that our game is slower and less athletic,” said Wings forward Plenette Pierson. “Just to have a fast-paced game really changes things.”

Williams described his squad’s style of play as “up-tempo, fast break, you’ll see us do a little run-and-jump defense, a lot of traps.”

As he began training camp with Sunday’s open practice at UT-Arlington’s College Park Center, Williams mandated a number of full-court drills as he started implementing his preferred approach.

“It’s an up and down style. We want to try to get to 90 possessions each game,” guard Skylar Diggins said. “Coach Williams wants us up and down the court and to push the tempo. We want to control the tempo on both sides of the ball. That’s why you see us going up and down a lot in the first practice, getting ready for that.”

Diggins will play her third season in Williams’ system in 2016, having been part of the team when it was based in Tulsa. She missed much of last year with a knee injury, including an opening-round playoff loss. With the former All-Star back, Williams expects his core to be a strong one.

“We’ve been one of the top-scoring teams in the league the last couple of years with the same personnel,” he noted of a group that led the Western Conference in points-per-game in 2015. He also expects some off-season additions will improve his club’s ability to execute his preferred style of play.

“We’ve added some speed with (1st-round pick Aerial) Powers in there with us and I think with (2nd-round pick Ruth) Hamblin in there in the middle, it’s going to open it up for our shooters from the outside.”

One of those shooters came to the team in March via a trade with the Los Angeles Sparks.
“You’ve got to have a nice veteran player who has won championships in this league that can step in in the perimeter area and knock down some threes for you,” said Williams of new guard Erin Phillips.
The Australian Olympian, who already had a house in McKinney, feels Williams’ preferred tempo will fit her game.

“I’m a shooter, so the faster the ball moves, the quicker it gets in your hands and the quicker you can get a shot off as well. It gives you more space to play,” she said. “It’s a really fun way to play as a player.”

Williams hopes his players aren’t the only ones who find his favored pace enjoyable.

“I call it a fan-friendly atmosphere for the family. If (the players) do that (play up-tempo) and play well, these fans will come out and watch us,” the coach suggested.

If you do, you’ll see some fast-breaking ball. In truth, if you thought modern women’s basketball was a slow game, you probably should have realized long ago those stereotypes weren’t accurate. Some folks have known since the 1950s.

You can see for yourself when the Dallas Wings open their regular season home schedule May 21.


Rush Olson has spent two decades directing creative efforts for sports teams and broadcasters. He currently creates ad campaigns, television programs, and related creative projects for sports entities through his company, Rush Olson Creative & Sports.


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Linkedin.com/company/rush-olson-creative-&-sports

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