In the coming days, the Indiana Fever will play two preseason games as they prepare for the start of the 2021 regular season. According to head coach Marianne Stanley, after two weeks of training camp and only playing against each other, the team is looking forward to facing a new opponent.
“I can tell you right now, our players are ready to play someone else other than themselves,” Coach Stanley said with a slight laugh. “You know, you get to a point in training camp or any practice situation, where they don’t want to play against each other. They want to play against somebody else. So, I think we’re at that point and that’s the good thing.”
In the Fever’s case, both of their preseason games will be against the Chicago Sky, who signed five-time All-Star Candace Parker this off-season. Outside the addition of Parker, the Sky kept their core mostly intact as Courtney Vandersloot, Allie Quigley, Stefanie Dolson, Diamond DeShields, Kahleah Copper and Cheyenne Parker have all returned this year.
“There’s kind of a checklist of things that we want to prepare before the first game, but we also are mindful of who the opponents are,” Coach Stanley stated. “For example, even though we have two exhibitions against Chicago, we have been preparing for several days, some of the actions that they’ll use in a game so that our players will be familiarized with what they do. It’s based on what they did a year ago, and they’ve got some personnel changes, but same coaching staff, same system. So, we’ve done that and some of those things also pertain to [our season opener against] New York.
“So, you know, we’re trying to kill two birds with one stone, I guess, in terms of the preparation.”
With a good mixture of youth and veteran leaders on this year’s team, these preseason games will also be the first professional game action for Fever rookies: Kysre Gondrezick, Aaliyah Wilson, Unique Thompson and Chelsey Perry.
“Yeah, obviously [the rookies are] excited, maybe a little bit nervous, but it’s basketball, it’s what they’ve done. You know, it’s like riding a bike, you don’t forget, and you know, the mountain might be a little steeper, but it’s still the same stuff, you know?
“So, you just get out there and do what we’ve worked on. We’ve worked really hard. The energy has been good. The attitudes have been good. Everybody has done the preparation to go out and just have a really good preseason game.”