He was taught never to hit a woman.
He knew that if he ever roughhoused or bullied his sister, he’d be seeing the business end of his father’s belt. So he kept his hands to himself and grew up to be a gentleman who opens doors and pulls out chairs.
But when the ball hits the rim, a lifetime of chivalry goes out the window. He forgets his father’s belt and the lessons learned as he shoves the women aside to grab the rebound.
Nick Augello doesn’t show any remorse for the woman he just slammed to the ground — that’s his job.
And he knows it could be him who gets tossed to the floor in the next go-around of this free-for-all rebounding drill where three women do their best to box out three guys in the lane as the coaches lob up shots.
“I’ll knock them in the mouth sometimes, and they’ll come back and get me the next time,” Augello said. “You know, whatever it takes to get them better. There are a lot of tough, physical teams out there, especially in the Southeastern Conference, so we got to get them ready.”
Augello isn’t the stereotypical meathead who gets his kicks from posterizing chicks in the co-ed intramural leagues. The business management senior is a member of the practice squad for the UF women’s basketball team.
He and 11 other guys make up a scout team that did its best to push, punish and prepare Florida for games this season, which ended with a second-round loss in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament for the Gators (15-17).
Common Practice
It’s well-known that women’s teams use men as practice players to help give their players a high level of competition that resembles game scenarios. Using male practice players allows coaches to challenge their teams with bigger and better athletes while also sparing their players from countless repetitions on the practice floor.
“To be able to challenge your players with individuals who in most instances have a physical advantage, not just in size and strength but also in vertical jump, that’s what you always want,” UF coach Amanda Butler said. “Most of the girls playing college grew up playing against boys, and that’s how they got good enough to be Division I college athletes. So it’s just an extension of that.”
The use of male practice players against women has gone on since before Butler’s playing days in the early 1990s, though the NCAA tried to do away with it in 2007, saying it took away playing time and opportunities from other female athletes. It was also argued that it gave bigger schools an advantage over smaller programs, which may not have the ability to put together a practice team. Butler, who had male practice squads when she coached at smaller schools like Austin Peay and UNC-Charlotte, doesn’t buy it.
“My argument against that is if your opportunity in practice is being taken away by a practice player, then you’re not working hard enough, and that is a problem there,” Butler said. “If you’re not valuable enough to be used in practice then there’s a gap somewhere in either how hard you’re working or your skill level.”
All Guts, No Glory
The guys on Butler’s squad aren’t Division I athletes and weren’t recruited to play big-time college basketball. Instead, they got spotted by one of the coach’s assistants while playing intramurals or pick-up ball, or they were brought along by a team member.
Other than a pair of basketball shoes, they don’t receive compensation or scholarship money, and they certainly don’t get the acclaim that goes with being a UF athlete.
“It’s definitely a job where you get no glory,” said Justin Seitz, a junior history major. “Most practices we’re playing defense most of the time, but I’ll take what I can get. Being away from the game for a couple years makes you realize how much you like playing basketball.”
Seitz had a few offers from small schools to continue his playing career after high school, but ended up at UF and now wants to be a basketball coach. He said playing for Butler has afforded him the opportunity to learn a lot that will help him in the future.
“Getting in there and seeing how a coach runs a D-1 basketball program is good experience,” Seitz said. “I try to take everything in and learn every time I go to practice.”
For Travis Young, the experience is just a way to get consistent, scheduled exercise. A 6-foot-5, 235 pound senior studying civil engineering, Young hadn’t played organized ball since middle school.
Now, he’s one of the key pieces in helping to prep Butler’s squad for some of the towering forces who own the lane in SEC play.
“Travis is awesome, because the hardest thing to find is big guys,” Butler said. “He’s not just a big man, he’s a really big man. We played against a 6-foot-8 kid and 6-foot-6 kid this year in the league, and our tallest player is 6-foot-2. There’s no way we could mimic what that’s going to feel like in the same way that Travis can.”
One on one, the guys possess a clear physical advantage over their female, varsity counterparts. That’s the point.
Even members of the practice squad for Connecticut, the nation’s No. 1 team, told The Associated Press this week they can defeat the Huskies 35 percent of the time.
When pressed for an answer, Young admitted he thought his band of intramural stars and retired high school ballers could beat the women’s team if they were given the chance. But, they resign themselves to playing defense and followng a game plan instead of attempting fast breaks and alley-oops.
More often than not, they play the role of the Washington Generals to Butler’s Globetrotters, assuming roles and giving the team a designed look they’ll see in the next game.
Showing up early for practice and studying film of the upcoming opponent, they are then assigned to mimic a player in practice.
For Augello, it means playing the quick, slashing guard who cuts to the basket. For other guys, it means doing the little things like setting picks or rebounding, and they may never be called upon to put a shot up.
They often play against their natural strengths and only dribble left-handed or drive the ball every chance they get, whatever the players on the other team do.
Not Backing Down
As if confining their game wasn’t hard enough, the guys on the practice squad still have to worry about matching up against a bunch of women who play like anything but. For many of them, the transition to the women’s game was not an easy one.
“First time I went out there I didn’t know if I was supposed to play 100 percent or what,” Seitz said. “Then the first time someone scores on you, your pride kicks in, and from there on out I’m going 110 percent to stop them. I didn’t realize how strong some of these girls were. Skill-wise, they are as good as any of the guys. [Sophomore guard] Jordan Jones is one of the best shooters I’ve ever seen, and I lived with (former UF men’s sharpshooter) Lee Humphrey for a year.”
That respect is echoed by Butler, who said she wouldn’t know what to do without the practice squad. She’s especially impressed by how the men check their egos at the door and do what they do without any fanfare.
“They are a bunch of guys who are not scholarship players or Division I athletes,” she said. “I think our kids have a great appreciation for the fact that they are rearranging their schedules and letting us beat up on them every single day and that they come to the games and sit behind our bench to support us. I think our players have a great appreciation for the sacrifice these guys are making to make us better.”
But to truly have an impact, the men on the practice squad must go through an adjustment period. They have to learn it’s acceptable to get rough in practice.
“My first expectation was that these are college athletes, so my first goal was to not get smoked, because they’re Division I players, so I just didn’t want to get embarrassed,” Young said. “It was tough to be physical with them. I have a hard enough time being physical at Southwest Rec versus the guys, so it took me awhile to get used to being aggressive and throwing my weight around in practice.”
Young said he has no reservations about using his big frame when backing down a defender in the lane, because players like Sharielle Smith and Azania Stewart won’t hesitate to do the same to him.
Roles have been reversed. Now, Young and the other players won’t be criticized for manning up on a woman, but they will for not being man enough.
