Comets' First Day of Training Camp

A lot of new faces participated in the first day of Houston Comets training camp today while many veterans (Kayte Christensen, Dawn Staley, Astou Ndiaye-Diatta, Sheryl Swoopes, Tari Phillips, and Dominique Canty) have not yet arrived in H-town due to commitments overseas and / or personal or business reasons. New signee, guard Anastasia Kostaki, is yet to arrive to Houston, too. Renae Camino, 3rd round draft pick, is not expected to join the Comets until 2007.

Team White (mostly rookies and / or newcomers) competed hard; played tough and smart. Team White, for the most part, featured Cynthia Jordan, Mistie Williams, Sancho Lyttle, Crystal Givens, Megan Moody, Charlene Smith, Tiffany Stansbury, and Liz Shimek. Yes, that's right, despite suffering a torn ACL injury in November, Sancho participated in a few of the "5 on 0" (full-court, non-contact drills). She didn't show any sign of a limp while racing up and down the floor.

Van told us he plans to use his bench more this season because of the new 24-second shot-clock. The new clock should result in more possessions which means Van may actually be true to his word and, indeed, use the bench this season. "I really like our team," said Van. "I think this is a team I'm going to love to coach. We're going to run the ball more. We're going to have to adjust to the 24-second clock."

More info later...

...In trying to make this blog unique from all the others, here's a few mp3s from Comets' practice:

Tamecka Dixon: "...still adjusting..." (Academy Sports & Outdoors).

rookie F Mistie Williams: "...I feel like I belong here..." .