Hamilton, ON-  The two places are so different but connected. One can picture the scenery of Palm Springs, California, where the skies are clear, the sun shines and the weather is warm amid the desert. One can imagine the winter scene in Hamilton, where the sun can’t be seen, the temperature dips below zero and the snow is falling. 

For the McMaster Marauders women’s basketball team, their time spent in Palm Springs led to their performance that evening in Hamilton. The Marauders trained in California in late December with the Saskatchewan Huskies – the now number-one ranked Huskies. Their experience was evident in their 82-74 victory over the York Lions on Jan. 6 to open 2024. 

The players and coaches enjoyed the nice weather and outdoors in Palm Springs – a break from the Canadian winter. Indoors on the court is when they really learned. When the things really started to happen.

“The basketball portion of that experience was absolutely incredible,” guard Delaney Bourget noted. 

The relationship between the two programs goes way back. Current Saskatchewan head coach Lisa Thomaidis – who also coaches the German women’s national team – played at McMaster for five seasons under head coach Theresa Burns, coming in as a walk on. Burns then helped get her into coaching, where she’s been ever since. She’s been with the Canadian women’s national team and now has been at Saskatchewan for 26 seasons

The Marauders and Huskies have played against each other several times, including in the 2019 U SPORTS semi-finals, when McMaster won en route to a historic national championship in Toronto. Now, they were training together in a whole new environment.

The two teams each had their own court where they worked on their own things for half the practice. Then, they came together and ran drills and scrimmaged together for the other half. You could tell the trust Burns and Thomaidis have with each other, having known each other forever. That led to a great teaching environment with both teams, as the coaches could jump in smoothly with instructions. 

Then, when play got going, they could feel the intensity. “We could not mimic that intensity in our own practice,” Burns noted. 

Bourget knows how the history between the two coaches. She can see it in their attention to detail. Thomaidis was once playing for Burns just like she is. Bourget knows the impact they’ve had on each other. “Really inspiring,” she called it. 

As her and her teammates practices against the Huskies they started to appreciate and see what makes them so good – and how it rubs off on them. 

The Huskies have been the model of consistency in U SPORTS women’s basketball in recent history and this year is no different. You only need to be reminded of all their Canada West titles and trips to nationals. You only need to look at their 2016 and 2020 national championships as well. 

Saskatchewan jumped atop the U SPORTS Top 10 with a 17-0 record in all games this season . One of those was an 85-37 win over the Marauders in the Darcel Wright Memorial Classic in October. You can see their length and height that McMaster had to go up against. You can see Thomaidis’ impact and influence. What better way to work on their rebounding and physicality, Bourget pointed out. What better way to expose their deficiencies.

Fifth-year guard Jenna Button got a glance into how the Huskies practiced. Button and her teammates talk after every practice about things they can take away. They talked about adjustments as they scrimmaged against Saskatchewan. 

They talked about how every time they step on the court, they want to play or practice like they did against the Huskies. “We shouldn’t take any team lightly,” Button said. “Because that’s when we play our best basketball when we know our opponent is really really skilled and they’re just tough.” 

Button saw that elite defence. She saw how Thomaidis would talk to her players about getting up on opposing ball handlers, giving them no room. She saw how they sped up the play. Button and her teammates then talked about how they could put that into their own defence. 

The Marauders carried their California experience into their game against York. As the first quarter went on, the team was scoring, the tempo was going and the ball was moving. “All the momentum was ours because we were playing Mac basketball,” Bourget noted. 

McMaster jumped out to a 33-15 lead after 10 minutes. They led 51-36 at halftime. They started out the third quarter with a scoreless drought though as the Lions clawed back. They lacked the attention to detail they had in the first half while they struggled to deal with the Lions’ pressure, according to Burns. 

However, when the contest got close, McMaster’s composure came through. Burns pulled Button aside at one point and told her: “You need to the person to be composed and be a straight face and recollect the group.” 

Button did so. She knew how she could get caught up in things and how difficult it can be to recollect herself. She could feel the stress and nerves with her team as their shots didn’t fall and the score creeped closer and closer. She and her teammates responded with timely stops and buckets.

The turning point? Perhaps when Bourget hit a jumper with just under four minutes remaining in the third quarter to score McMaster’s first points of the half. Everyone was able to take a breath and relax a bit once that happened, Button recalled. “We just needed to get that one and then thing started to look better for us going forward,” she added. 

As the team celebrated their 82-74 victory, the Marauders know the importance of playing with freedom. It’s been a theme of theirs.

Button knows they’re at their best when they’re doing so. You don’t have to run through the whole play like robots. Take a shot if it’s open. Be decisive. Don’t second-guess yourself or pass up open shots. It’s something they’ve talked about throughout the season. 

Something Burns praised Bourget for in what she called one of her best performances of the season. She finished with an all-around effort of 13 points, six rebounds, four assists and two steals. Keep it simple, they talk about. Bourget is at her best when she communicates well and keeps things simple. When she takes the open shot, Burns noted. 

Bourget tries to keep it simple while also keeping in mind those details. “So it’s never as simple as it seems but not overthinking,” she said. 

She knows what the team needs from her. Sometimes, it means saying something really important to her teammates during a game. At times against York, it meant playing the power forward position. In her mind, three things stand out: executing offence that the coaches ask, playing intense defence and taking any open looks. Perhaps that helps with simplicity.

As for Button, her growth and freedom of play is all about her next play mentality. She zoned in on that when she scored 29 points against the Western Mustangs on Nov. 18, not even realizing how many points she had until she glanced up at the scoreboard in the fourth quarter.

She will clap to reset herself or tell herself ‘next play’ in her head when things aren’t going well. Now, she wants to not even have to do that. She wants to not react at all and just move onto the next play automatically. 

Button wants to get into that zone where she’s just playing basketball and there’s nothing in her head. She finds when she’s able to hit her first shot early, she’s not overthinking things too much. When she misses her first few shots… she starts overthinking and telling herself: I’ve got to get something in. I’ve got to go. I’ve got to make something.

Against York, Button scored early and often – a scorching 17 points in the first quarter – which allowed her to play freely and not think as much. She scored from all areas. She finished with a career-high 30 points. 

The Marauders will continue to learn and grow as the season goes along. Burns saw that learning and adjusting in their practices with the Huskies and their game against York. She saw snippets of what they learned in the first half versus York before disappearing in the second half.

Maybe they’ll show it for three quarters next time, she wonders. Maybe even for four quarters. “We’re just aiming to put a complete game together,” Burns added. 

They’ll certainly need to do so in their next game – on the road against the nationally ranked Queen’s Gaels. The work towards that starts in practice before the ball is even tipped up in Kingston.

For a young and growing team, it means players pushing themselves outside of their comfort zone and being mentally prepared to do so, according to their head coach. For Button, Bourget and others, it means finding that right mindset. For some, it means taking on something new or different. 

Sometimes, it means being someplace different as well. Someplace like Palm Springs.

Featured Image: Briana Da Silva/McMaster Athletics