Todd Barin

Web Editorial Associate

@Todd_Barin

The Minnesota Lynx stepped it up a notch in practice on Saturday morning in anticipation for the first pre-season game of the season on May 5th in New York, NY.

“We had a day off yesterday, so we said that kind of the beginning of training camp stuff is over, the coddling, cradling, and making sure they understand things, and so today was what we call our, ‘turn up day,’” Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve said. “So we turnt it up.”

Minnesota is coming off of their third Championship in five seasons, but according to Reeve and the players, they still haven’t reached their full potential.

“I think more than anything and what’s important is that this group knows that we never peaked as a team (last season),” Reeve said. “We knew that the longer we played, we were getting closer and closer to really being the great team that we think we’re capable of being, and that’s how they came into this camp, saying, ‘we scratched the surface last year, we’ve got some things to do.’ Then you add a piece like Jia (Perkins), with Renee (Montgomery) coming back and the trade for (Natasha) Howard, I mean there are certainly some things left to do.”

The Lynx have a lot of new faces in camp this season, but new faces doesn’t necessarily mean youth and inexperience.

“In the case of Renee and Sylvia (Fowles), they haven’t been through our training camp, they’ve been through other training camps, but it’s their first one with us,” Reeve said. “I think it’s good for them to see the building blocks that they may have missed last year.”

Despite raising the intensity level today, Reeve is very pleased with the effort the rookies and the other new players have shown so far in training camp.

“Really great group, I have really enjoyed their eagerness to please each other,” Reeve said. “It’s a new group that we’re explaining kind of the Lynx way of doing things and to come right out of a college system, they’ve kind of come in here with their eyes and ears wide open, so I’ve enjoyed that the most. Today was the first day that I said, ‘okay, we’re going to turn it up,’ and I think they responded really well to that.”