First Posted: 3/4/2015
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — John Lammers didn’t go to Notre Dame on an athletic scholarship but he has ended up playing against some of the best athletes in college basketball.
Some of the best athletes in women’s college basketball.
Lammers, who played on Ottawa-Glandorf’s Division III state semifinalist team in 2012, is on a practice squad composed of former high school players that Notre Dame’s women’s team uses to simulate or exceed the size, strength and speed it will see in games.
Many of the top programs in women’s college basketball play against male practice players. Legendary Tennessee coach Pat Summitt is sometimes given credit for being the first coach to do it. Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw’s teams have practiced against men for more than 20 years.
Notre Dame has a 28-2 record this season and was 37-1 and NCAA runner-up last year. It has advanced to the Final Four the last four seasons.
Lammers, a guard who scored 19 points in O-G’s state semifinal game against Portsmouth in 2012, is in his third year as a practice player.
He had never played basketball against girls or women before his freshman year at Notre Dame when he connected with the women’s team through someone his cousin knew.
“My cousin from Chicago also goes here and he had a friend who is a couple years older than us who did it first. He kind of got us involved. We were able to show up for the first practice and if you get called back, you’ve made the practice squad,” he said.
“Our role is just to prepare them for any opponent they’re going to see and play as hard as we can to replicate a game so they don’t see anything in a game that they haven’t already seen in practice.
“They don’t want us playing too hard in the sense of playing dumb. If they have a fast break lay-up and we’re coming from behind we’re not supposed to try to block it. And we probably don’t need to get on the floor too much, diving for loose balls, so we don’t take out someone’s knee,” he said. “We play within ourselves but play hard.”
Notre Dame uses around 10 practice players who come to practice three or four times a week. Different players might be used to prepare for each opponent, depending on the strengths of that team.
“Like the other day when they played Duke, they had three big guys in there at once because Duke goes with three bigs,” Lammers said.
Practice players are also fans of the women’s team. Lammers attends every home game and saw five of Notre Dame’s six NCAA tournament games last season.
“I’d say the best part is just meeting everybody who is involved and learning from the coaches, meeting the players and becoming friends with the players and the other practice players. It’s pretty rewarding,” he said.
