The opening night of training camp Friday for the injury- and WNBA playoffs-depleted women's national basketball team at John Jay College had several teaching moments.
Head coach Anne Donovan folded her 6-foot-8 frame into a crouch to demonstrate a defensive stance. Assistant and Olympics vet Dawn Staley showed national team newcomer Candice Wiggins of Stanford how to be a better guard on the perimeter.
But perhaps the John Jay men's basketball team got the most important lesson of all.
Because only 10 national team members were suited up to play ahead of two games against the Australian team to prepare for an Olympic qualifying tournament in Chile, the men were brought into the fourth-floor gym for some defensive drills. They were enlisted to test the women's help-defense and were eventually told to do anything they could to break down the women's half-court defense and score.
It was physical, with Sacramento Monarchs guard Kara Lawson taking a hard charge and tumbling to the floor. After that, Staley muttered, "Better her than me. ... That's youth right there. I got old and smart, and I'm on the sidelines now."
Still, the men were turned back more times than not. Stuffed by the likes of 6-4 Candace Parker of the University of Tennessee and the Liberty's Jessica Davenport and LSU's Sylvia Fowles, both 6-5.
When the drill was done and the men sat wearily on the bleachers, one nodded toward the women on the court and commented: "I have a whole new perspective on women's basketball."
Class dismissed.