GOOD FOR ALL

It’s September in an empty theater in Downtown Los Angeles. Only the sneakers on the hardwood stage fill the 10,000-seat arena draped in the shadows of skyscrapers. 

Senior guards Alyson Muira, India Otto and Junior transfer Kayla Williams are turning the corner on the right wing, shooting midrange jumpers. 

“Reagan right here,” Muira yells. “Ball Reagan,” “Thanks, Reagan,” Otto and Williams repeat. 

Reagan Griffin Jr. is on his second session of the day, working with players in the offseason. 

With a gray USC Women’s Basketball extra-large shirt on his chest, he continues to rebound and pass. 

“In the offseason, it’s a lot of skill-based work,” Griffin Jr. said. “You might be rebounding a lot.”

As the season progresses, Reagan is not only a rebounder but later an opponent. 

Star Sophomore forward Rayah Marshall feathers a layup high over the top of him. She flexes and stares down Griffin Jr. He retorts with a three from the right wing. He furrows his brow and reflects Marshall’s stare right back at her. 

“I love competition,” Griffin Jr. said. “So playing against one of the better players on the court on a daily basis, it brings that kind of competitiveness out of me.”

When game day rolls around, Griffin Jr. is up early for a shootaround. Back under the rim, he is rebounding. He is still battling with Marshall but this time with a little less ferocity. 

It’s practice number six of the week, and Griffin Jr. is going back home after enjoying post-practice food. When he comes back to the Galen Center, he is in regular clothes. 

Griffin Jr. goes to every practice. He watches films. He studies plays. He goes to the games. He is not on the roster. He is not behind the bench in a student basketball manager’s polo. He is not anywhere on the USC website. 

Griffin Jr. is a practice player for the USC Women’s Basketball team.

Practice players are throughout college campuses across the country. Traditionally males on female sports teams, practice players assist the team in practice. Whether that’s rebounding, setting up drills, or playing against female athletes. 

Practice players are there to support their team in any way. 

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Hall of Fame University of Tennessee women’s basketball coach Pat Summitt was the first to utilize practice players when she introduced them to her teams in the 1980s. The one-time winningest head coach in NCAA basketball history got the idea from her time with Team USA. 

In an interview with Sports Illustrated in 1999, Summitt told writer Jack McCallum ‘”It was the most natural thing in the world for me,” she said. “When I played internationally” –she co-captained the U.S. Olympic team to the silver medal in 1976–“we always found men to practice against.”‘

After Summitt introduced practice players to women’s basketball, utlizing male athletes in practice expanded to other sports. Now practice players are common in Women’s Volleyball, Women’s Lacrosse and even Women’s Soccer. Practice Players are a staple for every WNBA team. 

When Summitt found undergraduate students to assist in practice, there were three rules. 

1. Play below the rim – Summit did not want players dunking or jumping to block shots. 

2.  Do not be overly physical – Practice players are there to make players better in the game but not keep them from playing in the game. The safety of the players is the most important. 

3. Never, ever take an out-of-control layup to the rim. – Being under control is maybe the most important skill practice players have to have. Summit believed a pull-up jumper was much better than an erratic attack to the rim. 

USC Women’s Basketball Director of Player Development Courtney Jaco agrees with these rules. 

Jaco used to be playing against practice players as a Women’s Basketball player for USC. Now as an assistant coach, she is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day for the practice players. 

“I have talked to each one of our practice guys on the phone before they decide to do this and [say] these are the expectations,” Jaco said. “No, LeBroning, like [blocking] stuff off the backboard.”

For the practice players, Courtney Jaco is their head coach. At practice, questions about the scheme, practice attire, defensive rotations and the plays are all directed at Jaco. 

“She even takes the time aside to help, you know, work on some skill stuff,” Griffin Jr said. “You kind of construct your own little nucleus within the bubble of this larger program.”

A team inside the team is what the practice players are during the season. 

They might not be on the roster. However, practice players are there nearly as much as the team during the season.

While the women are in a film session, the practice players come to the gym early. 

Practice pinnies, a size too tight, with numbers drawn with ankle tape are a mark of who the practice players are representing in practice. Practice players then learn the plays of the other teams. 

Nihal Mahajani is a practice player for USC in his second year with the program. Mahajani says sometimes learning the other teams’ plays can be the hardest part. 

“Sometimes it’s five , 10 minutes before the practice,” Mahajani said. “To just learn all the sets that the coaches have scouted. So when it comes to practice, we’re ready to go and we can implement those plays.” 

Mahajani says practice players must know not only which plays to run but how the player they are embodying plays the games. 

“You also have to learn how the other team players play. So it’s kind of like the game within the game,” Mahajani said. 

Notes for players will often be: Left-handed driver with an in and out cross – not very fast, shoots all the time and from very deep, gets to her right hand, and loves to post up in transition. 

Practice players digest these individual notes and other teams plays for a couple of minutes before practice begins. 

Once practice starts, it’s off to help with anything the team needs.

Senior guard Alyson Muira says among her teammates, there is a lot of respect for the practice players coming in to help out. 

Involvement in drills is usually against the women but not always. Throughout practice, practice players are sometimes asked to be involved in drills with the women on the team. 

As practice continues, Mahajani is asked to be a part of a layup drill to begin practice. In two minutes, the group must make 24 layups sprinting the length of the court.  

“Let’s go, Nihal!” Muira says as he runs the length of the court at full speed. His left-handed layup hits the back of the rim and recoils out. Thirty seconds later, the horn sounds. The scoreboard reads 23. USC misses the drill by one layup. It’s on the line to run. 

Mahajani is back in line after the full-court sprint. The drill begins again. This time he makes his layups. So does the rest of the team. Mahajani’s commitment to the team every day has earned his coaches’ trust to let him participate in whole team drills. 

Tomorrow Mahajani will sprint down the court in the same drill hoping his left-handed layup isn’t the reason the whole team runs again.

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Every week Courtney Jaco sends a text with the practice schedule to the practice players. For every week, Mahajani and Griffin Jr. have responded with “Good for all.” An inside joke with the team started by former practice player Blake Amann. 

“[Blake] like, this dude is insane. Every single week. He’s good for every single practice.” Griffin Jr. said. “You know what? If he can do that, I can do it next year.”

Griffin took the baton from Blake Amann and participated in nearly every practice for women’s basketball. What he once viewed as insanity was now his normality. 

“When they came during spring break,” Muira said. “Don’t you guys want to go home or go to Cabo or something?”

Griffin Jr. and Mahajani were the senior leaders of this year’s dedicated group. A group that paid their own way to go to the Bay Area and Las Vegas to practice with the team before some of their biggest games of the season. 

On their trip to the Bay Area, the group had to squeeze seven people sleeping in one apartment. 

For Mahajani, the relationships he made along the way as a practice player made the experience worth it beyond the basketball. 

“It’s the accumulation of everything playing basketball at a high level, finding a community group of friends that are going to last,” Mahajani said. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

Mahajani and Griffin flew out to Blacksburg, Virginia, to watch the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The two seniors helped the team reach their first NCAA Tournament in 10 years and wanted to be a part of it. 

“Reagan and I, we were graduating this year, and as long as we’ve been here, we haven’t been to March Madness,” Mahajani said. “Regardless of where it was, support the team and help out as much as we could.”

The two were only in Blacksburg for 24 hours, but it left a lasting impression on the team. 

“It doesn’t matter where it is. They’ll show up,” Otto said.

The love for the game can get lost in a long season for the USC Women’s Basketball team. Grueling practices start in April and continue for 11 months in the hopes of winning a few games in March. 

The practice players are a reminder to the women’s team of what basketball is all about. 

“They’re here on their own time because they love basketball, and they want to help us get better,” Otto said. “It’s a really good reminder like this game should be fun.”