CLEVELAND - For senior guard Porchia Green and the Ball State University women's basketball team, one of the changes from last season are how many "Olga Days" there are during conditioning.
"Olga Day" is a team nickname for those workouts new coach Kelly Packard calls "mean, nasty and physical." Those practices challenge the players and prepare them for the new offense put in by Packard.
Packard said Thursday the workouts are hard, but players need to bring their abilities and their mental toughness to those practices.
"Call it what you want," she said. "You're going to have to decide how to address Olga every day."
For Packard and her team, more "Olga Days" are one way to transition from last year's 15-15 record to this season with a new up-tempo offense. Packard was hired in May after former head coach Tracy Roller resigned from the team because of medical reasons.
Ball State was named preseason favorite Thursday to win the Mid-American Conference West Division at the MAC Media Day in Cleveland.
Although the team's transition to a different playing style is going well, Packard said, she still has relationships to build and trust to earn from within the team.
"I have been very realistic about what a transition even looks like," she said. "It doesn't happen overnight."
Packard said she tries to keep her and the coaching staff patient about introducing offenses and defenses the team isn't used to.
Green, a first team All-MAC last season and one of the team's three returning seniors, said Packard is someone who shows great character and can bring focus to the team this season.
"Last year we had a lot of adversity with coach Roller and her illness," she said. "But this year we can be more focused. New coach, new thing."
Sophomore forward Emily Maggeret said she enjoyed getting to know Packard, and to see her different approach to basketball. Maggeret, the MAC Sixth Person of the Year last year, called Packard wise and knowledgeable, but she doesn't get in players faces.
"She's just very calm a lot," she said.
Players had tough, full-body "Olga Day" practices before Packard came to the team. But with Packard, "Olga Days" happen more frequently - every Friday during the off-season conditioning.
"Like I told them, these are tough workouts," Packard said. "I wouldn't even want to do them."
Green said "Olga Days" were named after and epitomized by the image of a "big Russian lady with two big braids."
"I'm so glad it's over," she said. "That was like the hardest several weeks of condition I've ever had ever since I've been a freshman."
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