Still in the game: These suburban students find competition as practice players for some of the country’s best women’s basketball teams

Sloan Kipley and Sam Millstone were not ready to stop playing highly competitive basketball when they headed off to college.

Both of them played on successful high school teams — Kipley at Buffalo Grove and Millstone at Palatine — and had years of AAU experience. They had an ability and understanding of the game to offer a program.

But they didn’t choose to play at a small college or try to make the men’s teams at the big schools they attend as non-scholarship walk-ons. Instead, they are assisting two of the best women’s teams in college basketball on their men’s practice teams.

Kipley is a senior at Iowa and in his second year on the “Gray Squad” that challenges last year’s NCAA runner-up and reigning Naismith Player of the Year Caitlin Clark. Millstone is a freshman at South Carolina and is part of the “Highlighters,” who test the country’s top-ranked team that is unbeaten and won its second national title two years ago. For Kipley and Millstone, a big reward is the advance look at what fans see in person or watching on TV.

“That’s the coolest part for me is watching the team and seeing a play and seeing it develop and having a better understanding of it,” said Kipley, a 2019 Buffalo Grove graduate and teammate of standout Kam Craft, now at Xavier. “Seeing what you do in practice and how it translates to a game.”

Millstone was a Daily Herald All-Area point guard for a Palatine team that won a school-record 25 games and its first Mid-Suburban League title in 30 years last season. He played for his dad, Eric, in his 16th year as a head coach, and his grandfather Doug was the coach at Buffalo Grove from 1990-2000.

“I love basketball and in my career I want to be involved around basketball,” Sam Millstone said. “I enjoy seeing what happens behind the scenes with one of the best teams in the country. It’s a rewarding feeling to be on the scout team and see them play Thursday and Sunday, and to see the product behind the scenes and then what they put in front of everyone else.”

Women’s Division I college basketball teams practicing against men is nothing new. Legendary Tennessee coach Pat Summitt is credited with starting the concept in 1974, although in 1999 she told Sports Illustrated’s Jack McCallum she didn’t know who the first coach was to have women play against men.

“It was the most natural thing in the world for me,” Summitt, who captained the 1976 U.S. Olympic silver medal team, told McCallum. “When I played internationally we always found men to practice against.”

South Carolina coach Dawn Staley, in the Professional Basketball Hall of Fame as a player, highlighted the “Highlighters” as they scrimmaged against the women’s team during an ESPN all-access broadcast before the season started. Millstone got some air time when he stole a pass.

“They actually are the main reason why we are as successful as we are,” Staley said on ESPN. “They’re committed. We win championships, they get rings. So any time we win they win because of their dedication and (they) sacrifice just as much as our players. The ‘Highlighters’ do a great job of challenging us.”

This scenario wasn’t unusual for Kipley as he and his twin brother, Tyler, would practice against the AAU team with their sister, Kora, a freshman soccer player at Western Kentucky, that was coached by their dad, Chris. Sloan Kipley said one of the players was being recruited by Iowa and that led to the opportunity to join the practice squad as a junior.

Kipley said one of the biggest things he needed to do was get in better basketball shape. No one could play much during his freshman year since it was still the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and he started getting back into pickup games as a sophomore.

“I knew the intensity would be high, but it was higher than I expected,” Kipley said. “It’s a lot of fun and very competitive. That’s what I really like about it, is how competitive and intense it is when you are competing with them.”

Millstone’s thoughts of continuing to play in college changed going into his senior year, but he still wanted to be around the game. He was pointed in the right direction to join the South Carolina practice squad by 2016 Palatine graduate Hunter Lindell, who was a practice player, manager and graduate assistant coach for the Gamecocks before moving into his current position as the Director of Player Development and Basketball Operations for the Southern Illinois-Edwardsville women’s program in the summer of 2022.

While student managers have to attend every practice, the practice players show up when it fits their schedule, and Millstone and Kipley said their teams have around a dozen players. Millstone said seven to eight regularly show up — which includes 2021 York graduate Denton Rohde — and he could typically make it three times a week with his class schedule. Kipley said he tried to get to three to four practices a week but couldn’t go as often as he wanted at the end of this semester because of some intense classes and exams.

They aren’t just playing glorified pickup games. Assistant coaches go through the scouting reports of upcoming opponents with the practice players and they also help with individual skill-work and drills.

“The girls never go against each other,” said Millstone, whose friend Mark Braun from Fremd is part of the Wisconsin women’s practice squad. “They go against us in every drill. Basically the whole practice is live action against us.”

That has put Kipley in an unusual role at times since he wasn’t a “shoot first, ask questions later” player for then-coach Keith Peterson at Buffalo Grove.

“In practices where I’m the star player I had to force shots I normally would not take and it felt a little uncomfortable and a little weird,” Kipley said. “Most people like that role but I’m not used to getting space off the dribble and shooting.”

What he is used to is seeing regularly is the amazing long-range shooting ability of Clark.

“You see these plays that are just ridiculous in practice from her,” Kipley said with a laugh. “There are definitely plays like that when I try to guard her or watch someone else guard her. Things that she is insanely good at that you don’t see even on TV.

“She is better in practice. She doesn’t miss. She’s one of the only people I’ve guarded where every time she shoots the ball I assume it’s going in.”

Millstone joked that he wished he got more post defense experience from his dad since he had to try and defend 6-foot-7 Kamila Cardoso in a practice. He said “it was a nightmare” where he got a few stray elbows. He also had an eye-opening moment from freshman MyLasia Fulwiley.

“When I decided to go to South Carolina, I remember watching the tourney run a little bit last year and I didn’t know how good or quick they really were,” Millstone said. “The first practice we’re doing a transition drill and I got hit with the craziest euro-step I ever saw in my life (by Fulwiley). The players will talk trash to us during practice and that makes it fun.”

They have also enjoyed watching coaches such as Staley and Iowa’s Lisa Bluder lead national championship-caliber programs.

“(Bluder) does a great job and you get to see what she does and what makes her such a great coach,” Kipley said.

“I would say coach Staley and it’s not even close,” Millstone joked of the comparison between her and his dad. “Some of the stuff she says (regarding strategy and details) makes my dad look like an elementary school coach.”

The fun for Millstone and Kipley is bonding not only with the women’s players but their practice teammates, who in some cases could have played in college. They typically go to the women’s home games and Kipley and a friend went to last season’s Final Four in Dallas where Iowa upset South Carolina in the semifinals before losing to LSU in the title game.

Kipley hopes to be watching the Hawkeyes at the Final Four again in early April in Cleveland before he heads into the working world and a job in finance and accounting with John Deere.

“They are a ton of fun to watch,” Kipley said. “It’s really awesome to see and I’m super-excited to see what they do.”

Millstone, who just switched his major to marketing from sports management, would love to get there as well for a possible rematch of last year’s semifinal. Because he is with the “Highlighters” he was able to arrange his second-semester class schedule to attend more practices. He said he wants to be involved with the program as a practice player or possibly a manager throughout his four years at South Carolina.

“I’ve enjoyed it so much,” Millstone said. “That (a ring) is what I’m hoping for since all the 2022 Highlighters got championship rings.”