Practicing on the guys.

• Position: Basketball - Brief Article

They're invited to the popular athletes' parties on campus, they wear exclusive athletic gear, and once in a white they even sign an autograph. So it is natural when a classmate eventually asks: What sport do you play? "And that's when I tell them I'm a practice player on the women's basketball team," says Mike Cofrancesco, a senior at the University of Connecticut. "I get the weirdest looks. People say: 'But you're a guy.'" He's one of hundreds of men serving as volunteer practice fodder for women's basketball teams at dozens of colleges. Coaches say they're...