General Reflections
So the season was a success by almost any measure one would use. We won the tournament championship. The evaluations by both players and parents were overwhelmingly positive. And I’m proud of what was accomplished. Now in fairness the coach always looks better when the team is winning, but I still think overall I did fairly well.
The highlight of the season for me was, without a doubt, winning the HP tourney. It felt so good to beat that JCC team, again. And even better was the fact that we did it without David being the sole star makes it just that much sweeter.
In comparison our conference tourney victory just didn’t feel as good. Even without David, I think I just sort of expected to win it all. I was amazed at my relative level of apathy during the championship game. I think this had some positive effects on the team, since I was so calm, they were so calm.
I will say that after observing the other coach’s practices, that my practices are superior. I think I did not do an adequate job of teaching fundamentals and that was as much an indictment of my own weakness as it was anything else. Other the other hand, I think that many of the things we did focus were improved just as much, if not more, through my use of the “game method” as through a traditional method and practices were more fun. Doing a better job of teaching the fundamentals will be a bigger focus for me next year.
Next Year
When I went to give our trophy to Emily, my Park District contact, we talked about the season and how well it went. She commented that the parents she’d talked to informally had given positive feedback. Essentially I was offered to come back next year, which I’m excited about.
My goal would be to move up with the team which I know would be met with a good reaction. The biggest question would be whether we would enter the A division or the B division. I know the league commissioner wants us to move up and I would absolutely agree with him except for the uncertainty over the triplets. I can’t imagine David coming out for the team again next year given what had happened this year. I would be pleasantly surprised if he did, as it would be clear that he wasn’t going to try and play on three teams again. My fear is that with David not coming out again I would lose Brian and Scott as well. I know that both of them would love to play for me again and would like playing with their friends so that’s in my favor. With Brian and Scott I think we’d be a lower half A league team, with David, I think we’d be a mid to upper half A league team. If Brian and Scott come back I think the move would likely be a good one as I know the team would learn more and I grow as a coach due to the tougher competition (a point that Brian made, as though it was his own, at our team dinner). If we lost all three, we’d really struggle even in the B, I think. Hopefully, Brian and Scott will come out again.
While that makes me very nervous, I am very excited about the idea of coaching with Jon, the guy who coached the 5th and 6th grade teams this year. I think having that second pair of eyes, not to mention another person at practice once a week, would just be terrific for our team. Not to mention it would give me somebody to commiserate with and learn from. Emily was also very excited about this idea. I hope it’s a winning formula all around.
I also decided that I want to sit down with every player at the last tryout and let him know whether or not he’s made the team. I think they deserve this personal feedback. However, I’m not sure I would have the heart to do this if I have to cut a player who made it last year. That would be real rough. At the same time, I’ve told the team all along that my job is to put together the best team possible and I will do that. I can’t envision going above 10 players either as playing time gets real hard above that amount and really is ideal with about 8 players. While I dread the idea of having to cut a player, I hope it’s a problem I have as it means our talent pool is stronger.
One thing I want to do better is keeping us in better shape than our opponents. At the beginning of the season we had a real advantage there, but we kind of forfeited it as the season went on. I blame myself and we’re going to do more conditioning next year as a result. Conditioning isn’t fun and so the kids moaned and would slack off and I listened to their moans and I didn’t push them as hard when they slacked off at the end of the season. We’re not going to get any taller relative to our opponents and so if we move up being in as good, or better shape, so we can play in transition becomes all the more important.
The Players
Sunday night after the championship game we had our team dinner and awards ceremony. Overall it was a great success with a good time had by all. All of the kids got a chance to hold the trophy and there was a lot of laughter and smiles. Just like I did in baseball I gave each of the kids an award. Here are what the awards were and some general reflections on them.
(One reminder: My main statistical tool I use is called Win Score. It prizes efficient shooting, and gives credit for the good things players do, such as rebounds, while taking away for negative things, such as turnovers. I then divide out this score by the minutes they play to get WS/M.)
Dante: “Dirk Nowitzski Award” Dante, despite being the tallest player on our team, was never the inside presence I would have liked. He did get better playing against big guys, but remained somewhat soft. Despite that, his favorite thing we did at practice was “Animal Rebounding”, our most physical drill. He did, however, develop a pretty nice jumper from short to medium distances. This contributed to having perhaps his best game of the season in our semi-final when he really helped to open up the floor by his jumpers. While he was in our top tier of players he was at the bottom of that their. The biggest negative is that while he was tall, he was as thin as a rail, but also slow, as in the slowest player on the team. Tall, skinny, and fast? No problem. Tall, with bulk, and slow? That works too. While I wouldn’t likely see any sort of noticeable improvement next year, I hope that puberty will give him a little bulk. He did improve as the season went on, and gained some confidence. His WS went from being mostly negative to being mostly positive.
Brian – “Sharpshooter Award” Brian just loved his award. The rest of the night after he received his award he clutched his award to his chest. It was incredibly cute. I’m not really surprised since he was so concerned about how many points he scored (5.4 per game) but since I never stressed how many points a player scored this was held in check. The only stat I ever mentioned on any sort of consistent basis was rebounding. Being a team player is not something which came easily for Brian, but he did a pretty good job of trying to be a good teammate this year. His short temper, almost always with himself, was a problem and I think it’ll only be more of a problem as he gets older, since that’s part of getting older. There’s all that on the one hand and then on the other hand there is the fact that he was also perhaps the most thoughtful member of the team, always remembering little details (in a positive way) about everyone on the team. He absolutely loves me, which is a big plus for me if I coach this team again next year (more on this later).
David – “Coast to Coast Award”. Yes I still gave him an award even though he quit the team, unfortunately he wasn’t able to come to the dinner as he got sick. He’s an incredible player and a really good kid. I felt genuinely bad for him being pulled in so many different directions with basketball. This kid is 9 years old and being on three competitive teams seems just like a recipe for burning this kid out by the time he would get to high school. His last few games with us, he honestly wasn’t playing nearly as well as he had at the beginning of the season. I think the HP tourney was a real turning point as he really did take over the game for us to win to a large extent against the JCC. After that I think he felt like he had to do that every game and he just wasn’t able to do it and frankly we didn’t need him to do it. I was sad he wasn’t able to finish the season with us, but am glad that they made the choice to cut back on his basketball.
Scott – “Glass Cleaner Award” Scott is the reason we wont he championship. Hands down. Out of the 48 minutes on Saturday and Sunday Scott played 43 of them. Scott is not a big kid in any sense of the word, but he plays HUGE and just loves playing inside. Our game against the WK a team showed that there are limitations here in that there are people who are just so big that despite how he plays he can’t compensate. Each year I feel like this is going to catch up to him more and more and he’ll have to learn how to play guard, whether he likes it or not, by the time he reaches 8th grade, if not before, unless he grows (and his parents suggest that there’s only so much growing to be done). All that said he was just a monster inside and on the boards (hence the award for all of his rebounding) and after David left the team really picked up his scoring to become our leading scorer. He wasn’t nearly as flashy about the scoring as David, but was very good. He was our team MVP and did it in as about an unassuming way as could be. I gave the awards in seemingly “random” order though really it was in the order that I liked the kids (yeah I’m an awful person) and Scott was the last one I gave. I think having David quit the team was a fantastic thing for both Brian and Scott, but particularly Scott since he got a chance to not be overshadowed by his brother and frankly I think he surprised himself at how well he did.
Tom – “Heart of the Team” Poor Tom doesn’t like to hear how great he is as it just embarrasses him. Tom scored, BY FAR, the least number of points, scoring only 6 the whole season. And while he didn’t do particularly well in any category, he’s a kid who as long as he’s not completely outclassed by others will always have a place on my team. He’s the kid who makes the team better by his presence and effort. As I said at the speech for him, when we needed a joke he’d tell a joke. When we needed to be serious he was a leader by example. I know we all missed him during the time he was gone. The biggest thing he could do to improve is to gain some confidence on the court. I’ve learned that he’s a truly gifted soccer player and pianist but doesn’t really enjoy either of those nearly as much as basketball, which was a nice thing to hear.
Noah – “Human Mop” Noah was a tough kid to come up with an award for. In reality he deserved the “most improved” award. If you recall I sat down with all of the players during the middle of the season to talk about what was going well and what wasn’t going so well. And at that time, I gave Noah a couple of comments. He really took them to heart and improved. His biggest problem had always been being in the wrong place on the court, especially on offense. He completely turned this around and this enabled him to start scoring some baskets. His best game was against the WK a team, which was just great to see. I didn’t give him the most improved award for a simple reason: he very well might not make the 5th grade team. Noah actually was, I think, by the end of the season a better player than Tom. However, Tom brings those intangibles to the table. And so there’s the real possibility that Noah just might not be good enough to make the team. Then there is the personality thing. On the one hand, he’d drive me NUTS at practice. Everyone would be sitting quietly paying attention, Noah would be standing staring off into space. Essentially he was your typical ADD kid (though his mom told me he doesn’t have ADD) and it could be truly aggravating at times. Brian’s fits didn’t phase me as much as Noah just being Noah. The biggest thing in his favor? He was thankful for every minute of playing time he got. I think he knew that he wasn’t as good as most of the other players and appreciated the fact that he got so many playing opportunities. A perfect example of this is when he commented at half of the championship game that he’d already played about 7 minutes. I thought he was saying this as a negative and started to remind him how that was a full quarter of play, when he said, “Yeah I know. I know how you said that we weren’t promised any time and was just real glad to get that time.” And he meant it. He would always ask if there was a chance he’d go back in at the end of games, which let me know how much he wanted to play, but it was never overboard. Every kid says at tryouts that they’d be willing to just make the team even if it meant sitting on the bench, but the difference is that with Noah he really means it. Noah is a good kid and it would break my heart to cut him.
Jack M – A great point guard. The fact that he’s a left helps him since most teams expect a player to drive to his right. He is very good at penetrating, not quite as good at finishing. He had his best game of the year in terms of points against MP2, making far more of his lay-ups than normal. I never commented to him about his shooting as he would almost always take smart shots, but his low shooting percentage is a definite negative for me. That said his ability to dribble, play tough defense, and do so much else well more than makes up for that negative. However, he is another one of the short kids. He and Gordie were neck and neck for being the shortest player on the team. While his skills allowed him to make up for that disadvantage, it’s only going to get worse for him if he doesn’t grow. Hopefully he’ll grow. The biggest problem with Jack is that he is a negative person who doesn’t have a lot of patience for his teammates. Where as Brian would lost patience either with himself or me, Jack would lost patience with the other players. This is, in many ways, a worse thing. Jack was the only player to really not want to move up to the a division and this is completely in keeping with his character. If we did move up, there would be far more problems with him I think because losing would be hard on him and I think cause his negativity to not quite be as well kept in check. That said, the season was a good one. While Jack had a conflict with an AAU game on the day of the championship he choose our team, which was great. Besides Brian, he was the one most interested in his individual stats, which again was in keeping with his personality.
Jack P – “Igniter Award”. To compensate for our short stature I wanted to play an uptempo game. Jack was the only one who could be counted to do this every moment he was out there. Scott did a good job, but Jack did a great job. His shooting percentage was 27% which just killed me. More than anything this is what he needs to do to take his game to the next level. If he could do that he could become a really good player. He’s grown a lot, and his parents are fairly tall, so he could continue to grow. If this happens he’ll see more and more time at 4 and 5, which is not something he likes. We’re a team of 9 people who think of themselves as guards and Jack P, if trends continue (and there’s no guarantee that they will), will likely see the short end of that stick more. I think that Jack has the most unrealized potential on the team, an example being his ability to create shots and then not make them, which is exciting as well.
Gordie – “Love of the Game”. I think a hidden strength of this team is that they all loved to play basketball. I think basketball is a really fun sport and this team top to bottom felt the same way. Gordie, even on this team of kids who loved it, was among those who loved it the most. It killed him to sit on the bench as much as he did. The problem with Gordie going forward was summed up well by his step dad, “Gordie will player harder than anyone else, but if he doesn’t grow, his basketball career is going to be limited”. The sad part is that we could be talking about this by 5th grade. He would too often get trapped with the ball and then turn it over. Jack M was just as short, and only a bit quicker, but Jack would get rid of the ball a second before he was trapped, rather than two seconds after he’d been trapped. He wanted to play point for us, but it was, I think, more for the chance for him to score than anything else. Gordie has a good first step, which helps him penetrate, but he’s not really fast, so his second and third steps aren’t as fast as they should be. Gordie, along with Noah, would be the two who I’d nominate as least likely to make the team next year.
Lucas – “Do it for the team award”. Lucas did whatever was asked of him without complaint. He’s a quiet kid by nature but with a smile which could light up a room and never a frown. He didn’t belong inside, but it’s where I played him nearly all season and he did well getting 5.4 rebounds per game, second best on the team. Learning how to score from inside was a process that was slow going but he certainly improved there. That said I think that I really am doing him and the team a disservice by having him play so much inside. Next to David, Lucas did the best job of simply taking over a game. He could easily have been our second best point guard at the end of the season (next to Jack M) and I only played him there for a few minutes. During the playoffs I had him playing our “wing” and he did extremely well there. The kid is a natural athlete and a really good kid on top of it.
So that’s it for our basketball team this year. Thanks so much for reading along and I hop you enjoyed it. My baseball adventures will likely be starting up a week from Saturday, so look for that then.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Championship game vs MP
Most of the team had gone out to lunch together, but I stuck around at the gym. Let me just say now that the gym was just beautiful. It had wonderful hardwood floors and the officiating was top notch.
Our game was supposed to start at 12:15 and I foolishly told my team to back at the gym by 11:45. That was WAY too early and since the game on the championship court (which even had an announcer) ended up running late the kids were sitting around forever. During this time the coach of the 5th & 6th grade teams and I talked. He had observed our earlier game against MP2 and remarked how well our team passes and is patient. It was great hearing this validation from another coach. During this discussion we also talked about the idea of being each other’s assistant coaches one day a week next year. I am thrilled with this idea as I really got frustrated with my inability to work in small groups while still providing something valuable for the rest of the team. And having a second pair of eyes will just be great.
The MP team’s coach had told me that his star player was out with bronchitis, which was good news for us. It meant that both teams were playing without their stars (he knew my team’s star had left our team). This was certainly good news for us. He talked to his team for 15 minutes or so. I did gather my team and we talked, but for no nearly as long. My speech was pretty close to this: “I was just talking with another coach and we agreed that the semi-final games are almost always harder than championship games. And really we’ve already won. We get to play on the championship court, with three referees, an announcer, and we win t-shirts and a trophy. And remember, win or lose, we walk away with our heads held high because we’ll have given our best. And if we play our best, we can beat this team.”
Not win one for the Gipper, but I think it served its purpose.
The game begins and we quickly get out to a 6-0 deficit. I call a time-out and try to calm down the team. It basically works. By half the score is 15-11. At the end of the first quarter when it was 10-9, I pointed out that we’d just gone on a 10-3 run. At half Jack M points out that we basically went on a 15-5 run. This was particularly good coming from Jack as he tends to be among the most negative our players.
We hold on to the narrowest of leads through the 3rd quarter. I do get myself in a bit of trouble. I had been rotating Tom, Noah, and Gordie ever half a quarter to make sure they got a full quarters worth of play but also didn’t play in the 4th. However, I accidentally subbed in Noah during the last half of the 3rd when I should have subbed in Gordie. I realized my mistake pretty quickly, however this meant I felt I should give Gordie some playing time in the 4th. And Tom had played pretty well so I wanted to give him a couple of 4th quarter minutes anyway. Jack P needed a rest and having Jack M out there wasn’t going to work, as Brian deserved the playing time and having Jack M, Brian, Tom, and Gordie is not a good combo. This is where having Scott play point would have been so useful. I came up with another solution instead: play Lucas at point. The thing is that Lucas really is a natural guard and my playing him inside did not come easily for him, but he always did it without complaint.
Lucas went out at guard and performed very well. It was good. Eventually I got my crunch time lineup in of Jack M, Jack P, Lucas, Scott and either Dante or Brian (I believe it was Brian). And they came through. MP put on their press which just wrecked us last time we played. This time it wasn’t effective at all. They called several time outs to try and do something, but the something didn’t matter. At the start of the 4th I stated that “We are six minutes away from winning the championship. As long as we play our game we will win this.” Each timeout I said something like “We are now X minutes closer” before stating anything else that needed to be said. With about 55 seconds left and up by 3, I put us in a stall defense. Eventually they got their coaches message to foul us. The rest of the game was boring really as they weren’t close to bonus and so several fouls later Jack M ended up on the line. He sunk the first shot, icing the game and made the second shot just for good measure. We had won!
So that they could play the next game they do the trophy presentation in a separate room after we have done the team’s talk. I gather our team and talk about how we can walk away with our heads held high because we played great basketball (I am glad I remembered to return to this theme after we had won). I talked about how proud of the team I was. And I said I’d save the rest of what I had to say for the team dinner that night. We went into the awards room. When MP came in we did a really lame cheer for them, at my suggestion, which I thought was a bit of nice sportsmanship for a hard fought championship game.
They had the coaches come up and receive the trophies and then give the t-shirts to each member of the team individually. It was real nice.
One final post will be forthcoming giving a wrap-up of the season.
Our game was supposed to start at 12:15 and I foolishly told my team to back at the gym by 11:45. That was WAY too early and since the game on the championship court (which even had an announcer) ended up running late the kids were sitting around forever. During this time the coach of the 5th & 6th grade teams and I talked. He had observed our earlier game against MP2 and remarked how well our team passes and is patient. It was great hearing this validation from another coach. During this discussion we also talked about the idea of being each other’s assistant coaches one day a week next year. I am thrilled with this idea as I really got frustrated with my inability to work in small groups while still providing something valuable for the rest of the team. And having a second pair of eyes will just be great.
The MP team’s coach had told me that his star player was out with bronchitis, which was good news for us. It meant that both teams were playing without their stars (he knew my team’s star had left our team). This was certainly good news for us. He talked to his team for 15 minutes or so. I did gather my team and we talked, but for no nearly as long. My speech was pretty close to this: “I was just talking with another coach and we agreed that the semi-final games are almost always harder than championship games. And really we’ve already won. We get to play on the championship court, with three referees, an announcer, and we win t-shirts and a trophy. And remember, win or lose, we walk away with our heads held high because we’ll have given our best. And if we play our best, we can beat this team.”
Not win one for the Gipper, but I think it served its purpose.
The game begins and we quickly get out to a 6-0 deficit. I call a time-out and try to calm down the team. It basically works. By half the score is 15-11. At the end of the first quarter when it was 10-9, I pointed out that we’d just gone on a 10-3 run. At half Jack M points out that we basically went on a 15-5 run. This was particularly good coming from Jack as he tends to be among the most negative our players.
We hold on to the narrowest of leads through the 3rd quarter. I do get myself in a bit of trouble. I had been rotating Tom, Noah, and Gordie ever half a quarter to make sure they got a full quarters worth of play but also didn’t play in the 4th. However, I accidentally subbed in Noah during the last half of the 3rd when I should have subbed in Gordie. I realized my mistake pretty quickly, however this meant I felt I should give Gordie some playing time in the 4th. And Tom had played pretty well so I wanted to give him a couple of 4th quarter minutes anyway. Jack P needed a rest and having Jack M out there wasn’t going to work, as Brian deserved the playing time and having Jack M, Brian, Tom, and Gordie is not a good combo. This is where having Scott play point would have been so useful. I came up with another solution instead: play Lucas at point. The thing is that Lucas really is a natural guard and my playing him inside did not come easily for him, but he always did it without complaint.
Lucas went out at guard and performed very well. It was good. Eventually I got my crunch time lineup in of Jack M, Jack P, Lucas, Scott and either Dante or Brian (I believe it was Brian). And they came through. MP put on their press which just wrecked us last time we played. This time it wasn’t effective at all. They called several time outs to try and do something, but the something didn’t matter. At the start of the 4th I stated that “We are six minutes away from winning the championship. As long as we play our game we will win this.” Each timeout I said something like “We are now X minutes closer” before stating anything else that needed to be said. With about 55 seconds left and up by 3, I put us in a stall defense. Eventually they got their coaches message to foul us. The rest of the game was boring really as they weren’t close to bonus and so several fouls later Jack M ended up on the line. He sunk the first shot, icing the game and made the second shot just for good measure. We had won!
So that they could play the next game they do the trophy presentation in a separate room after we have done the team’s talk. I gather our team and talk about how we can walk away with our heads held high because we played great basketball (I am glad I remembered to return to this theme after we had won). I talked about how proud of the team I was. And I said I’d save the rest of what I had to say for the team dinner that night. We went into the awards room. When MP came in we did a really lame cheer for them, at my suggestion, which I thought was a bit of nice sportsmanship for a hard fought championship game.
They had the coaches come up and receive the trophies and then give the t-shirts to each member of the team individually. It was real nice.
One final post will be forthcoming giving a wrap-up of the season.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
MP2 Playoff Game
We were feeling good. The team was supremely confident, already asking about the championship. I reminded them we had a very tough, but winnable, game in front of us. I had a brainstorm driving home the day before. We needed more action at point guard when Jack M wasn’t going to be in. I had decided not to start Jack because he had missed the day before (for understandable reasons but still felt I should give the nod to a kid who’d been there). This meant I needed a starting point guard. My brainstorm was simple: I would start Scott at point. There was no reason to believe that he couldn’t do an excellent job.
So when Scott gets there I pull him aside and tell him that I need him to take one for the team and for him to play point. He tells me that he can’t do it. I tell him I’m not going to force him to do it and explain why I think he would be good. He still thinks he can’t. I apply a little more pressure but he stands firm that he can’t do it.
A big plus to this plan is that I wanted to have Dante, Lucas, and Scott all on the floor at the same time. I decide that I still want this threesome on the floor and so I put in Jack P as point, Noah or Gordie (can’t remember) in at the other guard, Lucas at wing, Dante at center and Scott at power forward.
Defensively, I tell Jack that he is to guard the kid the team has nicknamed “temper”. That he is not to worry about playing help defense but is instead not to leave his man. I am pretty confident if we take away him out of the game we’ll be in a far stronger position.
The early part of the game goes well for us. They come out in a zone clearly designed to take away inside shots. But that turns out not to be a problem as we are hot from the outside. Dante gets several open shots and he makes them scoring 6 points quickly for us. We have less luck as we try to force it into Scott inside.
While this cools down it does force them to guard us outside. We continue our patient ways. We are doing a nice half court offense, but I would prefer to be running more.
Overall the game goes well for us until the end of the third quarter. We had been up by 4 when they go on a run even taking a brief lead before we tie it back up to end the quarter. My speech at the end of the quarter is that we just saw the best that they had to offer. This turns out not to be entirely true. I have a good group of five out there, having made sure Tom, Gordie, and Noah all had played at least a quarter, but they still extend their lead. We have, however, taken their best guard out of the game as he just can’t stop crying so that’s something in our favor. The kid really hadn’t done anything wrong, but instead just seems to have cracked under the pressure. It was a shame to see.
Anyhow MP2 does manage to come out and take a lead of four. I call a time out with about 2 minutes to go. I explain we simply need two good possessions to tie the game. And bam we come out of the time out, score quickly, get the ball back after some good defense, and score again. Game is tied. A little seesawing and we then take the lead. We basically trade baskets for the rest of the game and we come out with a win.
These poor kids were crying. It was kind of sad really. They had played a great game, but we managed to squeak out the win. And we deserved it. While the game was close, I felt like we were not only the better team in general but had played better that day. We shook hands and were now on our way to the championship.
So when Scott gets there I pull him aside and tell him that I need him to take one for the team and for him to play point. He tells me that he can’t do it. I tell him I’m not going to force him to do it and explain why I think he would be good. He still thinks he can’t. I apply a little more pressure but he stands firm that he can’t do it.
A big plus to this plan is that I wanted to have Dante, Lucas, and Scott all on the floor at the same time. I decide that I still want this threesome on the floor and so I put in Jack P as point, Noah or Gordie (can’t remember) in at the other guard, Lucas at wing, Dante at center and Scott at power forward.
Defensively, I tell Jack that he is to guard the kid the team has nicknamed “temper”. That he is not to worry about playing help defense but is instead not to leave his man. I am pretty confident if we take away him out of the game we’ll be in a far stronger position.
The early part of the game goes well for us. They come out in a zone clearly designed to take away inside shots. But that turns out not to be a problem as we are hot from the outside. Dante gets several open shots and he makes them scoring 6 points quickly for us. We have less luck as we try to force it into Scott inside.
While this cools down it does force them to guard us outside. We continue our patient ways. We are doing a nice half court offense, but I would prefer to be running more.
Overall the game goes well for us until the end of the third quarter. We had been up by 4 when they go on a run even taking a brief lead before we tie it back up to end the quarter. My speech at the end of the quarter is that we just saw the best that they had to offer. This turns out not to be entirely true. I have a good group of five out there, having made sure Tom, Gordie, and Noah all had played at least a quarter, but they still extend their lead. We have, however, taken their best guard out of the game as he just can’t stop crying so that’s something in our favor. The kid really hadn’t done anything wrong, but instead just seems to have cracked under the pressure. It was a shame to see.
Anyhow MP2 does manage to come out and take a lead of four. I call a time out with about 2 minutes to go. I explain we simply need two good possessions to tie the game. And bam we come out of the time out, score quickly, get the ball back after some good defense, and score again. Game is tied. A little seesawing and we then take the lead. We basically trade baskets for the rest of the game and we come out with a win.
These poor kids were crying. It was kind of sad really. They had played a great game, but we managed to squeak out the win. And we deserved it. While the game was close, I felt like we were not only the better team in general but had played better that day. We shook hands and were now on our way to the championship.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Playoffs: NF1
We have our first playoff game against NF1. This team finished in 7th place, despite, I learn, being made up of 3rd graders. I had told the team at our last practice that we would be doing hockey subs for the last time. After that game I told them that I would be making no promises about playing time. We would be having 8 players for the game as Jack M had to play for his AAU team. Brian, who I was convinced was out for the rest of the season? He had been at practice the night before and I could observe no ill effects. His did had told me he would be able to play but I’d been skeptical. Turns out that his dad was very much correct.
The other team got into early foul trouble, but we couldn’t hit any of our shots either at the free throw line or in the field and so the game was pretty close in the first quarter. A great example of this was on our very first possession we took off a minute fifteen from the clock, with multiple shots, passes, rebounds, but not a basket to be found. It was a great offensive possession, with good defense, but shots just weren’t falling.
Going into the second quarter, up by just 1, I hoped we could open up the game some. We do extend our lead to 5 or 6 points, but despite even throwing some presses at them we just can’t seem to get anything going. They’re playing very well.
The third quarter is more of the same. They’re throwing a pretty good trapping 2-1-2 against us that does produce some turnovers. Our biggest problem is at point guard. We simply don’t have anyone who can really make things happen. Brian and Jack P are the ones playing point and both have their pluses and minuses. Brian is simply not as explosive and fast as we’re used to at point and so he can often get snared by their trap. Jack, on the other hand, is certainly fast enough, but his court vision isn’t so great and so he’ll often miss open passes or become too determined to shoot. Having neither David or Jack M, our two main point guards, was quite detrimental to our efforts and prevented us from ever gaining control of the game.
In the fourth quarter we blow the game open. Their best player fouls out about half way into the quarter and we finally hunker down and our shots start to fall. Scott also basically took control of the game, getting the rebound and dribbling down the court, beating everyone, for a lay-up a couple of times. It was just as David used to do. We end up winning by 15. However, despite the fact that we were basically in the lead the whole game, it was quite nerve racking for me as a coach. The kids on the other hand were never too concerned which might explain why it was so close for so long. I can’t really be upset with them for not being too concerned since:
1. I had stressed so much that we were a much better team than they were
2. Their unflappable nature is why we are so good in close games.
The other reason why it was so close was of course the fact that they were playing their best players as much as possible, where as I was playing all of my kids equally. After the game one of their parents commented to me, “You guys really miss [David]” as I’d told them before the game how he’d quit the team. It was quite clear from his tone that he felt like we wouldn’t be able to win it with-out David. While based on what he saw I couldn’t blame him for his assessment, I knew we were a better team than what we’d shown that day.
I also felt much better when I went home and did the numbers. I found out that we shot nearly a season low from the field. This meant that if our shots had dropped at a more typical rate we’d have won this game far before the fourth quarter.
Going into Sunday we were going to play MP2 and then (hopefully) the winner of the MP1-LS game. I felt very good about our chances and knew that it would be two tough games, but felt that the championship was in reach.
My day was not done, however. The coach of the 5th and 6th grade teams had games which conflicted and so I had been drafted to coach the 6th grade team until he could get to the game. I was actually more nervous about this game than my own as I’d only known this team from one practice of an hour and a half. I’m proud to report that when I turned over the game in the 3rd quarter the team was up by 5 to a team that previously defeated them by 30. They would later go on to lose by 4, and while it’d have happened no matter who was coaching it sure did make me look good :).
The other team got into early foul trouble, but we couldn’t hit any of our shots either at the free throw line or in the field and so the game was pretty close in the first quarter. A great example of this was on our very first possession we took off a minute fifteen from the clock, with multiple shots, passes, rebounds, but not a basket to be found. It was a great offensive possession, with good defense, but shots just weren’t falling.
Going into the second quarter, up by just 1, I hoped we could open up the game some. We do extend our lead to 5 or 6 points, but despite even throwing some presses at them we just can’t seem to get anything going. They’re playing very well.
The third quarter is more of the same. They’re throwing a pretty good trapping 2-1-2 against us that does produce some turnovers. Our biggest problem is at point guard. We simply don’t have anyone who can really make things happen. Brian and Jack P are the ones playing point and both have their pluses and minuses. Brian is simply not as explosive and fast as we’re used to at point and so he can often get snared by their trap. Jack, on the other hand, is certainly fast enough, but his court vision isn’t so great and so he’ll often miss open passes or become too determined to shoot. Having neither David or Jack M, our two main point guards, was quite detrimental to our efforts and prevented us from ever gaining control of the game.
In the fourth quarter we blow the game open. Their best player fouls out about half way into the quarter and we finally hunker down and our shots start to fall. Scott also basically took control of the game, getting the rebound and dribbling down the court, beating everyone, for a lay-up a couple of times. It was just as David used to do. We end up winning by 15. However, despite the fact that we were basically in the lead the whole game, it was quite nerve racking for me as a coach. The kids on the other hand were never too concerned which might explain why it was so close for so long. I can’t really be upset with them for not being too concerned since:
1. I had stressed so much that we were a much better team than they were
2. Their unflappable nature is why we are so good in close games.
The other reason why it was so close was of course the fact that they were playing their best players as much as possible, where as I was playing all of my kids equally. After the game one of their parents commented to me, “You guys really miss [David]” as I’d told them before the game how he’d quit the team. It was quite clear from his tone that he felt like we wouldn’t be able to win it with-out David. While based on what he saw I couldn’t blame him for his assessment, I knew we were a better team than what we’d shown that day.
I also felt much better when I went home and did the numbers. I found out that we shot nearly a season low from the field. This meant that if our shots had dropped at a more typical rate we’d have won this game far before the fourth quarter.
Going into Sunday we were going to play MP2 and then (hopefully) the winner of the MP1-LS game. I felt very good about our chances and knew that it would be two tough games, but felt that the championship was in reach.
My day was not done, however. The coach of the 5th and 6th grade teams had games which conflicted and so I had been drafted to coach the 6th grade team until he could get to the game. I was actually more nervous about this game than my own as I’d only known this team from one practice of an hour and a half. I’m proud to report that when I turned over the game in the 3rd quarter the team was up by 5 to a team that previously defeated them by 30. They would later go on to lose by 4, and while it’d have happened no matter who was coaching it sure did make me look good :).
JCC2 Game
Whoops! I forgot all about our game against the other JCC team. This was the Monday after President’s day and would be the last full game David would play for our team. The team was looking forward to it since there were 4 or 5 kids on the JCC team that live in the same city as our team. One of the kids on the team was even a kid who tried out for our team and didn’t make it.
We get to the gym and who should be practicing with this team but our old friend Luke. Turns out that a couple of players normally on the team couldn’t make it, so the coach (not Luke’s father but the other one) imported these two players to play for them. Now granted Luke didn’t play the whole time (more like 2/3-3/4) like he would in a normal game, but this other kid did play a great deal of the time. Meanwhile I was playing my whole team. This was noticed by the parents in the stands on how I played my whole team for quality minutes while their coach did not. I was further made to look good by my positive style of communication compared to their team’s coach (an example of this shortly).
It’s a close game, but they are slightly in front of us for most of the game. Of course, as always, I have an embarrassment of riches in that I have seven players who I wouldn’t mind having on the court during these crucial final minutes. Anyhow the fourth quarter starts to wind down and we’ve significantly closed the gap, from 5 points down with a couple minutes left, to now just 1 point down with 30 seconds left.
Coming in from a time-out we have our press on and they break the press. A kid ends up with a fairly open lay-up, from a standing position, which he misses. The coach explodes. We drive down and get fouled and so another time-out is called.
The coach explodes again at the player who had taken the shot saying how he said not to shoot. I understand the strategy here (kill the clock). However, if one of my kids has an open shot there and shoots it, I'm not going to be upset with him. I even posted this on a coach’s bulletin board and most agreed that the kid should take the open shot. Even beyond that I would never treat one of my players with so little dignity.
We end up gutting out the victory. It was great. After the game their coach said to me “Why don’t we just play the last couple of minutes against you guys?”. It made me smile. No doubt he believes that his team is better (even though they brought in ringers in order to have a chance) but can’t beat us. Like it’s bad luck. And there is no question there is some bad luck involved there. But then again our team doesn’t fold under pressure and there’s a reason we’re always with-in striking distance the whole game.
Looking at the players on their team, there was one player who I’d LOVE to have next year. He was tall (taller than Dante) and quick. That works quite well in the system I’m promoting. I’m hoping he was one of the kids who was noticing how much more fun it is to play for me :). I also was glad to see that I hadn’t made a mistake and was correct in not taking the kid who played for them and who I’d cut.
It was another great game, and it was nice to go into their gym (with their biased refs) and beat them, especially when they resort to using ringers.
We get to the gym and who should be practicing with this team but our old friend Luke. Turns out that a couple of players normally on the team couldn’t make it, so the coach (not Luke’s father but the other one) imported these two players to play for them. Now granted Luke didn’t play the whole time (more like 2/3-3/4) like he would in a normal game, but this other kid did play a great deal of the time. Meanwhile I was playing my whole team. This was noticed by the parents in the stands on how I played my whole team for quality minutes while their coach did not. I was further made to look good by my positive style of communication compared to their team’s coach (an example of this shortly).
It’s a close game, but they are slightly in front of us for most of the game. Of course, as always, I have an embarrassment of riches in that I have seven players who I wouldn’t mind having on the court during these crucial final minutes. Anyhow the fourth quarter starts to wind down and we’ve significantly closed the gap, from 5 points down with a couple minutes left, to now just 1 point down with 30 seconds left.
Coming in from a time-out we have our press on and they break the press. A kid ends up with a fairly open lay-up, from a standing position, which he misses. The coach explodes. We drive down and get fouled and so another time-out is called.
The coach explodes again at the player who had taken the shot saying how he said not to shoot. I understand the strategy here (kill the clock). However, if one of my kids has an open shot there and shoots it, I'm not going to be upset with him. I even posted this on a coach’s bulletin board and most agreed that the kid should take the open shot. Even beyond that I would never treat one of my players with so little dignity.
We end up gutting out the victory. It was great. After the game their coach said to me “Why don’t we just play the last couple of minutes against you guys?”. It made me smile. No doubt he believes that his team is better (even though they brought in ringers in order to have a chance) but can’t beat us. Like it’s bad luck. And there is no question there is some bad luck involved there. But then again our team doesn’t fold under pressure and there’s a reason we’re always with-in striking distance the whole game.
Looking at the players on their team, there was one player who I’d LOVE to have next year. He was tall (taller than Dante) and quick. That works quite well in the system I’m promoting. I’m hoping he was one of the kids who was noticing how much more fun it is to play for me :). I also was glad to see that I hadn’t made a mistake and was correct in not taking the kid who played for them and who I’d cut.
It was another great game, and it was nice to go into their gym (with their biased refs) and beat them, especially when they resort to using ringers.
Friday, March 23, 2007
End of Season Wrap-Up
After our double header our next game is against MP2. We completely dismantle them and based on their poor showing of sportsmanship at the HP tourney, I let the team score 50 for a final score of 50-31. Not sure what got into me, but there you go.
We then have a weekend off, because of President’s Day. That is when a bit of drama arises, though it could have been far more disastrous than it was. Our next game is against NF1. While we are waiting there, I learn that David won’t be at the game due to conflicts with another team from his caregiver. As we’re standing around I learn from Brian who sort of lets it slip that this might not be a one time thing but instead he might have to quit the team. As I have heard nothing along these lines I don’t let it bother me.
The game against NF is unexceptional. We go out do our thing and win. This was the first game where I went with what I called hockey subs. We had only 8 players (Tom had gotten very sick and was basically out for a month) so I divided the team into two groups of four. Every half a quarter I would yank a group and put in a new group with one player from the other shift. This was done as a way to give players equal playing time. Well David showed up from his other game just before the 4th quarter. I call him over to sit on our bench. He asks if he could play and I say of course, since I can understand his need to miss a game because of conflicts. At the end of the game their coach’s weren’t happy about this. My response simply was that I wanted every player on my team to have a chance to play. I had even alerted them ahead of time that I normally wouldn’t play him in the 4th in a game like that, but it was an unusual circumstance. Their moaning was a bit unjustified considering that he scored all of two points.
That game was on a Saturday. However, MP needed us to reschedule our Sunday game and after a lot of emails it got set for the last Sunday of the season as a double header.
We end up having a couple of weeks off then with-out a game as our game against WK has to be canceled as there is no time when we can reschedule the game. As they were the ones unable to play they have to forfeit to us, but I still rather would have played the game. Instead, the WK coach and I setup a scrimmage after the official end of the season between our team and his A team. His A team who is dominating the division. During this time it becomes clear from Scott and Brian that David will not be playing for us again. Does David or Dad ever bother to contact me? Not until March 10th, 3 weeks, essentially after it has been decided that David will quit the team, does their Dad bother to call me to let me know about this decision. I am more upset by this lack of communication than anything.
On March 11th we have our end of season double header after having been out of action for a couple of weeks. Our first game is against LS. I go with hockey subs again. After the first quarter we gain a lead and hold onto it. It is a great game to watch as we can’t quite ever put LS away but do manage to hold on for the win.
We have a few hours off before our next game against MP for the regular season championship. I am pretty exhausted as the night before I had a wedding which I didn’t get home from until after 1 o’clock (and could have stayed later). This combined with Daylight Savings means I am not at the top of my game for the first game and by the second game I am extremely exhausted. At the start of the game we’re missing Brian, Scott, and Lucas who are, I later learn, stuck in traffic due to a horrendous accident.
Anyway, we start off the game very strongly. Gordie, who missed our earlier game due to having his house league championships, comes out on fire and scores a couple of early baskets. MP gets their composure back and evens it up by the end of the first quarter. After that it’s a seesaw game until the third quarter when they build up a lead. This momentum carries into the fourth and the game has slipped away from us. This is where my coaching should have been better. One of our biggest problems though, throughout the game, was picking up our men on defense. This led to MANY easy baskets for them and was really pretty inexcusable at this point in the season.
More seriously is that early in the 4th Brian collapsed in absolute agony with his ankle. Normally when a player gets injured I go and see how they’re doing, give them a couple moments to collect themselves and then help them off the court of have them walk off. Despite my being out of it, it was quite clear that he wasn’t going anywhere. I then proceed to literally carry him off the court. Play resumes while I comfort him on the sideline. His mom is there and it’s quickly decided that he should go to the hospital. I write off Brian for the rest of the season at that point considering his past history with the ankles (having broken both of them in the past year).
The next day we have our scrimmage against WK. As predicted they are bigger, faster, and stronger than we are. We get blown-out. However, the team never gives up. Even down by 20+ we’re still scrapping away. The dismantling we faced exposed quite a few weaknesses of ours, most notably against the zone.
We end the season in second place. Overall we’d had a good season and I’m optimistic about our chances entering the play-offs. While MP will likely be a problem for us, I still believe we can take them. Despite the loss of David the team remains upbeat and confident about our chances.
We then have a weekend off, because of President’s Day. That is when a bit of drama arises, though it could have been far more disastrous than it was. Our next game is against NF1. While we are waiting there, I learn that David won’t be at the game due to conflicts with another team from his caregiver. As we’re standing around I learn from Brian who sort of lets it slip that this might not be a one time thing but instead he might have to quit the team. As I have heard nothing along these lines I don’t let it bother me.
The game against NF is unexceptional. We go out do our thing and win. This was the first game where I went with what I called hockey subs. We had only 8 players (Tom had gotten very sick and was basically out for a month) so I divided the team into two groups of four. Every half a quarter I would yank a group and put in a new group with one player from the other shift. This was done as a way to give players equal playing time. Well David showed up from his other game just before the 4th quarter. I call him over to sit on our bench. He asks if he could play and I say of course, since I can understand his need to miss a game because of conflicts. At the end of the game their coach’s weren’t happy about this. My response simply was that I wanted every player on my team to have a chance to play. I had even alerted them ahead of time that I normally wouldn’t play him in the 4th in a game like that, but it was an unusual circumstance. Their moaning was a bit unjustified considering that he scored all of two points.
That game was on a Saturday. However, MP needed us to reschedule our Sunday game and after a lot of emails it got set for the last Sunday of the season as a double header.
We end up having a couple of weeks off then with-out a game as our game against WK has to be canceled as there is no time when we can reschedule the game. As they were the ones unable to play they have to forfeit to us, but I still rather would have played the game. Instead, the WK coach and I setup a scrimmage after the official end of the season between our team and his A team. His A team who is dominating the division. During this time it becomes clear from Scott and Brian that David will not be playing for us again. Does David or Dad ever bother to contact me? Not until March 10th, 3 weeks, essentially after it has been decided that David will quit the team, does their Dad bother to call me to let me know about this decision. I am more upset by this lack of communication than anything.
On March 11th we have our end of season double header after having been out of action for a couple of weeks. Our first game is against LS. I go with hockey subs again. After the first quarter we gain a lead and hold onto it. It is a great game to watch as we can’t quite ever put LS away but do manage to hold on for the win.
We have a few hours off before our next game against MP for the regular season championship. I am pretty exhausted as the night before I had a wedding which I didn’t get home from until after 1 o’clock (and could have stayed later). This combined with Daylight Savings means I am not at the top of my game for the first game and by the second game I am extremely exhausted. At the start of the game we’re missing Brian, Scott, and Lucas who are, I later learn, stuck in traffic due to a horrendous accident.
Anyway, we start off the game very strongly. Gordie, who missed our earlier game due to having his house league championships, comes out on fire and scores a couple of early baskets. MP gets their composure back and evens it up by the end of the first quarter. After that it’s a seesaw game until the third quarter when they build up a lead. This momentum carries into the fourth and the game has slipped away from us. This is where my coaching should have been better. One of our biggest problems though, throughout the game, was picking up our men on defense. This led to MANY easy baskets for them and was really pretty inexcusable at this point in the season.
More seriously is that early in the 4th Brian collapsed in absolute agony with his ankle. Normally when a player gets injured I go and see how they’re doing, give them a couple moments to collect themselves and then help them off the court of have them walk off. Despite my being out of it, it was quite clear that he wasn’t going anywhere. I then proceed to literally carry him off the court. Play resumes while I comfort him on the sideline. His mom is there and it’s quickly decided that he should go to the hospital. I write off Brian for the rest of the season at that point considering his past history with the ankles (having broken both of them in the past year).
The next day we have our scrimmage against WK. As predicted they are bigger, faster, and stronger than we are. We get blown-out. However, the team never gives up. Even down by 20+ we’re still scrapping away. The dismantling we faced exposed quite a few weaknesses of ours, most notably against the zone.
We end the season in second place. Overall we’d had a good season and I’m optimistic about our chances entering the play-offs. While MP will likely be a problem for us, I still believe we can take them. Despite the loss of David the team remains upbeat and confident about our chances.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
End of Season Wrap-Up
Ok it’s time to bring this to some closure. My plan is to somewhat rapidly go through the regular season, do some more detailed description of the playoffs, and give some overall season reflections. I am not quite sure why I stopped writing, so I’m going to blame the month of February which is just a nasty month and often seems to sap the energy out of me.
When we last left we were facing a game without the triplets. I actually did a writeup for the game which I never posted. Here it is:
It’s clear from their other games that this could be a real trap game for us. We don’t have three of our best players (remembering that the Triplets are out of town at the Super Bowl) and they’ll be a team which could take advantage of that. We do our pre-game routine. As I’m talking to the team Jack M is being obnoxious, for about the eighth time, about who is starting and so while I had intended to start him he ends up starting the game on the bench.
The first quarter is close. Neither team really gets anything going which is our pretty typical first quarter. The son of the coach is both the tallest player on the team and their ball handler. Dante gets very excited about the fact that he is guarding a guard. It’s pretty funny. In the second quarter, the close game is maintained. I don’t have us do any sort of full court press because I am frankly very concerned about fatigue setting in. At half time the game is tied at 10.
I keep the half time speech short. I really believe at this point that we’ll gut out a win. We’re a team that’s shown a lot of fortitude, and this is where all the confidence that’s made practice hard should pay off. Except the third quarter begins. They sink a couple of threes and we can’t seem to work the ball well on offense. Our normally tight man to man, gives way to sloppy man to man. A tie becomes a two point lead, then a five, and finally a seven point lead by the time the quarter ends. There was likely a point in there where I should have called a time out. Except that momentum just gradually swung in their favor. This gradual swing meant that there was no time where I was like “it’s time to call a time-out” to try and calm it down. This was likely still a mistake on my part.
Going into the fourth I know that the game is going to be an uphill climb. Gordie already has four fouls going into the fourth. He would not be in the five I’d want in there at the end of the game (that group being Jack M, Jack P, Dante, Lucas, and Tom) so I decide that I’ll leave Gordie in there and let him just foul out rather than pull him. I talk about how we’ve scored lots of points in quarters before, so this game could still be ours.
We come out playing hard, but LS realizes that this game is in their grasp. With 3 minutes to go in the game we’re still down by 7. Gordie fouled out with about 4 minutes left, which considering how he’d been playing was better than I expected. When two minutes left comes around we’re down by five. We’ve long been in full court man to man mode, but we just can’t seem to close the gap. And that’s when Lucas goes on a tear. He seems to be everywhere at once. It was probably the most dominating single game performance we’ve had. While there have been times where David’s seemed to be everywhere on offense, or David and Scott being everywhere on defense, we’ve never had a player do it on both ends. In those last two minutes, Lucas easily had four or five steals plus quite a few rebounds. Suddenly there are 34 seconds left in the game and we’re down by a basket and they’ve been forced to call a time-out. A game which I honestly believed to be out of reach suddenly is very close.
34 seconds, however, is an eternity in basketball and I know it’s far too soon to get our hopes up. I tell the team that we have plenty of time to close the gap. I complement them on how well they’re playing. The two teams exchange baskets and there is a stoppage of play with about 15 seconds left, with them having the ball. I call a time-out. I explain that we need a stop and we need to score quickly. I tell them that if we tie this in regulation we’ll win it in overtime so we’re just looking for a good shot for two points, so don’t rush or panic. Our home crowd is pumped up. We do what it takes on defense and get the ball back. Jack M comes driving down the court and drives right by three players for a great looking lay-up and
misses. But wait there is a foul. I call a time-out. I explain that if Jack makes the first shot, great. If he misses the first shot that he should intentionally miss the second shot. If for either reason the second shot is missed we need to rebound and put it right back up as there is now a second and change left on the clock. If they were to get the rebound we need to quickly foul. Jack does indeed miss the first shot. The other team calls a time-out, no doubt telling them the importance of getting the rebound. Jack goes out there. I’ve reminded him that the ball needs to hit the rim. He throws the ball up and it hits the rim, but as soon as he does that he rushes into the lane. It’s an OBVIOUS lane violation. This effectively ends the game.
I am, admittedly, disappointed, in the result. For three quarters we played as well, if not better, than the team. We made an amazing comeback and nearly won. More frustratingly is the fact that I honestly believe part of the reason we lost is we just got tired. You give me one more player, and we win. With the triplets? We win easily. In the post game speech I talk about how we lost for two reasons. One is that we just got tired. The second is that we didn’t play defense 100% of the time and they made us pay in the third. I, do, however, focus on the positives of the fourth quarter. I remind them that we have another game the next day against NF2.
The next day rolls around. I am not concerned at all about our play against NF2. In the first part of the first quarter we don’t show that we’re a much better team and the reffing annoys me. They don’t call clear travel violations, for instance. However, at the end of the first quarter we snap out of stupor and we end up by 8. I let them know that we’ll do some full court press, but that if we score one basket we’ll have to stop. We get the ball at the start of the quarter, score one basket, and just continue our momentum. Shortly after the start of the quarter I restrict our team’s running of fast breaks.
At half we have a good discussion about sportsmanship. I explain that it’s not good sportsmanship to just score a lot of points because we can. I talk about how we’re more athletic than them and we play better as a team than they do so what are we really proving by scoring a lot?
We win the game in a convincing manner. There were more details no doubt but they have long ago been forgotten.
When we last left we were facing a game without the triplets. I actually did a writeup for the game which I never posted. Here it is:
It’s clear from their other games that this could be a real trap game for us. We don’t have three of our best players (remembering that the Triplets are out of town at the Super Bowl) and they’ll be a team which could take advantage of that. We do our pre-game routine. As I’m talking to the team Jack M is being obnoxious, for about the eighth time, about who is starting and so while I had intended to start him he ends up starting the game on the bench.
The first quarter is close. Neither team really gets anything going which is our pretty typical first quarter. The son of the coach is both the tallest player on the team and their ball handler. Dante gets very excited about the fact that he is guarding a guard. It’s pretty funny. In the second quarter, the close game is maintained. I don’t have us do any sort of full court press because I am frankly very concerned about fatigue setting in. At half time the game is tied at 10.
I keep the half time speech short. I really believe at this point that we’ll gut out a win. We’re a team that’s shown a lot of fortitude, and this is where all the confidence that’s made practice hard should pay off. Except the third quarter begins. They sink a couple of threes and we can’t seem to work the ball well on offense. Our normally tight man to man, gives way to sloppy man to man. A tie becomes a two point lead, then a five, and finally a seven point lead by the time the quarter ends. There was likely a point in there where I should have called a time out. Except that momentum just gradually swung in their favor. This gradual swing meant that there was no time where I was like “it’s time to call a time-out” to try and calm it down. This was likely still a mistake on my part.
Going into the fourth I know that the game is going to be an uphill climb. Gordie already has four fouls going into the fourth. He would not be in the five I’d want in there at the end of the game (that group being Jack M, Jack P, Dante, Lucas, and Tom) so I decide that I’ll leave Gordie in there and let him just foul out rather than pull him. I talk about how we’ve scored lots of points in quarters before, so this game could still be ours.
We come out playing hard, but LS realizes that this game is in their grasp. With 3 minutes to go in the game we’re still down by 7. Gordie fouled out with about 4 minutes left, which considering how he’d been playing was better than I expected. When two minutes left comes around we’re down by five. We’ve long been in full court man to man mode, but we just can’t seem to close the gap. And that’s when Lucas goes on a tear. He seems to be everywhere at once. It was probably the most dominating single game performance we’ve had. While there have been times where David’s seemed to be everywhere on offense, or David and Scott being everywhere on defense, we’ve never had a player do it on both ends. In those last two minutes, Lucas easily had four or five steals plus quite a few rebounds. Suddenly there are 34 seconds left in the game and we’re down by a basket and they’ve been forced to call a time-out. A game which I honestly believed to be out of reach suddenly is very close.
34 seconds, however, is an eternity in basketball and I know it’s far too soon to get our hopes up. I tell the team that we have plenty of time to close the gap. I complement them on how well they’re playing. The two teams exchange baskets and there is a stoppage of play with about 15 seconds left, with them having the ball. I call a time-out. I explain that we need a stop and we need to score quickly. I tell them that if we tie this in regulation we’ll win it in overtime so we’re just looking for a good shot for two points, so don’t rush or panic. Our home crowd is pumped up. We do what it takes on defense and get the ball back. Jack M comes driving down the court and drives right by three players for a great looking lay-up and
misses. But wait there is a foul. I call a time-out. I explain that if Jack makes the first shot, great. If he misses the first shot that he should intentionally miss the second shot. If for either reason the second shot is missed we need to rebound and put it right back up as there is now a second and change left on the clock. If they were to get the rebound we need to quickly foul. Jack does indeed miss the first shot. The other team calls a time-out, no doubt telling them the importance of getting the rebound. Jack goes out there. I’ve reminded him that the ball needs to hit the rim. He throws the ball up and it hits the rim, but as soon as he does that he rushes into the lane. It’s an OBVIOUS lane violation. This effectively ends the game.
I am, admittedly, disappointed, in the result. For three quarters we played as well, if not better, than the team. We made an amazing comeback and nearly won. More frustratingly is the fact that I honestly believe part of the reason we lost is we just got tired. You give me one more player, and we win. With the triplets? We win easily. In the post game speech I talk about how we lost for two reasons. One is that we just got tired. The second is that we didn’t play defense 100% of the time and they made us pay in the third. I, do, however, focus on the positives of the fourth quarter. I remind them that we have another game the next day against NF2.
The next day rolls around. I am not concerned at all about our play against NF2. In the first part of the first quarter we don’t show that we’re a much better team and the reffing annoys me. They don’t call clear travel violations, for instance. However, at the end of the first quarter we snap out of stupor and we end up by 8. I let them know that we’ll do some full court press, but that if we score one basket we’ll have to stop. We get the ball at the start of the quarter, score one basket, and just continue our momentum. Shortly after the start of the quarter I restrict our team’s running of fast breaks.
At half we have a good discussion about sportsmanship. I explain that it’s not good sportsmanship to just score a lot of points because we can. I talk about how we’re more athletic than them and we play better as a team than they do so what are we really proving by scoring a lot?
We win the game in a convincing manner. There were more details no doubt but they have long ago been forgotten.
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