GL vs MP1

Well yesterday started off the basketball season. I first had a game with GL and then a couple hours later one with HP. I will be writing them up in separate posts. Let’s start with GL because that was first chronologically.

A little background on how the games work. We play four 7 minute quarters. Each team gets 5 time outs (3 full and 2 30 second) per game. There is no press allowed in the 1st or 3rd quarter. A team may press in the 2nd and 4th quarter as long as they are not ahead by 10 or more in the 4th grade league and 15 or more in the 5th grade league. Otherwise the games are played according to “real” rules.

Saturday night I was getting the stats sheet ready for the next day and wanted to put players uniform numbers on the sheet. So I got the bag with the uniforms and started writing down the assigned numbers when I realized a problem: there was no uniform for Cameron. He wasn’t on the uniform master list I had either. After doing some matching, I discovered that Lucas had changed numbers, as had Jack M. I call Lucas’s house in the morning and he agrees to bring his uniform from last year which Cameron will use. Crisis adverted.

I arrive at MP’s place a good 45 minutes before the game. I had asked the team to arrive a half hour early, to hand out uniforms, and because MP is a half hour away, leaving some cushion in case there was a hold-up (like there was last game with the H’s and Lucas). As I pull into the parking lot (and having snagged the second best non-handicapped space) I see Dante and his father already walking in. When I arrive in the gym, I see Andrew is also present. Kid can’t show up to practice on time, but he gets there exceedingly early for a game.

The team arrives and we sort out the uniforms. The smallest short size we have is Youth Large, which proves to be several sizes too big for both Jack M and Cameron. Ahh the joys and challenges of having small players on your team.

We end up starting the game early because both teams are ready to go. I start a line-up of David, Dante, Justin, Scott, and Brian. After winning the tip, and David getting an easy lay-up (which he missed) our game goes downhill very quickly. On defense they’re killing us on screens, while their 1-3-1 offense is just tearing us apart. It doesn’t hurt that they’re making most of their shots either. At the end of the first quarter we’re down 10-2. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t more than a little concerned at this point. Mortified at the prospects of being blown out against a team we beat last year would more accurately describe my emotional state.

At the quarter break I stress being patient on offense and coming off the screens on defense, but do so in a low key sort of way. I also prepare them for a press which never comes. And we settle down pretty quickly and start to find our offensive groove. By half we’ve narrowed it to 16-12. At half I stress how we’ve closed the gap, we’re playing better defense and how we’ve always been a second half team. Then just to prove my point, we tear them apart in the third quarter. We do this despite the fact that my weaker players saw extended time on the court together during the quarter. We basically ran them ragged, pushing the ball hard up the court nearly every possession and MP just wore out. When the quarter ends we find ourselves up 30-24. I stress playing solid defense and we’re off for another quarter of play. In the 4th quarter its clear that MP1 is frustrated, though I didn’t realize until part way through the quarter. Two different kids during the quarter take a hard fall and start crying, more out of frustration, I believe than injury. I had put out a group of five of David, Brian, Justin, Jack M, and Scott to start the quarter, though I sub out Jack M a minute in to the quarter in favor of Lucas. This fivesome does a nice job of putting the game out of reach, allowing me to give some end of game minutes to a few players who hadn’t seen the court as much. We close out a very solid 44-31 victory.

Its nice that we struggled so much and then still proved we could win, and in a dominating fashion too. A few of the parents commented to me how they were a little concerned in the first quarter, but it was a fun game to watch. This matches my feelings pretty closely.

I really struggled this game in terms of substitutions. Having 11 players versus 10 makes every bit the difference I expected it to make. Overall, I’m real happy with how the playing time worked out, with most players right in the 11-13 minute range of playing time, giving them a good chance to really get some quality playing time.

Let’s do a player by player break down:

Andrew – Andrew looked a little lost in his time on the court. Which frankly didn’t surprise me. He isn’t used to playing at the level we’re playing at, but I think he’s got the skills to adjust. He saw only about 10 minutes of playing time but I really hope that goes up as the season goes on. He did have the one bad shot of the game. He was in at the end and I had told them to slow it down and take their time. So he gets a pass in the corner, is wide open and takes the shot, just inside the three point line. Two problems with this. One it was hardly slowing things down. But I generally don’t fault kids for taking open shots. More troubling, was that he was so wide open he’d have been better off taking a few dribbles in and shooting closer in.

Brian – He played quite well in a mostly unnoticeable way. He had 6 points, 1 assist, and 2 good rebounds. Rebounding (as I’ll talk about more in a second) was an area I was happy with overall, as we didn’t give up too many 3rd and 4th chances to MP. He also made another comment about David being the best player out there. I had forgotten to talk with him about this before the game, but am going to make sure to do so on Wednesday.

Cameron – Cameron’s first sport is soccer, and he’s got a lot of the accompanying skills there. Like Andrew, the pace and nature of the game seemed to take him by surprise. While Andrew has a wellspring of basketball talent to draw on, Cameron has more athletic talent to draw upon. Cameron has the problem of being a guard, and a guard who I don’t really trust to bring the ball up. This lack of role makes it harder for me to really find a time when I think “Oh it’ll be great to have Cameron out there”. I hope that he develops a strength as the season progresses. For our first game he was pretty much a non entity besides picking up a couple of quick fouls in the third. Cameron’s mom remarked to me after the game that she can see why Cameron enjoys basketball so much since I am a positive coach. It’s always nice to hear this, as it’s certainly my goal.

Dante – While Dante has been rough and really going at it in practice, that same level of intensity didn’t carry over to the game. He’s did an OK, though not great job of guarding some big men. He was fairly soft last year, and I’d grown optimistic that he’d toughened up some. I hope that he too was just finding his bearings in this game and will be more of a presence for us inside in the games to come.

David – Showed again what a remarkable talent he is. Where he was sullen about his playing on Thursday, he worked through a rough first quarter to really help us explode in the second. At one point MP’s star point guard was shouting out that David had no left hand, after David had gotten fouled. I called a 30 second time out before he went to the line, pointed that out to him, asked him if that was true. He smiled and said no, and showed the next possession his left hand. When he’s relaxed and having fun (which go hand in hand) he’s just pure joy to watch. What was especially nice was that, for only the second time, the triplet’s father was there to watch and so he got to see David perform well.

Jack M – Served as our point guard when David wasn’t in and even at times while David was in. I liked how he moved the ball overall, though his stats (0-2, with 3 turnovers and 1 foul) suggest he was more harm than good. However, I think that’s not totally representative of what he did for us. He saw lots of short bursts of playing time, which I have a feeling will be fairly typical for him this season, having subbed in at 5 different points. I will say that his attitude this year has been very positive and I will likely be remarking on it to him at our next practice.

Jack P – He scored points on fairly efficient shooting (2-5) along with drawing 2 fouls. He played point for us at a couple of different points. This kind of performance is a HUGE step up from last year when he would regularly go something like 1-8, or worse. He is, after David, the best player on our team at penetrating, but his missed shots were driving me batty. If he’s turned that around, a big if and one I’m not willing to commit to after one game, my job will have only gotten that much harder as he will deserve to play substantial playing time.

Justin – When talking about the team, I had talked about how we had a new enter. And boy do we ever. Justin, who along with David, played the most minutes at just under 21, came up huge with 12 rebounds and 8 points, with most of those points being on put backs from rebounds. Having a true inside presence, combined with our fabulous guard play really takes us to a whole new level.

Lucas – Lucas played a solid game, seeing playing time at every position but 2, something that’ll be happening with him a lot this season. And by solid I mean 2-5 shooting, 2-2 at the free throw line, along an assist and 4 rebounds against 2 fouls and 2 turnovers. We lack size to have a true #4, especially if Dante continues to play soft, and so as much as I would like to take advantage of his guard ability we’re going to need him inside and guarding those big kids.

Scott – Scott is pretty similar to Lucas. The kid is as tough as nails and while I think he’s got even more ability than Lucas to play point, I wonder how much I’ll actually be able to find him time there. He had 3-7 shooting 1-1 from the line, along with 4 rebounds, 2 steals, against 3 turnovers and 1 foul. His rebounding numbers are going to suffer this year because there are only so many rebounds to be had and Justin is gobbling them up. It’s a problem I like having.

Tom – Tom didn’t play a whole lot for us, but played real strong in the time he played. Tom is frequently not inclined to shoot open shots, but he had an open shot in the game and he made it which was great to see. He also had a steal. In other words in limited minutes he played real well for us. Tom’s a good basketball player, but he’s not someone who can make things happen, for the most part and this effects how I use him. I have to be careful with Tom, since he’ll never complain about his playing time, which sometimes makes it easier to pick someone else when it’s a choice between two players. My goal is to not fall in this trap this season.

So I’m feeling good about where we’re at heading into our LN game. Look for the write-up of the HP game to appear sometime tomorrow.