HP vs WK

Yesterday was an HP basketball doubleheader: a practice and a game. We started off with practice in the morning. I got an email Friday telling me that Gavin wouldn’t be there that weekend. No explanation, no nothing. Basically I’ve decided that I should view Gavin as a bonus. Hockey is clearly his #1 sport and he makes it to basketball when he can. Frankly I’d rather not have him at all than have the problem of dealing with the fact that he’s one of our better players, and thinks of himself as such, but doesn’t have the same commitment that the other 10 players do. Also not showing up to practice, and without advance warning, is Ben. Jon tells me he’s sick.

At the start of practice I tell them that if they can make 60 layups, starting from the 3 point line and going on two baskets, in 2 and a half minutes that we won’t do continuous motion. Normally continuous motion is a nonnegotiable part of practice but with the game later in the day and this team having had some endurance issues I decide that giving them a way out is a good idea.

Next I teach them a very simple movement against zone defenses. Basically it’s just a 1-3-1 with the 1 running the baseline while the others swing and penetrate. I tell them that whoever wins in Champs & Chumps later in practice will get to name the play.

We then did our “take away” drill. I think this paid dividends during the game.

We then spend a good amount of time on our shell drill. It was nice because with only 9 players it meant only 1 kid was sitting out at a time. Further it’s a relatively low activity drill, but an important one. So we spend more time on this than normal. While they’re not at the point I’d like, I’m not sure any group of 9 year olds will ever be at the point I’d like. They are definitely getting better with keeping track of their man and the ball and so I started focusing more on the help line.

Next we did the contact layup drill I’d done with GL. Not surprisingly they struggle with it more than GL did, being a year younger smaller and less experienced. Josh W basically dominated this drill staying on the championship court nearly the whole time. We got to the last round and I could tell Jack A was going to win as Josh had tired out and Jack had figured out the drill fairly well. I told them that Josh would get to name our zone offense play even if he lost, though Jack would get the permission from the drill. This mostly appeased Jack who did go on to win. Doing surprisingly poorly in this drill was Jon who basically was on the bottom court the whole time.

We did a couple of games of golf and then concluded with a 4 on 4 full court “no excuses” scrimmage. Probably not the wisest move considering I didn’t want to tire them out.

Overall it was a good practice and I let them know it. I then went home to relax for a few hours and I get a call from Jon and Ben’s mother. She lets me know that BOTH of them have strep throat. So neither of the twins will, understandably, be at the game.

I had warned the team that WK’s gym was small and that good defense would be the key. When I get to the gym I am reminded just how true those words are. The gym is small, with the spectators and the bench practically on the court. During the pregame speech I remind the team that while the court is small that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t use the whole court.

WK opens up surprisingly flat in the first quarter and end the quarter with a 6-2 lead. Or rather it would have been 6-2 if Jack A hadn’t made a shot from nearly half court at the buzzer. But then because we’re sporting we let up 4 quick points and we’re back to a close game. They have several players who are much taller than we are. Fortunately we do a good job of keeping them from getting easy shots. Still they catch up giving us a score of 15-12 at half. Each team scores 6 in the third so we maintain a precarious 3 point lead. They start off hot in the fourth and get us down by as much as five. However, Jack A, Zach, and Josh absolutely clamp down on them with some great full court press, which is basically just full court man to man with some permission to double team a player. We claw our way back into it and with a little less than a minute get up by 2, thanks to a gimmick play I had them run. Throughout the 4th we’d been off and on with our press, mostly to keep them off balance. Coming off a time out I tell the players to drop back to half court, let them in bounds the ball and then come up and apply our press. Works like a charm. There’s about 24 seconds left when they get the ball. We get a defensive stop with Zach getting the rebound, but unfortunately they tie him up for a jump ball giving them about 2.5 seconds to run an inbounds play. Fortunately they come up short and we pull out a victory, 33-31.

I was real happy to go to winter break with a victory, especially to also have it be our first road victory. Just as importantly all of the players got substantial playing time and all of them played in the 4th, though I did end the game with our best five (that day) of Zach, Jack A, Jack B, Josh, and Danny for the last 3:45 or so.

Taking a look at our players:

Jacob – Left the game frustrated. He committed a lot of turnovers, as was usual, and failed to come down with any points. That and being our only “big” at the game he was guarding guys considerably bigger and heavier than him and so that likely wore him down as well. I’m going to have to make sure to give him some encouragement after break.

Zach – When he’s playing well he’s our best player. And yesterday he was playing well. He shut down some of their bigger guys. He scored 8 points. He was all over the boards. He stole the ball repeatedly. Caused numerous jump balls. It was wonderful.

Jack A – Thinks he’s a much better shooter than he is. Stole the ball numerous times in the 4th but didn’t score on any of them. He remains raw, but there’s a lot of talent to be had and I think it’s starting to get better.

Josh – Led the team in scoring again with 11 points and led the team in steals. It got him in a little trouble in the first quarter, but he did a better job of moving his feet more in the later quarters.

Henry – Wasn’t at his best and injured himself in the 4th limiting his play time in that quarter, though he wouldn’t have been in at crunch time anyway.

Danny – A surprising non presence this game. He did a good job with his positioning in our defense, but otherwise an unremarkable game.

Adam – Stands around far too much on offense and continues to struggle on defense, though he’s improving there.

Jack B – Quietly went about scoring 8 points. His basketball smarts paid off in the 4th with his being in the right place to score two crucial baskets after we’d forced a turnover on the press.

HP’s record is now 3-2 heading into winter break for about the next 3 weeks. The good news is that when we come back from break we got to two practices a week which will definitely help us.