It was a successful weekend.
Saturday saw us dismantle GV just as we had last week. I had challenged the team to allow fewer points scored and they did. Mason had a particularly good game scoring 6 points. Mason’s taken only 5 shots this season and has made 4 of them. Guess he has gotten the “take smart shots” message. The game was actually pretty close at half, 14-9. I told the team they needed to push the ball up the court more and we scored 14 3rd quarter points to safely put the game out of reach.
Today was more of a struggle. First our opponents were HUGE. They had a kid at least 6 inches taller than our tallest players. Our team was pretty intimidated by the size. They also used a very aggressive trapping zone. Our team did a good job of beating the trap, but had trouble making the shots in the first half that we got. In fact there was no score for virtually the entire first quarter and we entered half down 8-5.
We had much less trouble in the second half. We never had more than a 7 point lead, and really basically just maintained a 5 point lead for the 4th quarter. It got tense at times and the game was quite physical so it felt close. It was good for the team to win a close game, something which our first three victories didn’t provide. I’d still like to see us come from behind in the 4th and win, as that would show another layer of toughness and resolve, but not being in a position to have to come from behind is a good thing overall.
A big credit for today’s victory goes to Leo who got very hot in the 3rd quarter and made a bunch of open shots, the same kind we’d been missing earlier, Michael who made two clutch free throws towards the end of the game, and Seth who shot better than his season shooting percentage of less than 25% (all of them 10 footers or less), each whom contributed 8 points. The team as a whole deserves credit for being active on the boards and causing their three most talented players to get into foul trouble by being aggressive. The final score was 28-25.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Monday, November 17, 2008
Practice + Game
The signs did not portend for a good game yesterday. It wasn’t because of Friday’s practice. Friday’s practice was a good practice. We had 7 players suited up, Alex was out of town, Grant was injured (more about this shortly), and Michael was not going to be there. We did our shooting continuous motion and frankly there shooting? Not so hot. We also did a concentration drill, where they had sheets with numbers randomly displayed from 1-100. I would announce a number and they would then have to find the next number, cross it off, and so on for 45 seconds. The catch was the second time we did it, they had a partner who was allowed to distract them as they were doing the sheet. Fun was had. I think there is also value in this sort of activity so we’ll likely come back to it. We also did some 3 person work on the fundamentals of our offense. The biggest focus was on rebounding. We did a couple drills working on jumping for the ball as well as judging the angle of the shot. Unlike some previous Friday practices the energy was there.
The first bad sign was that Alex was not going to be there. Along with Seth Alex is one of two kids that has been rebounding. He is also one of our better scorers. The second bad sign was Grant’s injury. He suffers from a condition (whose name I forget) which basically causes pain due to bones growing faster than the muscles. He was having a flare up and this was still inflamed so no Grant yesterday. This was somewhat expected, at least after Friday. The third bad sign was when Matthew’s mom calls to let me know that he had a minor procedure done and would be unable to play. So now I’m down to 7. Seven is still workable. And to their credit both Matthew and Grant attended the game. The last bad sign was when we only had five players to start the game. Leo and Quentin were not there. I figured they got lost. But that put us at 5 players.
Last year I would have been upset at this. This year I’m trying to feel the Zen. And I tried to impart this on the team.
And the good news is that I needn’t have worried. The other team came out in man to man. Only they had no help defense. They also completely overplayed their person, not staying between them and the basket. And so we had an obscene number of easy lay-ups. They also didn’t understand the idea of stopping the ball on a fast break so we had a bunch more of those. By the time Leo and Quentin finally arrived in the second quarter, after I’d given up all hope of seeing them, we were up by a lot. We even held them to just 1 point in the second quarter. I had to hold the team back in the second half. We coasted to an easy 37-20 victory. It was nice because every player there got to score a basket. Michael destroy them in the second half with 8 points, almost all off fast breaks. Josh also showed an ability to drive past them nearly at will.
We play them again Saturday. More than anything I feel bad for the other team. I wonder how much practice time they’d had. Their basic man to man was SO off that I have to think not much. They also never even attempted to press us (for obvious reasons we didn’t attempt to press them). Everyone feels good after a big win. The goal will be to working hard this week at practice as we play this same team again and also play KW. KW is notable because it is the team which upset this group of kids in the first round of the playoffs. I know they’ll be excited about that game.
The first bad sign was that Alex was not going to be there. Along with Seth Alex is one of two kids that has been rebounding. He is also one of our better scorers. The second bad sign was Grant’s injury. He suffers from a condition (whose name I forget) which basically causes pain due to bones growing faster than the muscles. He was having a flare up and this was still inflamed so no Grant yesterday. This was somewhat expected, at least after Friday. The third bad sign was when Matthew’s mom calls to let me know that he had a minor procedure done and would be unable to play. So now I’m down to 7. Seven is still workable. And to their credit both Matthew and Grant attended the game. The last bad sign was when we only had five players to start the game. Leo and Quentin were not there. I figured they got lost. But that put us at 5 players.
Last year I would have been upset at this. This year I’m trying to feel the Zen. And I tried to impart this on the team.
And the good news is that I needn’t have worried. The other team came out in man to man. Only they had no help defense. They also completely overplayed their person, not staying between them and the basket. And so we had an obscene number of easy lay-ups. They also didn’t understand the idea of stopping the ball on a fast break so we had a bunch more of those. By the time Leo and Quentin finally arrived in the second quarter, after I’d given up all hope of seeing them, we were up by a lot. We even held them to just 1 point in the second quarter. I had to hold the team back in the second half. We coasted to an easy 37-20 victory. It was nice because every player there got to score a basket. Michael destroy them in the second half with 8 points, almost all off fast breaks. Josh also showed an ability to drive past them nearly at will.
We play them again Saturday. More than anything I feel bad for the other team. I wonder how much practice time they’d had. Their basic man to man was SO off that I have to think not much. They also never even attempted to press us (for obvious reasons we didn’t attempt to press them). Everyone feels good after a big win. The goal will be to working hard this week at practice as we play this same team again and also play KW. KW is notable because it is the team which upset this group of kids in the first round of the playoffs. I know they’ll be excited about that game.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Game 2 + Practice
Well another game and another practice are in the books. Fortunately, Sunday saw us win 28-21 bringing our record to 1-1. We played well, with Alex leading us towards victory with 10 points, including 4 of 7 shooting from the line. We were up the whole game, by as much as 10. The real key of the game was transition points. On a fast break we made our shots, they didn’t. Our rebounding still is our weakest link, giving the other team way too many 2, 3, even 4 shot possessions.
One big note is that at last Friday’s practice Austin told me he preferred playing the two with Josh in at one. Our ball handling skills aren’t all that strong this year, so this was not news I wanted to hear. This meant Michael suddenly became our back-up point. Michael struggled being asked to play both point at times, center at times, as they had a very athletic big man and so when Alex was out Michael offered us the best match-up, as well as 3, his “natural” spot. I had told Austin that we were going to need him at point on Friday. I tried it on Sunday and frankly we still need Austin at point. Austin isn’t going to be the playmaker Josh is, but he’s also not going to turn the ball over, and that is quite important.
We had a good practice yesterday. We reviewed footage from the game which I had put together and was something I think the team enjoyed. It wasn’t a highlight reel as much as taking a close look at a few plays. We spent some time working on rebounding skills, but the vast majority was spent on teaching proper shooting mechanics. In particular worked on using the legs to power the shot, and also worked on the release and follow through, with-out the ball. This part will be especially helpful for Quentin whose release is flat and awkward. It wasn’t the most thrilling of lessons, but it was fundamentals which are needed for future growth. It laid the ground work.
A note of concern is Leo who has been injured or not feeling well for what seems like half our practices, yet feeling perfect for both our games. I honestly can’t tell if the kid has a lingering injury and is fighting through it or is trying to get out of practicing. I had started him Sunday in hopes that this would motivate him if it was a motivation issue. Yesterday saw the same inability to practice. I then talked with him expressing my concern over his injuries and telling him how it would be better if he didn’t really practice at all this week or play on Sunday in order to give his body time to recover than to keep trying to play while not giving his body a chance to heal. We’ll see if that approach works.
One big note is that at last Friday’s practice Austin told me he preferred playing the two with Josh in at one. Our ball handling skills aren’t all that strong this year, so this was not news I wanted to hear. This meant Michael suddenly became our back-up point. Michael struggled being asked to play both point at times, center at times, as they had a very athletic big man and so when Alex was out Michael offered us the best match-up, as well as 3, his “natural” spot. I had told Austin that we were going to need him at point on Friday. I tried it on Sunday and frankly we still need Austin at point. Austin isn’t going to be the playmaker Josh is, but he’s also not going to turn the ball over, and that is quite important.
We had a good practice yesterday. We reviewed footage from the game which I had put together and was something I think the team enjoyed. It wasn’t a highlight reel as much as taking a close look at a few plays. We spent some time working on rebounding skills, but the vast majority was spent on teaching proper shooting mechanics. In particular worked on using the legs to power the shot, and also worked on the release and follow through, with-out the ball. This part will be especially helpful for Quentin whose release is flat and awkward. It wasn’t the most thrilling of lessons, but it was fundamentals which are needed for future growth. It laid the ground work.
A note of concern is Leo who has been injured or not feeling well for what seems like half our practices, yet feeling perfect for both our games. I honestly can’t tell if the kid has a lingering injury and is fighting through it or is trying to get out of practicing. I had started him Sunday in hopes that this would motivate him if it was a motivation issue. Yesterday saw the same inability to practice. I then talked with him expressing my concern over his injuries and telling him how it would be better if he didn’t really practice at all this week or play on Sunday in order to give his body time to recover than to keep trying to play while not giving his body a chance to heal. We’ll see if that approach works.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Friday Practice
We had a lackluster Friday practice. Unlike our previous lackluster practice, I brought the energy and enthusiasm (making a conscience effort to make sure I did so). I did a quick recount of some things I had noticed while watching film and we then went into our continuous motion. Unfortunately for us the girls who practiced before us ended 5 minutes late, which definitely cuts into a 60 minute practice. On a complete tangent I think that the coach of the girls is horrible. They spent the 30 minutes I watched them trying to learn how to run 1 play. 1 play. She also only rarely referred to her players by name. More often they were “you”.
We did our dribbling continuous motion. I had made the point that we want to be playing as well or better at the end of the games as compared to the start and that this wasn’t true on Wednesday. I said that this was an opportunity for them to get in better shape, but it was up to them to take advantage of it. The message seemed to sink in as there was a faster pace to the dribbling.
For the fundamental 5, I demonstrated on an 8 foot basket the virtues of shooting with an arc. We then went into our shell drill, allowing us to practice both offense and defense, though my instructional focus was on defense. I was simply having them working on passing and cutting, as that proved to be a weakness for us, and it also presents a good challenge for the defense. The good news is that in the drill we definitely got better at being in a good position, while going at ¼ speed, on defense. The bad news is that it took us way too long to do and several players were not focused or paying good attention. Quentin also showed difficulty with what to do on offense. He neither was good at cutting towards the basket after making a pass nor did he understand how to move on offense after someone else made a pass. We made improvements here from most people on both offense and defense, so that was good. In particular Josh seemed to better understand the importance of cutting after a pass, which is good because he makes a lot of perimeter passes. Of course due to the lack of focus this whole part took the lion’s share of our practice.
We ended with a couple quick rounds of lay-ups “Champs and Chumps” won by Seth again. I emphasized using the backboard. It will be a pregame point of emphasis as well, so hopefully we’ll do it. Having no real idea about the quality of our opponents I remain optimistic about our chances and hopefully we’ll see some improvement.
We did our dribbling continuous motion. I had made the point that we want to be playing as well or better at the end of the games as compared to the start and that this wasn’t true on Wednesday. I said that this was an opportunity for them to get in better shape, but it was up to them to take advantage of it. The message seemed to sink in as there was a faster pace to the dribbling.
For the fundamental 5, I demonstrated on an 8 foot basket the virtues of shooting with an arc. We then went into our shell drill, allowing us to practice both offense and defense, though my instructional focus was on defense. I was simply having them working on passing and cutting, as that proved to be a weakness for us, and it also presents a good challenge for the defense. The good news is that in the drill we definitely got better at being in a good position, while going at ¼ speed, on defense. The bad news is that it took us way too long to do and several players were not focused or paying good attention. Quentin also showed difficulty with what to do on offense. He neither was good at cutting towards the basket after making a pass nor did he understand how to move on offense after someone else made a pass. We made improvements here from most people on both offense and defense, so that was good. In particular Josh seemed to better understand the importance of cutting after a pass, which is good because he makes a lot of perimeter passes. Of course due to the lack of focus this whole part took the lion’s share of our practice.
We ended with a couple quick rounds of lay-ups “Champs and Chumps” won by Seth again. I emphasized using the backboard. It will be a pregame point of emphasis as well, so hopefully we’ll do it. Having no real idea about the quality of our opponents I remain optimistic about our chances and hopefully we’ll see some improvement.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Game vs WM
Well the long and the short of it is that we lost. And contrary to what I felt like at the time, we lost because we couldn’t make close shots, something revealed when I watched the tape. In particular Alex couldn’t make a close shot to save his life, going 1-16 on the night, none taken more than 10 feet away from the basket. Others faced similar difficulties in making a shot.
The good news is that we did a serviceable job with our offense. We were getting good looks. There were some basic concepts, like cutting after a pass, which we failed on, but otherwise were doing well. I wasn’t terribly impressed with how we moved the ball around, but the officials were.
Our defensive rebounding was abysmal, we actually had more offensive than defensive rebounds (they out rebounded us on both ends of the court). In general our defense wasn’t so great. I thought it better at the game than on tape, but our lack of practice showed. That’s going to be a major focus for us tomorrow.
Overall, I can’t say I’m unhappy with how they played. I don’t feel like they played all out for 28 minutes, especially at the end, but overall it was a good performance. If Alex makes half his shots instead of losing 26-19, we win 33-26. Hell if Alex makes a 1/3 of the shots, it’s still a 27-26 victory.
Oh well. Some time tomorrow to try and improve for our game on Sunday.
The good news is that we did a serviceable job with our offense. We were getting good looks. There were some basic concepts, like cutting after a pass, which we failed on, but otherwise were doing well. I wasn’t terribly impressed with how we moved the ball around, but the officials were.
Our defensive rebounding was abysmal, we actually had more offensive than defensive rebounds (they out rebounded us on both ends of the court). In general our defense wasn’t so great. I thought it better at the game than on tape, but our lack of practice showed. That’s going to be a major focus for us tomorrow.
Overall, I can’t say I’m unhappy with how they played. I don’t feel like they played all out for 28 minutes, especially at the end, but overall it was a good performance. If Alex makes half his shots instead of losing 26-19, we win 33-26. Hell if Alex makes a 1/3 of the shots, it’s still a 27-26 victory.
Oh well. Some time tomorrow to try and improve for our game on Sunday.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Sunday should have been our first game. Because of a work commitment I was getting to the game exactly at the time I had asked the team to be there by (I generally try and be the first person there). I find out that there is no one at the school to lower the baskets or turn on the lights. The coach of the team we were playing at attempted to find another place to play or a way to get someone to set-up this gym, but it was to no avail. Our parents were very nice about the whole thing. The good news for me was that I used the half hour while the other coach was trying to figure stuff out to hold an impromptu practice. We did some good work running our offense. It still looks very chaotic. But there was far more purpose in their movement. I still worry about our defense, as it has continued to not receive the attention it deserves.
We didn’t do any explicit man to man work at yesterday’s practice either. However, it was a good practice. With the beginning of the season a lot of the practice had been slower paced than I would have liked. This was still somewhat true yesterday as we spent about 25 minutes doing goal setting, after our Fundamental Five on the triple threat position. However, after that it was a very active practice. We did our shooting continuous motion. It was quite revealing to see just how poor some of their forms are. Grant in particular does a lot of chest shooting. I purposefully ran the continuous motion before having done any real shooting work, because I wanted to see where they were as a baseline. The good news was that a few were able to make some minor adjustments as they went on, both on their own and from my suggestions, and were able to end better than they started.
Following a water break we, we did Champs and Chumps with the Mikan drill. Champs and Chumps is basically where there is some sort of 1 on 1 contest and after a round, the winner moves up to a “higher” court while the loser moves down. Seth and Alec both excelled here, while Leo, someone who based on his size I need playing at least defense against bigger guys, did not.
Finally we played 3 on 2/2 on 3. In this drill 3 of the players from a team are on one half of a court, the other 2 on the other half. The 3 players are on the offensive side, so when they have the ball it’s 3 on 2, with a 15 second shot clock. When the 2 have the ball, their goal is to get it past half court, with each of the 2 people having to touch the ball in bounds. It’s a good drill to teach some skills of what not to do when getting pressed, while also teaching how to trap and take advantage of a 3 on 2. Mason got killed in this drill, while Alec, Austin, and Michael showed some good stuff.
It was then time to go. It was good practice, because I feel I was much better about giving instruction and making sure they knew what they were learning. We debriefed, for instance, after 3 on 2/2 on 3 to talk about some of the things they had learned. I will then take the lessons they talked about and explain to them how the press break they’re going to learn (next Monday probably) applies those principles.
I feel better about our game Wednesday in terms of where we are at after our practice yesterday and our session on Sunday. We’re playing a team which is physically big, so it should be interesting.
We didn’t do any explicit man to man work at yesterday’s practice either. However, it was a good practice. With the beginning of the season a lot of the practice had been slower paced than I would have liked. This was still somewhat true yesterday as we spent about 25 minutes doing goal setting, after our Fundamental Five on the triple threat position. However, after that it was a very active practice. We did our shooting continuous motion. It was quite revealing to see just how poor some of their forms are. Grant in particular does a lot of chest shooting. I purposefully ran the continuous motion before having done any real shooting work, because I wanted to see where they were as a baseline. The good news was that a few were able to make some minor adjustments as they went on, both on their own and from my suggestions, and were able to end better than they started.
Following a water break we, we did Champs and Chumps with the Mikan drill. Champs and Chumps is basically where there is some sort of 1 on 1 contest and after a round, the winner moves up to a “higher” court while the loser moves down. Seth and Alec both excelled here, while Leo, someone who based on his size I need playing at least defense against bigger guys, did not.
Finally we played 3 on 2/2 on 3. In this drill 3 of the players from a team are on one half of a court, the other 2 on the other half. The 3 players are on the offensive side, so when they have the ball it’s 3 on 2, with a 15 second shot clock. When the 2 have the ball, their goal is to get it past half court, with each of the 2 people having to touch the ball in bounds. It’s a good drill to teach some skills of what not to do when getting pressed, while also teaching how to trap and take advantage of a 3 on 2. Mason got killed in this drill, while Alec, Austin, and Michael showed some good stuff.
It was then time to go. It was good practice, because I feel I was much better about giving instruction and making sure they knew what they were learning. We debriefed, for instance, after 3 on 2/2 on 3 to talk about some of the things they had learned. I will then take the lessons they talked about and explain to them how the press break they’re going to learn (next Monday probably) applies those principles.
I feel better about our game Wednesday in terms of where we are at after our practice yesterday and our session on Sunday. We’re playing a team which is physically big, so it should be interesting.
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