It’s been a while since I’ve written an update on GL except for my short update. Basically Brian had gotten out of control at practice this had a negative effect overall on the team and their concentration. I had not been terribly happy with the team’s performance since winter break except for the MP2 game. We beat LV the following day 34-32, in a game we almost blew. That Tuesday we played our arch-rival JCC, and they basically were in control the whole game earning a 5 point victory. Last weekend we played HP. We took an easy 25-18 victory, brought only that close thanks to a late 3.
The common theme to all of these games is the lack of a killer instinct that defined us so well last season. It seems as though we were merely going through the motions, coasting more on talent than anything else. And frankly I’ve got to think that’s my coaching in some way. In some way I’ve either failed to find the right motivational buttons to push, or even worse, my coaching has made them worse. However, considering that HP has only got more aggressive as the season has gone on, I don’t think it’s that my coaching has made them worse.
So here I’ve been generally unhappy with the team. And it hasn’t meant much because we’ve been winning. Actually in some ways it’s worse because I’ve been unhappy with the team, and the team has been winning, meaning there’s a disconnect between how the team sees itself and how I’m seeing it. I resolved after HP game that something I needed to do was have more fun coaching the team. I was not having fun, and part of that was because of the attitude problems. But if I started having fun that would, I hoped, break the cycle and help mitigate the attitude issues I was having. Also of help with the attitude? Brian did not play against HP after I sent Dad a long email outlining his unacceptable behavior at just one practice. I was quite hopeful going into last Wednesday’s practice that we’d have a good practice before the HP tourney (we had no gym space on Monday). But Wednesday’s practice was canceled due to a snow storm, so we went the week before the HP tourney with-out a practice.
And so this weekend we had the HP tourney. And all of the things I’ve feared finally came to pass. We lost our first tourney game to an inferior team composed mainly of players from MP and MP2. We got down by 10. We attempted a comeback, with 2 three’s by Andrew being a big help, but came up 2 points short. We then got annihilated by LS. You would never know that we’d beaten them twice. Of course the next day they went on to beat AH, so clearly they’re a team which has improved considerably. The LS game was an example of a game where we were just outclassed. Those games don’t bother me. However, because of the tournament structure after we lost to LS we basically were eliminated from advancing. And so it goes back to the first game where we lost to a team that we beat. The good news, or at least I think it’s good news, is that we beat the final team in our pool. This team had beaten both of the other two teams and had the #1 seed out of our pool so it’s not like they were a bad team. I’m glad that we didn’t finish 0-3, but at the same time I can’t help but wonder if that won’t interfere with the wake-up call.
This weekend should be interesting. We play three teams all in the bottom half of the standings. Will we once again go out and play just good enough to win or will we play up to the talent level that we have?
I don’t know. I do know that coaching has, as of late, brought me very little joy. I have to write-up a few HP games, but basically the story is the same one that it’s been all season: they play their hearts out, even if they’re not always playing well, but that frequently just isn’t good enough and they lose. And worse than that is the fact that the games Brian has been at, HP has played particularly poorly. I keep feeling like we’re on the edge of getting over the hump, but we just can’t do it ever and that is incredibly frustrating.
So I have a talented team which is underperforming and another team which isn't underperforming but neither are they making progress. It's just a maddening combo. If it weren't for the fun I'm having with HP at practices and even during games, despite the losses, I shudder to think how I'd be feeling at the moment.
So it's not all bad, but there's a lot of bad accompanied by the feeling that as coach that the problems are in areas where I could be making a difference. Motivation is I feel one of the few areas that a coach can make an impact. And while a good coach can only make a slight difference in the winning or losing of a team, that's all HP would need: a slight positive difference. And so in the end the poor play of both teams falls on my shoulders and I just hate doing a poor job at something at which I try so hard and care so much about.
Showing posts with label JCC1. Show all posts
Showing posts with label JCC1. Show all posts
Monday, February 11, 2008
Sunday, January 27, 2008
AH Tourney Writeup
GL had a couple games last weekend that I have not gotten around to writing up. I hope to find time this week to do that.
This weekend HP participated in a tournament sponsored by AH. The fourth grade bracket was the largest of the tournament with 12 teams participating. It was structured such that we would play 3 games in pool, with the winner of each pool plus a wild card advancing.
Our pool consisted of a team who I wasn’t familiar with, SC, JCC”s 4th grade team, and PL, which I thought was the one we played, but in the end I think was the PL in the B league (there was no A and B bracket for 4th grade). The games would consist of 2 twenty minute halves. The clock would only stop on timeouts, and in the last minute of the first half, and the last two minutes of the second half.
Our first game was against SC. If you could call it a game. They pressed right from the start, despite tournament rules having suggested this wasn’t the case with 4th grade. Basically the game was over in the first five minutes. I had decided to go with hockey subs, aka subbing out all of the players every 2-3 minutes. The game was never close, but we played extremely hard the whole time. We made particularly good use of the bounce pass to beat their zone on several occasions. We were outclassed by this team. In fact I would be bold enough to say GL would have trouble against this team. After the game the coach spoke very complementarily about our team. I felt the same. The game was a blow-out, but we never stopped trying. It was good to see, despite the 46-22 final score.
Our next game was against JCC’s 4th grade team. And we played just horrendously. I started us off with a press, which was meaningless and led to some uncontested layups. We were finding decent, but not great, shots on offense that we then missed. We were down by 6 at half. I had decided not to do hockey subs in the second half in hopes that we could get back into it. We came out in the second half and played even worse. With 8 minutes left we were down by 12, after having been down by as much as 15. Remember that in a normal league game if we score 12 points in a 7 minute quarter, with the clock stopping the whole time, we’d have done fairly well. Starting at about 10 minutes I had become a broken record of “Get the ball”. Finally at the 8 minute mark, after my having said it probably 20 times by that point, we started going for the ball. And we just started on a completely improbable comeback. Basically we just out play JCC, with them missing the few shots that they do get off. With just under 35 seconds left we get to with-in two. However, we get two good shots at the end, one of which was basically a wide open Jack A shot inches from the basket, that we can’t get to fall. We lose.
After the game I have to decide on what version to give the post game speech. I decide to end it on a negative note, the opposite of what I normally do. I complement team on the amazing effort they showed during the last 8 minutes of the game, and everyone had gotten playing time in that stretch even if I did rely more on a core of Josh, Zach, Jack A, and Danny to get it done for us. But I then really point out that the only reason we needed to make an improbable comeback was because of our weak play in the first 32 minutes. That we should never have put ourselves in that position to begin with. I tell them to all get a good night’s sleep so that we can come out playing better during Sunday’s games.
This morning we play PL’s B team. And just as it was a mismatch between us and SC, it was a mismatch between us and PL. We were up by 10 after 5 minutes, and that was as close as they ever got, despite the fact that I had us start to play defense inside the three point arc and in the second half told them to only take shots in the key (which they only semi-listened to). We win 40-19 and I’m proud of the type of game I saw.
That leaves us with our “cross-over” game to finish out the tourney. We end up playing SC’s B team. The game is a nail biter the whole way, with no team ever having a lead of more than 4 points. SC is taken aback by our frantic pace at first, but their coach ends up employing his own “hockey subs” to compensate in the second half, to great effect. Unfortunately, SC is a fast team and so they minimize the number of layups we’re able to convert off of our steals. Further, they do a good job of getting the ball up the court at the end of the game for some easy points. But the real story of the game was the foul trouble we got ourselves into. They were in double bonus for a substantial part of the second half. Jon got 4 fouls in the first half, meaning he basically sat most of the second half. Danny and Jack A managed to foul out. It wasn’t good. In the end we just couldn’t pull through and lose by 5, thanks to some late free throws they made.
SC was, most likely, a better talented team than we were. The fact that we were able to make it a competitive game, despite only having 9 players, and less effectively during the second half due to foul trouble, speaks well. Overall I’m happy with how we played. However, we need to win more of these close games. The team wonders about itself. I am hopeful that the HP tourney, which is only going to have 5 or 6 teams, could be a chance for us to get a surprise 1st or 2nd.
Taking a look at our players individually for the weekend:
Adam: He’s really growing. He continues to be clueless what to do when we’re not on the fast break. However, his defense has improved dramatically EXCEPT that he can’t guard a cutter to save his life. He must have given up 10 points on give and gos in the SC game. Just utterly clueless. That said he does a good job of pressuring and stealing the ball while committing almost no fouls.
Ben & Jon: They struggle more with our more upbeat play and are good at intercepting passes and helping on defense, but struggle with guarding a player with the ball. On offense they aren’t quite as fast as others and do better with the chance to cut and move, which is something we need to do more of. They have an nontraditional shot which is quite ugly, if effective for the moment, and one that I’m working with them on changing.
Danny: He’s done a much much better job of not being reckless with the ball. This is good because he’s able to dribble with the ball at about 95% of his sprinting speed, and his sprinting speed is fairly fast. He’s particularly adept at intercepting in bounds passes, but struggles, as in this game, at getting in front of the ball and stealing without fouling. He was not much of a factor at all on offense this weekend. His dad and I talked today at breakfast (which we went to in-between games) about the need for him to look to pass rather than just drive.
Gavin: Once again was out of town due to hockey. Basically I’ve just decided that he’s not around enough to treat as an equal member of the team. While we will continue to do hockey subs, he will sit out more frequently than others. I will be letting him know this next Saturday when he is at practice. It’s a shame because he’s definitely one of the best players on the team. But he’s not made the commitment others have, his play has suffered for it, and it’s simply not fair to the kids who have made the commitment.
Henry: Henry is a bit of a ball hog. He takes ever shot he thinks he can get away with, with many that he’d have been better off not taking. The frustrating thing is that he can’t make his layups on the fast break. He was open NUMEROUS times during the JCC, PL, and SC B games for layups and he made only a couple of the shots. It’s a frustrating thing all around. I also had to give it to him on the bench during the JCC game for being negative. He got the message and improved there the rest of the weekend.
Jacob: He’s finding shots in his range, and making them. More than any other player on the team, he’s taken my preaching of using your legs along with a high arc to heart, and so I feel fairly good about the improvement I’ve helped to contribute to in his game. Of course, he’s still a defensive liability, unable to really shut down kids who are even slightly bigger than he is, though he’s doing a better job of rebounding against those bigger kids.
Jack A: He’s raw, but he plays ferociously. Right now his defense is better than his offense, but his offense is making progress. His blown shot at the end of the JCC game was just heart breaking, absolutely heart breaking. He missed Saturday’s practice because he mistakenly thought we had a game. It’s a shame since we worked on driving and kicking it out, a skill that he could sorely use help on improving. He’s got a weird gait, such that it constantly seems like he’s injured when he’s jogging up the court, and he tends to display the all too typical 9 y/o behavior of over exaggerating his injuries. That said he’s a big reason why our all out going for the ball works, since he’s single minded in that effort. Sometimes this is a problem on defense, but happily teams didn’t exploit that this weekend.
Jack B: He’s benefited from our upbeat pace, which has opened up the court and allowed him to do the little things, particularly on defense, that he does so well. He’s got the best court vision on the team, but doesn’t quite have the ball handling skills to execute on that court vision, which is why he has found himself usurped by others at point. Still it was good to see him pull down numerous rebounds this weekend, and generally be a defensive menace. I hadn’t liked his play lately and this was a real positive turn.
Josh: His dad thinks he’s lazy. I can’t really disagree. Part of this means his conditioning isn’t what it should be. He is probably the best outside shooter we have on the team, but since I so actively discourage outside shots, that’s not the greatest skill to have on our team. That said he does much better in our aggressive “get the ball” defense than when we play a more regular man to man. He doesn’t commit the effort required there. Hopefully at some point he’ll mature in this respect.
Zach: He was feeling ill on Saturday and missed our games today. He would have been the difference in the SC B game. He remains our most complete player, and does an excellent job of shutting down kids much bigger than he on defense. His play was a big reason we got back into the game against the JCC. It was a real shame not to have him today.
HP’s schedule remains brutal. Next weekend we face undefeated NF, and then have the HP tourney. We could beat NF, I feel, with a good game, and a respectable showing in the HP tourney is possible given the small size. Hopefully we can make all that happen.
This weekend HP participated in a tournament sponsored by AH. The fourth grade bracket was the largest of the tournament with 12 teams participating. It was structured such that we would play 3 games in pool, with the winner of each pool plus a wild card advancing.
Our pool consisted of a team who I wasn’t familiar with, SC, JCC”s 4th grade team, and PL, which I thought was the one we played, but in the end I think was the PL in the B league (there was no A and B bracket for 4th grade). The games would consist of 2 twenty minute halves. The clock would only stop on timeouts, and in the last minute of the first half, and the last two minutes of the second half.
Our first game was against SC. If you could call it a game. They pressed right from the start, despite tournament rules having suggested this wasn’t the case with 4th grade. Basically the game was over in the first five minutes. I had decided to go with hockey subs, aka subbing out all of the players every 2-3 minutes. The game was never close, but we played extremely hard the whole time. We made particularly good use of the bounce pass to beat their zone on several occasions. We were outclassed by this team. In fact I would be bold enough to say GL would have trouble against this team. After the game the coach spoke very complementarily about our team. I felt the same. The game was a blow-out, but we never stopped trying. It was good to see, despite the 46-22 final score.
Our next game was against JCC’s 4th grade team. And we played just horrendously. I started us off with a press, which was meaningless and led to some uncontested layups. We were finding decent, but not great, shots on offense that we then missed. We were down by 6 at half. I had decided not to do hockey subs in the second half in hopes that we could get back into it. We came out in the second half and played even worse. With 8 minutes left we were down by 12, after having been down by as much as 15. Remember that in a normal league game if we score 12 points in a 7 minute quarter, with the clock stopping the whole time, we’d have done fairly well. Starting at about 10 minutes I had become a broken record of “Get the ball”. Finally at the 8 minute mark, after my having said it probably 20 times by that point, we started going for the ball. And we just started on a completely improbable comeback. Basically we just out play JCC, with them missing the few shots that they do get off. With just under 35 seconds left we get to with-in two. However, we get two good shots at the end, one of which was basically a wide open Jack A shot inches from the basket, that we can’t get to fall. We lose.
After the game I have to decide on what version to give the post game speech. I decide to end it on a negative note, the opposite of what I normally do. I complement team on the amazing effort they showed during the last 8 minutes of the game, and everyone had gotten playing time in that stretch even if I did rely more on a core of Josh, Zach, Jack A, and Danny to get it done for us. But I then really point out that the only reason we needed to make an improbable comeback was because of our weak play in the first 32 minutes. That we should never have put ourselves in that position to begin with. I tell them to all get a good night’s sleep so that we can come out playing better during Sunday’s games.
This morning we play PL’s B team. And just as it was a mismatch between us and SC, it was a mismatch between us and PL. We were up by 10 after 5 minutes, and that was as close as they ever got, despite the fact that I had us start to play defense inside the three point arc and in the second half told them to only take shots in the key (which they only semi-listened to). We win 40-19 and I’m proud of the type of game I saw.
That leaves us with our “cross-over” game to finish out the tourney. We end up playing SC’s B team. The game is a nail biter the whole way, with no team ever having a lead of more than 4 points. SC is taken aback by our frantic pace at first, but their coach ends up employing his own “hockey subs” to compensate in the second half, to great effect. Unfortunately, SC is a fast team and so they minimize the number of layups we’re able to convert off of our steals. Further, they do a good job of getting the ball up the court at the end of the game for some easy points. But the real story of the game was the foul trouble we got ourselves into. They were in double bonus for a substantial part of the second half. Jon got 4 fouls in the first half, meaning he basically sat most of the second half. Danny and Jack A managed to foul out. It wasn’t good. In the end we just couldn’t pull through and lose by 5, thanks to some late free throws they made.
SC was, most likely, a better talented team than we were. The fact that we were able to make it a competitive game, despite only having 9 players, and less effectively during the second half due to foul trouble, speaks well. Overall I’m happy with how we played. However, we need to win more of these close games. The team wonders about itself. I am hopeful that the HP tourney, which is only going to have 5 or 6 teams, could be a chance for us to get a surprise 1st or 2nd.
Taking a look at our players individually for the weekend:
Adam: He’s really growing. He continues to be clueless what to do when we’re not on the fast break. However, his defense has improved dramatically EXCEPT that he can’t guard a cutter to save his life. He must have given up 10 points on give and gos in the SC game. Just utterly clueless. That said he does a good job of pressuring and stealing the ball while committing almost no fouls.
Ben & Jon: They struggle more with our more upbeat play and are good at intercepting passes and helping on defense, but struggle with guarding a player with the ball. On offense they aren’t quite as fast as others and do better with the chance to cut and move, which is something we need to do more of. They have an nontraditional shot which is quite ugly, if effective for the moment, and one that I’m working with them on changing.
Danny: He’s done a much much better job of not being reckless with the ball. This is good because he’s able to dribble with the ball at about 95% of his sprinting speed, and his sprinting speed is fairly fast. He’s particularly adept at intercepting in bounds passes, but struggles, as in this game, at getting in front of the ball and stealing without fouling. He was not much of a factor at all on offense this weekend. His dad and I talked today at breakfast (which we went to in-between games) about the need for him to look to pass rather than just drive.
Gavin: Once again was out of town due to hockey. Basically I’ve just decided that he’s not around enough to treat as an equal member of the team. While we will continue to do hockey subs, he will sit out more frequently than others. I will be letting him know this next Saturday when he is at practice. It’s a shame because he’s definitely one of the best players on the team. But he’s not made the commitment others have, his play has suffered for it, and it’s simply not fair to the kids who have made the commitment.
Henry: Henry is a bit of a ball hog. He takes ever shot he thinks he can get away with, with many that he’d have been better off not taking. The frustrating thing is that he can’t make his layups on the fast break. He was open NUMEROUS times during the JCC, PL, and SC B games for layups and he made only a couple of the shots. It’s a frustrating thing all around. I also had to give it to him on the bench during the JCC game for being negative. He got the message and improved there the rest of the weekend.
Jacob: He’s finding shots in his range, and making them. More than any other player on the team, he’s taken my preaching of using your legs along with a high arc to heart, and so I feel fairly good about the improvement I’ve helped to contribute to in his game. Of course, he’s still a defensive liability, unable to really shut down kids who are even slightly bigger than he is, though he’s doing a better job of rebounding against those bigger kids.
Jack A: He’s raw, but he plays ferociously. Right now his defense is better than his offense, but his offense is making progress. His blown shot at the end of the JCC game was just heart breaking, absolutely heart breaking. He missed Saturday’s practice because he mistakenly thought we had a game. It’s a shame since we worked on driving and kicking it out, a skill that he could sorely use help on improving. He’s got a weird gait, such that it constantly seems like he’s injured when he’s jogging up the court, and he tends to display the all too typical 9 y/o behavior of over exaggerating his injuries. That said he’s a big reason why our all out going for the ball works, since he’s single minded in that effort. Sometimes this is a problem on defense, but happily teams didn’t exploit that this weekend.
Jack B: He’s benefited from our upbeat pace, which has opened up the court and allowed him to do the little things, particularly on defense, that he does so well. He’s got the best court vision on the team, but doesn’t quite have the ball handling skills to execute on that court vision, which is why he has found himself usurped by others at point. Still it was good to see him pull down numerous rebounds this weekend, and generally be a defensive menace. I hadn’t liked his play lately and this was a real positive turn.
Josh: His dad thinks he’s lazy. I can’t really disagree. Part of this means his conditioning isn’t what it should be. He is probably the best outside shooter we have on the team, but since I so actively discourage outside shots, that’s not the greatest skill to have on our team. That said he does much better in our aggressive “get the ball” defense than when we play a more regular man to man. He doesn’t commit the effort required there. Hopefully at some point he’ll mature in this respect.
Zach: He was feeling ill on Saturday and missed our games today. He would have been the difference in the SC B game. He remains our most complete player, and does an excellent job of shutting down kids much bigger than he on defense. His play was a big reason we got back into the game against the JCC. It was a real shame not to have him today.
HP’s schedule remains brutal. Next weekend we face undefeated NF, and then have the HP tourney. We could beat NF, I feel, with a good game, and a respectable showing in the HP tourney is possible given the small size. Hopefully we can make all that happen.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Midseason Overview
Half way through the season seems like a good time to take stock of where the teams are at. First up is GL. I am doing this from work, so I have no stats in front of me, and am instead doing this based on my recollection, except for what I can get from the league website.
Team Overall
We stand at 5-3. A record of 10-6 would likely give us the somewhere between the 4th and 6th seeds in the playoffs. There’s good news there though. The winning percentage of the teams we’ve lost to is .710 and the teams we’ve beat is .406 with an overall total of .510. Basically in losing to WK and AH we’ve lost to two of the strongest teams in the conference. The EV loss is just unfortunate. A good test will be this weekend against LV. They’re 6-0. They likely think they’re hot stuff. But 5 of their 6 victories come against teams in the bottom 6 places. They’ve also beat LS. In other words, LV is exactly the sort of team, like LS, that we need to beat, to show that we belong in a strong second tier versus a middling tier. But basically we’re an upper half of the conference team. This is better than I expected. I expected to be somewhere between 7-9 and 9-7. At this point, and based on our remaining schedule (the winning percentage of our remaining opponents is only .400) I’d be disappointed with 9-7. My goal is 11-5 though 13-3 would not be unreasonable. So overall the team is exceeding my pre-season expectations, but basically meeting my in-season expectations, in that we’ve won the games I’d expected to win, lost the three I expected to lose, though I’m still proud at how close we came to an upset against WK.
The Players
Andrew – He’s shown slow, but steady progress over the season. He fancies himself a much better shooter than the statistics show, especially at the free throw line. He’ll miss shot after shot after shot, even in practice, but still think he can make it. I support the positive attitude, since to a certain extent it does make him better than he would be otherwise. His big problem is that he stand around far too often on offense, waiting for someone to pass to him so he can take his shot. He’s working hard to improve on defense, though I feel those demands have never really been made on him before. I think it’s a shame that he wasn’t on our team last year since I think he’d have grown a lot as a player on that team. Alas. I see him having a lot room for growth, even if he only continues his steady advancement.
Brian – I’m glad Winter Break was when it was. Brian and I had had a few problems before break and the time off likely did us both good, though more him than I since I tend to be good about letting bygones be bygones. During the first part of the season he played well on offense. His commitment to defense wasn’t what I wanted it to be, and this was indeed the source of a lot of our tension. He’ll take too many risks & not move around like he should. I would, however, still consider him one of our top 5 players, but he’d be the 5th on that list. But the bigger problem, as alluded to above, is not his ability but his attitude. He’s a pessimist through and through and he shares his pessimism out loud and in a cancerous sort of way. I hope to do a better job of coaching him in the second half of the season to mitigate his negative aspects. But, as always, it’s a balancing act. Hopefully the two of us won’t fall down.
Cameron – Since break he’s decided he’s a shooter. So he’s shot a bunch of shots. And made about 2. Perhaps he could shoot, if he were shooting closer. His shooting arc, for instance, is much improved. His shots all look good, but keep missing. I have decided we’re beyond simply luck. I made a comment about it at yesterday’s practice to him. I expect we’ll see some change there. His defense has improved dramatically from the start of the season, but that’s not surprising. Basically whatever we work on at practice improves with Cameron since this is his first serious basketball season. He basically plays 7-10 minutes a game, but this doesn’t seem to phase him in the least.
Dante – Dante’s been a disappointment. He looked from tryouts and early practices, like a greatly improved player from last year. In reality he’s turned out to be the 5th grade version of what he was last year. He can sometimes have a soft accurate shooting touch. But he is slow. He disappears against bigger players. He fails to pull down the amount of rebounds you’d hope from somebody of his size. Even worse his free throw shooting has gone from rock solid to mediocre and I haven’t been able to figure out what he’s doing differently to help him get back on track. Still he’s a great kid to have on the team. I have found that playing him and Justin together often allows Dante to play better than he would otherwise, though this of course doesn’t help in terms of spelling Justin either from fatigue, or when he’s having a bad day.
David – A step above every other player on the team. However, at this higher level he’s simply incapable of consistently taking over a game at will. He still can take over a game, as he showed for a bit against AH and WK, but it’s not necessarily something which can be sustained. His inability to shed defeners has meant that he’s start taking a lot more outside shots hurting his overall efficiency. Turnovers had been a problem for him at the start of the season, but it’s gotten better, as he rises to the competition. Part of that is that I’ve avoided playing him, for the most part, at point guard until the second half. This lets him get in a groove without trying to force it too much. He’s gotten frustrated with me at times due to my tactical weaknesses at times. However, while the frustration is apparent to me, he keeps it to himself. His own struggles have meant that he’s not quite the active team leader he once was, despite still holding that position in the eyes the other players due to his skill.
Jack M – I give Jack a lot of credit. He’s matured quite a bit. I really worried what kind of effect he’d have on the team. While he was clearly discouraged in the game against AH where we were down by a lot in the 4th, he’s coping with it better. When we did all sorts of physical drills in practice, the sort that he would whine about incessantly last year, he said not a peep despite getting roughed up due to his small size. He’s the shortest player on the team and being short presents obstacles, but rather than complain and moan, he works to overcome them. I really didn’t expect it from him. I’ve rewarded him with additional starts, verbal praise, and try to get him as much playing time as possible. If he were playing Small Fry, or some other competition where he wouldn’t be dwarfed as much as he is, he’d likely be a star. I really hope he grows.
Jack P – He was doing better before winter break. He played particularly slow on Saturday. But overall we needed him to make a higher percentage of his shots while still keeping his explosiveness. He’d done this. His potential is quite high, but he’s not quite part of the social fabric of the team, which means that he doesn’t get the credit he deserves from the other players. This is nothing new. Still I’ve been happy with the progress he’s shown in taking his play to the next level and will be encouraging him to continue to do this.
Justin – He feels most comfortable on the perimeter with the ball. He’s got a sweet shot, so it’s hard to discourage this, but I think I’m going to have to, to a certain extent. We need him inside grinding away. Being a physical presence inside isn’t easy for him, but unlike Dante he’s not quite as soft, despite being nearly a rail. He’s so eager to learn I feel like I’ve failed him in that I don’t get him the 1 on 1 attention that he craves and could benefit from. Having him in the game generally makes us a much better than when he’s not in the game.
Lucas – Lucas, until very recently, had been the biggest disappointment. You might recall that when I thought I’d be losing the triplets (see note below about this) I had faith that he could be our dominant player. I hadn’t seen that. Until our game against EV. And it was then that I remembered something crucial about Lucas: he needs sustained playing time. Some players do better when they play a little, rest some, play some more. That’s how I am. Lucas is the opposite. It takes him a while to get in the flow of a game. I am hoping that EV is a turning point in that it reminded Lucas what he can do and also reminded me of how to use him.
Scott – Definitely the most underrated player on the team. It seems trite but he wants it more than the others seem to, but is happy to be in the background while his brothers get the limelight. He is simply too small to shut down kids much bigger than him as he used to be able to do, but he still has that post player mentality. He’s BY far the toughest player on the team. Not sure how much he’s improved so far this season, though.
Tom – Tom breaks my heart. He thinks so poorly of himself and he knows that others disagree with him, but he feels what he feels. He doesn’t realize how special he is, which is, to be fair, part of what makes him special. All that is old news. We were talking before the game against GV and he told me that he doesn’t enjoy team sports. And I believe it. He said that he’s just kind of in the pattern of signing up for the team so then he plays and when it comes time to sign up again he does, but he doesn’t enjoy it. I tried to find out, unsuccessfully, whether he doesn’t enjoy playing in the games (as he feels the pressure) or whether he just doesn’t enjoy the whole experience. But this is the kid who when we’re doing chants on the sidelines does it wholeheartedly and with abandon such that it draws in even kids like Brian and Jack M, who aren’t naturally inclined to such rah rah antics late in the game when they’re not in it. And the sad thing is he belongs. He can be an absolute shutdown defender. More than that his shot looks so pretty yet is off and I’m simply not a good enough coach to figure out what he is doing wrong, which upsets me.
The Coach
I do some things well. Problem is that I do a lot of things not so well. Like knowing the perfect way to counter a 1-3-1? I forget sometimes. It’s not engrained with me. I have to work at it. And I do work at things. That determination to be better is one of my strengths as a coach. But the problem is that with my coaching two teams I’m distracted. And I was burned out. It wasn’t until I was planning yesterday’s practice that I got a fire and drive and a vision of what I needed to do for the first time since the season started. But that was, to a certain extent, because I was able to focus on just GL. The mental space that I’d devoted to learning and growing my use of tactics? That’s all be taken up by my mental space doing the big picture stuff, the stuff I’m good at, with another team.
The other problem is that I don’t do nearly enough 1 on 1 stuff. Some kids like Justin beg me for it, and of course I help them then. But others who could use the help don’t get it. And that’s a shame, since I do have skills to offer them. Skills that I hate taking away practice time to teach, since it’s so valuable and there always seems to be some other more pressing need that we need to work on and improve. It’s a time like this that I miss having an assistant coach who I could turn over a group drill to while I do some work with a player or even vice versa.
My coaching two teams though has caused this team to suffer. But I think that just might be the way it has to be. I give myself a C- as a coach so far this season. The things that I’ve done well come from my understanding of knowing that if a team does X its chances of victory are greater, where other coaches might not always appreciate the importance of X. For instance I think our lack of scrimmages helps us far more than it hurts us, since it frees up time for other, more focused activities. I think my emphasis on having a high shooting percentage as a team is a HUGE advantage for us over other teams. But beyond these lessons I just don’t think I do such a good job of growing their skills. On my list of priorities then, I do poorly on #1, improving their skills, I do very well on #2, having fun, and #3, winning games, I do pretty well in how I prepare a team even if my in-game tactics don’t help us as much as they ought to.
Looking Forward
This weekend should be an interesting one for us. We play MP2, which seems to only barely belong in the A conference, on Saturday. We should beat them in a game that I would think would be like GV: We’re comfortably ahead the whole game though never feel dominating or in control. On Sunday we play LV. I really don’t know how good they are. This is a game that’s a must win for us. It’s a game I’d be hyping a lot more were it not for what comes on Tuesday. On Tuesday, with no practice on Monday due to Martin Luther King Day, we play JCC. A JCC team that I’ve learned not only tried to recruit away the triplets, but, according to Brian who would definitely know such things, tried to recruit Lucas with the lie that the triplets had already gone over to JCC. They are, not just rivals, but our arch enemies. Hopefully good will win over evil.
Coming soon, an update on HP’s last game and on Thursday (most likely) a midseason report for them.
Team Overall
We stand at 5-3. A record of 10-6 would likely give us the somewhere between the 4th and 6th seeds in the playoffs. There’s good news there though. The winning percentage of the teams we’ve lost to is .710 and the teams we’ve beat is .406 with an overall total of .510. Basically in losing to WK and AH we’ve lost to two of the strongest teams in the conference. The EV loss is just unfortunate. A good test will be this weekend against LV. They’re 6-0. They likely think they’re hot stuff. But 5 of their 6 victories come against teams in the bottom 6 places. They’ve also beat LS. In other words, LV is exactly the sort of team, like LS, that we need to beat, to show that we belong in a strong second tier versus a middling tier. But basically we’re an upper half of the conference team. This is better than I expected. I expected to be somewhere between 7-9 and 9-7. At this point, and based on our remaining schedule (the winning percentage of our remaining opponents is only .400) I’d be disappointed with 9-7. My goal is 11-5 though 13-3 would not be unreasonable. So overall the team is exceeding my pre-season expectations, but basically meeting my in-season expectations, in that we’ve won the games I’d expected to win, lost the three I expected to lose, though I’m still proud at how close we came to an upset against WK.
The Players
Andrew – He’s shown slow, but steady progress over the season. He fancies himself a much better shooter than the statistics show, especially at the free throw line. He’ll miss shot after shot after shot, even in practice, but still think he can make it. I support the positive attitude, since to a certain extent it does make him better than he would be otherwise. His big problem is that he stand around far too often on offense, waiting for someone to pass to him so he can take his shot. He’s working hard to improve on defense, though I feel those demands have never really been made on him before. I think it’s a shame that he wasn’t on our team last year since I think he’d have grown a lot as a player on that team. Alas. I see him having a lot room for growth, even if he only continues his steady advancement.
Brian – I’m glad Winter Break was when it was. Brian and I had had a few problems before break and the time off likely did us both good, though more him than I since I tend to be good about letting bygones be bygones. During the first part of the season he played well on offense. His commitment to defense wasn’t what I wanted it to be, and this was indeed the source of a lot of our tension. He’ll take too many risks & not move around like he should. I would, however, still consider him one of our top 5 players, but he’d be the 5th on that list. But the bigger problem, as alluded to above, is not his ability but his attitude. He’s a pessimist through and through and he shares his pessimism out loud and in a cancerous sort of way. I hope to do a better job of coaching him in the second half of the season to mitigate his negative aspects. But, as always, it’s a balancing act. Hopefully the two of us won’t fall down.
Cameron – Since break he’s decided he’s a shooter. So he’s shot a bunch of shots. And made about 2. Perhaps he could shoot, if he were shooting closer. His shooting arc, for instance, is much improved. His shots all look good, but keep missing. I have decided we’re beyond simply luck. I made a comment about it at yesterday’s practice to him. I expect we’ll see some change there. His defense has improved dramatically from the start of the season, but that’s not surprising. Basically whatever we work on at practice improves with Cameron since this is his first serious basketball season. He basically plays 7-10 minutes a game, but this doesn’t seem to phase him in the least.
Dante – Dante’s been a disappointment. He looked from tryouts and early practices, like a greatly improved player from last year. In reality he’s turned out to be the 5th grade version of what he was last year. He can sometimes have a soft accurate shooting touch. But he is slow. He disappears against bigger players. He fails to pull down the amount of rebounds you’d hope from somebody of his size. Even worse his free throw shooting has gone from rock solid to mediocre and I haven’t been able to figure out what he’s doing differently to help him get back on track. Still he’s a great kid to have on the team. I have found that playing him and Justin together often allows Dante to play better than he would otherwise, though this of course doesn’t help in terms of spelling Justin either from fatigue, or when he’s having a bad day.
David – A step above every other player on the team. However, at this higher level he’s simply incapable of consistently taking over a game at will. He still can take over a game, as he showed for a bit against AH and WK, but it’s not necessarily something which can be sustained. His inability to shed defeners has meant that he’s start taking a lot more outside shots hurting his overall efficiency. Turnovers had been a problem for him at the start of the season, but it’s gotten better, as he rises to the competition. Part of that is that I’ve avoided playing him, for the most part, at point guard until the second half. This lets him get in a groove without trying to force it too much. He’s gotten frustrated with me at times due to my tactical weaknesses at times. However, while the frustration is apparent to me, he keeps it to himself. His own struggles have meant that he’s not quite the active team leader he once was, despite still holding that position in the eyes the other players due to his skill.
Jack M – I give Jack a lot of credit. He’s matured quite a bit. I really worried what kind of effect he’d have on the team. While he was clearly discouraged in the game against AH where we were down by a lot in the 4th, he’s coping with it better. When we did all sorts of physical drills in practice, the sort that he would whine about incessantly last year, he said not a peep despite getting roughed up due to his small size. He’s the shortest player on the team and being short presents obstacles, but rather than complain and moan, he works to overcome them. I really didn’t expect it from him. I’ve rewarded him with additional starts, verbal praise, and try to get him as much playing time as possible. If he were playing Small Fry, or some other competition where he wouldn’t be dwarfed as much as he is, he’d likely be a star. I really hope he grows.
Jack P – He was doing better before winter break. He played particularly slow on Saturday. But overall we needed him to make a higher percentage of his shots while still keeping his explosiveness. He’d done this. His potential is quite high, but he’s not quite part of the social fabric of the team, which means that he doesn’t get the credit he deserves from the other players. This is nothing new. Still I’ve been happy with the progress he’s shown in taking his play to the next level and will be encouraging him to continue to do this.
Justin – He feels most comfortable on the perimeter with the ball. He’s got a sweet shot, so it’s hard to discourage this, but I think I’m going to have to, to a certain extent. We need him inside grinding away. Being a physical presence inside isn’t easy for him, but unlike Dante he’s not quite as soft, despite being nearly a rail. He’s so eager to learn I feel like I’ve failed him in that I don’t get him the 1 on 1 attention that he craves and could benefit from. Having him in the game generally makes us a much better than when he’s not in the game.
Lucas – Lucas, until very recently, had been the biggest disappointment. You might recall that when I thought I’d be losing the triplets (see note below about this) I had faith that he could be our dominant player. I hadn’t seen that. Until our game against EV. And it was then that I remembered something crucial about Lucas: he needs sustained playing time. Some players do better when they play a little, rest some, play some more. That’s how I am. Lucas is the opposite. It takes him a while to get in the flow of a game. I am hoping that EV is a turning point in that it reminded Lucas what he can do and also reminded me of how to use him.
Scott – Definitely the most underrated player on the team. It seems trite but he wants it more than the others seem to, but is happy to be in the background while his brothers get the limelight. He is simply too small to shut down kids much bigger than him as he used to be able to do, but he still has that post player mentality. He’s BY far the toughest player on the team. Not sure how much he’s improved so far this season, though.
Tom – Tom breaks my heart. He thinks so poorly of himself and he knows that others disagree with him, but he feels what he feels. He doesn’t realize how special he is, which is, to be fair, part of what makes him special. All that is old news. We were talking before the game against GV and he told me that he doesn’t enjoy team sports. And I believe it. He said that he’s just kind of in the pattern of signing up for the team so then he plays and when it comes time to sign up again he does, but he doesn’t enjoy it. I tried to find out, unsuccessfully, whether he doesn’t enjoy playing in the games (as he feels the pressure) or whether he just doesn’t enjoy the whole experience. But this is the kid who when we’re doing chants on the sidelines does it wholeheartedly and with abandon such that it draws in even kids like Brian and Jack M, who aren’t naturally inclined to such rah rah antics late in the game when they’re not in it. And the sad thing is he belongs. He can be an absolute shutdown defender. More than that his shot looks so pretty yet is off and I’m simply not a good enough coach to figure out what he is doing wrong, which upsets me.
The Coach
I do some things well. Problem is that I do a lot of things not so well. Like knowing the perfect way to counter a 1-3-1? I forget sometimes. It’s not engrained with me. I have to work at it. And I do work at things. That determination to be better is one of my strengths as a coach. But the problem is that with my coaching two teams I’m distracted. And I was burned out. It wasn’t until I was planning yesterday’s practice that I got a fire and drive and a vision of what I needed to do for the first time since the season started. But that was, to a certain extent, because I was able to focus on just GL. The mental space that I’d devoted to learning and growing my use of tactics? That’s all be taken up by my mental space doing the big picture stuff, the stuff I’m good at, with another team.
The other problem is that I don’t do nearly enough 1 on 1 stuff. Some kids like Justin beg me for it, and of course I help them then. But others who could use the help don’t get it. And that’s a shame, since I do have skills to offer them. Skills that I hate taking away practice time to teach, since it’s so valuable and there always seems to be some other more pressing need that we need to work on and improve. It’s a time like this that I miss having an assistant coach who I could turn over a group drill to while I do some work with a player or even vice versa.
My coaching two teams though has caused this team to suffer. But I think that just might be the way it has to be. I give myself a C- as a coach so far this season. The things that I’ve done well come from my understanding of knowing that if a team does X its chances of victory are greater, where other coaches might not always appreciate the importance of X. For instance I think our lack of scrimmages helps us far more than it hurts us, since it frees up time for other, more focused activities. I think my emphasis on having a high shooting percentage as a team is a HUGE advantage for us over other teams. But beyond these lessons I just don’t think I do such a good job of growing their skills. On my list of priorities then, I do poorly on #1, improving their skills, I do very well on #2, having fun, and #3, winning games, I do pretty well in how I prepare a team even if my in-game tactics don’t help us as much as they ought to.
Looking Forward
This weekend should be an interesting one for us. We play MP2, which seems to only barely belong in the A conference, on Saturday. We should beat them in a game that I would think would be like GV: We’re comfortably ahead the whole game though never feel dominating or in control. On Sunday we play LV. I really don’t know how good they are. This is a game that’s a must win for us. It’s a game I’d be hyping a lot more were it not for what comes on Tuesday. On Tuesday, with no practice on Monday due to Martin Luther King Day, we play JCC. A JCC team that I’ve learned not only tried to recruit away the triplets, but, according to Brian who would definitely know such things, tried to recruit Lucas with the lie that the triplets had already gone over to JCC. They are, not just rivals, but our arch enemies. Hopefully good will win over evil.
Coming soon, an update on HP’s last game and on Thursday (most likely) a midseason report for them.
Monday, June 11, 2007
GAH!
Just learned from a player on the JCC team that the rumor is that David is going to play on their team next year. I know he and Jake became friends so that's entirely possible. If it's true, and his brothers follow, I'll be sick. Just sick.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
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.
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Tourney Report: Championship Game
We had just won a game now a few minutes later we had to be ready to play for the championship. The JCC team had come over and watched at one point. A couple of parents did the same and actively rooted for us. It was clear they wanted their re-match and they were going to have it. As the Karzen game wound down I asked Brian how much time we’d have to warm up. He replied 5 minutes. In reality it was closer to 10, maybe even a bit more.
Since we’d already played two games of basketball, I didn’t bother having us do any sort of special warm-up and instead I just let them shoot. At one point I had to chase away Luke’s brother who had the audacity to shoot around with us. After it became clear we were going to have more than 5 minutes, I let them shoot around for a minute or two more than sat them down. My big focus for this game was on our help defense doing a good job of picking Luke up. We knew we were going to force him to our left, so defenders on that side had to be ready to step in for the double team if he got close to the basket.
JCC got off to a quick start. At that point I believed the game could easily turn into a blow-out. We were tired. I knew that they’d be playing their best ball and they were. Most of their points came-off of a couple plays. One was a clear-out for Luke. Now the good thing about this was that it wasn’t Luke who was scoring. Instead it was either their center scoring a put back, or someone left a little open from our double team making a shot. Still we were tired. After being down by as much as 7, we’d closed the gap to with-in three.
At half time I complemented the team on their great defense. I said we were playing a good game and that we were a second half team and we’d get this game done. We’d beaten this team once and there was no reason we couldn’t beat them again. I did also make a remark that no matter what happened in the game that we should be proud of how’d we played. Where as for the first two parts, and even into the third part, of the first half I really believed that we’d lose, and it could even be a blow-out, by the end of the first half we were playing better basketball.
Right out of half we came out and cut the game to with-in a basket. As the second half played on I was finding it harder and harder to find time to play guys like Tom, Noah, and Gordie. They all got their time in, but it was a hard thing for me to do. During the start of the third part of the second half, Luke went on his only tear of the game. In rapid succession he stole a few balls and created some exciting points to give his team a 5 point lead, after being down by 1 when his tear started. The good news out of this all, was that’s basically his whole contribution, offensively and defensively for the whole game. We had so shut down the inside game that Luke was constantly settling for three point shots. His shooting percentage was better outside the arc this game than the last game, but still nowhere near as good as what he can do inside. We had also made the proper adjustments to their two set plays and so they’d often have to run the play two or three times before they could get a shot off of it. What I was more proud of than how well we were playing him on defense as how we’d neutralized him when HE was on defense. His coaches made it clear that they expected him to stay in his zone, since when he’d wondered we’d made them pay for it.
As Luke went on this run, I was forced to call a time-out to try and stop the momentum. I pointed out that we could make up this score. We had PLENTY of time so we had to play our offense. And during the next five minutes we played some excellent basketball. All half long Scott had done an excellent job of getting rebounds, with 7 second half rebounds. However, he was tired so I put in Jack P as a post player. Jack M decided that maybe he could drive to the basket and he did so, creating all sorts of nice opportunities both in terms of baskets he made, fouls, and creating shots for others, notably Jack P. It was clear that they came out of the time-out with the philosophy that they weren’t going to let David beat them. This was fine for us. Slowly we came back. Dante all year long would shoot 6 or 7 good shots each game and often miss all of them. However, all of a sudden he was getting open in the mid-post and he drained a couple of beautiful shots. The game became a nail biter, but we continued to be down.
Finally with about 25 seconds they went up by 3. I called our final time-out. Basically it was just a “relax out there”. We needed a 3 and everyone knew it. I said that we would tie the game, have momentum and win in over time. I really believed that we’d either lose it in regulation or win it in over time. They had begun earlier in the half wasting time, with Luke bringing the ball just over half court and sitting there. I kept yelling at David that he had to go and guard Luke so they couldn’t keep waste time. However, it was this attitude of that we’d score, while they were just trying to hang-on that gave me such confidence. So we came down on offense and worked it around for a bit, before getting it back to David who pulls up for the jumper and drains it. We’ve tied the game. Our bench explodes. They call a time out with 8 seconds and change on the clock. By this point we were rocking the gym. The atmosphere was unbelievable coming out of the time-out they’d called.
We all knew what they were going to do. They were going to get the ball to Luke and with plenty of time. However, as they went down they were never able to find a good a shot. They ended up launching a bad shot which missed. And we headed into OT.
It really was cliché. Here we had the championship game, with a team that had made a comeback only to make a crucial late shot to tie the game and send it into overtime. That first overtime period was just a bundle of nerves. The period only lasted 2 minutes. I think each team scored 1 basket. We once again had the ball late in the period. There entire focus was so on stepping David that they left Jack M with a good shot, but it missed. We got the ball back and David took and missed a jumper. What upset me was that we all just stood around looking at it, instead of trying for the rebound. The ball actually hit the floor and bounced, meaning that JCC was doing the same thing. Still if we’d done what we should have we might have been able to heave up one last shot. But momentum was on our side. When Jack started to drive in, the coaches were clearly pained. We’d just come out of a time-out and it was clear that the message had been so strong on stop David, that the team left itself open to being beaten by one of our other players.
So now we were in the second overtime. We come out quickly and make a basket and another. They come back and make a basket of their own. On this next possession down they foul Jack M on the ground for a 1 and 1. Jack makes both of the shots and we now have a 4 point lead with about 45 seconds left. Noah asks “Can we storm the court when we win?” I say “Of course” which I don’t think they were expecting. Luke comes down and lofts up a 3, and misses, but gets fouled. Luke’s now at the line for 3 shots. He drains the first two, but misses the 3rd. I don’t know if the play was intentional or not, but they do get the rebound. The put up a shot and miss. Dante comes down with the rebound and is immediately fouled. Another 1 and 1. Dante drains both shots and that’s the game. There is a desperation 3 launched, we get the rebound, and the game is over.
There’s chest bumping and thumping. The team is absolutely stoked. We go through and shake their hands. My opinion of Luke’s father mellowed this game. He was very nice after the game. I think as the game went on he realized that we weren’t some team that had no right competing with his team, but instead was a legitimate competitor. On the other hand, his co-coach was insane and did enough yelling for the two of them. Regardless, I really felt like the better team won this game. At different points we had several players step up when needed, it wasn’t just the David show, like JCC was the Luke show.
There was a real nice ceremony where they were presented with t-shirts for second place and we were presented with our championship t-shirts. We went over to the side, I complemented them on how I often talk about what great teams do, and in this tournament we played like a great team. They posed for a couple of team pictures. It was just great. Here we were champions of an A tourney, having played two games which were as good as basketball games get. What a feeling.
Next time: tournament summary/overview and a recap of Monday’s practice.
Since we’d already played two games of basketball, I didn’t bother having us do any sort of special warm-up and instead I just let them shoot. At one point I had to chase away Luke’s brother who had the audacity to shoot around with us. After it became clear we were going to have more than 5 minutes, I let them shoot around for a minute or two more than sat them down. My big focus for this game was on our help defense doing a good job of picking Luke up. We knew we were going to force him to our left, so defenders on that side had to be ready to step in for the double team if he got close to the basket.
JCC got off to a quick start. At that point I believed the game could easily turn into a blow-out. We were tired. I knew that they’d be playing their best ball and they were. Most of their points came-off of a couple plays. One was a clear-out for Luke. Now the good thing about this was that it wasn’t Luke who was scoring. Instead it was either their center scoring a put back, or someone left a little open from our double team making a shot. Still we were tired. After being down by as much as 7, we’d closed the gap to with-in three.
At half time I complemented the team on their great defense. I said we were playing a good game and that we were a second half team and we’d get this game done. We’d beaten this team once and there was no reason we couldn’t beat them again. I did also make a remark that no matter what happened in the game that we should be proud of how’d we played. Where as for the first two parts, and even into the third part, of the first half I really believed that we’d lose, and it could even be a blow-out, by the end of the first half we were playing better basketball.
Right out of half we came out and cut the game to with-in a basket. As the second half played on I was finding it harder and harder to find time to play guys like Tom, Noah, and Gordie. They all got their time in, but it was a hard thing for me to do. During the start of the third part of the second half, Luke went on his only tear of the game. In rapid succession he stole a few balls and created some exciting points to give his team a 5 point lead, after being down by 1 when his tear started. The good news out of this all, was that’s basically his whole contribution, offensively and defensively for the whole game. We had so shut down the inside game that Luke was constantly settling for three point shots. His shooting percentage was better outside the arc this game than the last game, but still nowhere near as good as what he can do inside. We had also made the proper adjustments to their two set plays and so they’d often have to run the play two or three times before they could get a shot off of it. What I was more proud of than how well we were playing him on defense as how we’d neutralized him when HE was on defense. His coaches made it clear that they expected him to stay in his zone, since when he’d wondered we’d made them pay for it.
As Luke went on this run, I was forced to call a time-out to try and stop the momentum. I pointed out that we could make up this score. We had PLENTY of time so we had to play our offense. And during the next five minutes we played some excellent basketball. All half long Scott had done an excellent job of getting rebounds, with 7 second half rebounds. However, he was tired so I put in Jack P as a post player. Jack M decided that maybe he could drive to the basket and he did so, creating all sorts of nice opportunities both in terms of baskets he made, fouls, and creating shots for others, notably Jack P. It was clear that they came out of the time-out with the philosophy that they weren’t going to let David beat them. This was fine for us. Slowly we came back. Dante all year long would shoot 6 or 7 good shots each game and often miss all of them. However, all of a sudden he was getting open in the mid-post and he drained a couple of beautiful shots. The game became a nail biter, but we continued to be down.
Finally with about 25 seconds they went up by 3. I called our final time-out. Basically it was just a “relax out there”. We needed a 3 and everyone knew it. I said that we would tie the game, have momentum and win in over time. I really believed that we’d either lose it in regulation or win it in over time. They had begun earlier in the half wasting time, with Luke bringing the ball just over half court and sitting there. I kept yelling at David that he had to go and guard Luke so they couldn’t keep waste time. However, it was this attitude of that we’d score, while they were just trying to hang-on that gave me such confidence. So we came down on offense and worked it around for a bit, before getting it back to David who pulls up for the jumper and drains it. We’ve tied the game. Our bench explodes. They call a time out with 8 seconds and change on the clock. By this point we were rocking the gym. The atmosphere was unbelievable coming out of the time-out they’d called.
We all knew what they were going to do. They were going to get the ball to Luke and with plenty of time. However, as they went down they were never able to find a good a shot. They ended up launching a bad shot which missed. And we headed into OT.
It really was cliché. Here we had the championship game, with a team that had made a comeback only to make a crucial late shot to tie the game and send it into overtime. That first overtime period was just a bundle of nerves. The period only lasted 2 minutes. I think each team scored 1 basket. We once again had the ball late in the period. There entire focus was so on stepping David that they left Jack M with a good shot, but it missed. We got the ball back and David took and missed a jumper. What upset me was that we all just stood around looking at it, instead of trying for the rebound. The ball actually hit the floor and bounced, meaning that JCC was doing the same thing. Still if we’d done what we should have we might have been able to heave up one last shot. But momentum was on our side. When Jack started to drive in, the coaches were clearly pained. We’d just come out of a time-out and it was clear that the message had been so strong on stop David, that the team left itself open to being beaten by one of our other players.
So now we were in the second overtime. We come out quickly and make a basket and another. They come back and make a basket of their own. On this next possession down they foul Jack M on the ground for a 1 and 1. Jack makes both of the shots and we now have a 4 point lead with about 45 seconds left. Noah asks “Can we storm the court when we win?” I say “Of course” which I don’t think they were expecting. Luke comes down and lofts up a 3, and misses, but gets fouled. Luke’s now at the line for 3 shots. He drains the first two, but misses the 3rd. I don’t know if the play was intentional or not, but they do get the rebound. The put up a shot and miss. Dante comes down with the rebound and is immediately fouled. Another 1 and 1. Dante drains both shots and that’s the game. There is a desperation 3 launched, we get the rebound, and the game is over.
There’s chest bumping and thumping. The team is absolutely stoked. We go through and shake their hands. My opinion of Luke’s father mellowed this game. He was very nice after the game. I think as the game went on he realized that we weren’t some team that had no right competing with his team, but instead was a legitimate competitor. On the other hand, his co-coach was insane and did enough yelling for the two of them. Regardless, I really felt like the better team won this game. At different points we had several players step up when needed, it wasn’t just the David show, like JCC was the Luke show.
There was a real nice ceremony where they were presented with t-shirts for second place and we were presented with our championship t-shirts. We went over to the side, I complemented them on how I often talk about what great teams do, and in this tournament we played like a great team. They posed for a couple of team pictures. It was just great. Here we were champions of an A tourney, having played two games which were as good as basketball games get. What a feeling.
Next time: tournament summary/overview and a recap of Monday’s practice.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Tourney Report: JCC Game
Jack M could not hide his thoughts that we were going to lose to JCC. During the time in between games I had taken some time to talk to him, again, about the importance of a positive attitude. Now in fairness, I felt a good deal of trepidation myself about the game, but the idea of having a positive team attitude is an incredibly important thing to me. I also talked to David about his frustration. As the HP game slipped away, David’s frustration grew and grew and this was not helpful for us as a team or for him individually. I approached him under the guise of “what is frustrating you out there?” and we had a good conversation. I emphasized the need to use the whole team. It was a good discussion.
After a little bit of warm-up, our team sat down for our pre-game meeting. The pre-game meeting revolved around, #3, Luke. When we played the team last time they were basically a one man show and so we talked about forcing Luke to his left. I talked about how happy I was to have the chance to play this team again since I didn’t think we had done our best the last time we played them. I said that I don’t think anyone, including me, was ready last time for how good this team was. We would be ready this time and it would make the difference. At least, I thought to myself, I hoped it would.
The game began. Luke tried his best to go to the right, but David, being the monster defender that he was, kept forcing him left. Luke was clearly uncomfortable with this. His coaches kept yelling “If he’s giving you the left, go left.” The game was hard fought the whole first half. We started off strong, as I think the HP game had us in game shape. The first half was fought tooth and nail, but by half time we were up to a four point lead.
A big controversy occurred late in the first half. JCC called its second time-out, as we continued to build momentum. It was clear what had happened: the rules as sent to me via e-mail said 3 time outs per half, a lot of time outs. I asked a question about this before our first game and was told 3 per game but obviously the JCC coaches had never been informed. In the end the decision was made to give each team 3 time-outs per half. This meant that my saving of all my time outs was for naught.
It was easy to be positive at half. The focus was on momentum. We also talked about the 1-3-1 zone they would sometime play. In the first half the JCC had done a good job of forcing us to score in transition or to settle for longer shots. We were fighting hard for rebounds and getting some put-back points, but the zone was doing exactly what it had been designed to do. I pointed out a few ways we could do better against the zone.
For subbing purposes I had every 5 minutes inserted 2 or 3 (and once in a while 4) players into the game. So I sort divided the halves into 4 parts. During this first part the game remained virtually unchanged. We did have our most remarkable possession of the season. We got the ball at half and held onto the ball, basically just passing it around, for 54 seconds before we found a good shot. The patience on that possession was just amazing. We didn’t end up with a basket, but it was an just an incredible display of passing and team work.
During the second part of the half I rested David. Jack P did an admirable job, both here and in the first half of guarding Luke. Where as David sat in both halves, Luke sat about 2 minutes, if even that, the whole game.
It was during the 3rd part that things changed dramatically. We were up by 4 points about half way through the part when Luke went on a tear. He started stealing every ball around him and taking them in for baskets. We got a basket here and there, but he got 7 points, including an incredibly lucky 3 point shot, in a space of only about 2 minutes. Luke’s 3 point shooting was actually a big bonus for us. There were several times where he just settled for the three, with his coach’s encouragement, and he missed a lot of the time and since we’re a good rebounding team we got the rebound a lot of the time. I’m guessing that in the long run this might not be a bad strategy, since many teams won’t out rebound them, but I am about as virulently against shooting regular 3 pointers at this age as you can get.
So now we’re entering the last part of the game and we’re down. And then we get down by some more, losing by 3 with about 90 seconds to go. I call our second time out (I had called one after the lucky three to try and calm the momentum, which was largely successful) and tried to get our team back on track. With 30 seconds left to go we narrow the game to 1. We get the ball with 14 seconds left in the game and I call our final time-out. I explain that there’s plenty of time left and we need to get a good shot. I tell them that I want to work the ball around since it’s likely we would get a good shot that way. My thinking was that they would so overload coverage on David, who has been playing his normally fantastic game, that they would leave someone else open.
JCC came out of the time-out and their defense was tough. We made a few passes around the perimeter of their zone and nothing was happening. Finally David gets the ball back. The clock is ticking down. I call on him to shoot. He pulls up just behind the free throw line and NAILS a jumper with 2.5 seconds left. JCC immediately calls their final time-out. In the huddle my speech is simple “We all know where this ball is going to go, to Luke. Make sure they in-bound the ball so the clock starts, and then pick-up your men at half court. Don’t foul.”
The ball is in bounded. Luke sprints up the court. He launches his final shot on the sideline, by our bench, just behind the half court line. The ball goes up and it’s got a real shot. My heart absolutely sinks as the ball looks might good. But it turns out to be long and we win the game at the buzzer. Luke literally crumples to the floor.
We did it. We had beaten, at the last second, the one team who had beaten us. Our team goes wild. We shake hands and I immediately pulled away by the conference organizer, before I can even talk to my team, for an explanation of some time changes for the next day. At the time I didn’t realize this, but our win basically finished us in second in our pool. We did discuss the various possibilities, but I predicted that JCC would blow-out HP. Eric, the HP Park District tournament organizer was skeptical, but I knew that’s what would happen. When he called later, he told me I was right and that we’d gotten the second seed.
I was so happy that we beat the JCC team. As the game went on I grew to dislike the JCC coaches more and more. They were loud. They didn’t promote team basketball. Their players didn’t look like they were having as much fun as we were. After the game as we shook hands they were clearly stunned. While we’d both said before the game how much we were looking forward to this match-up, I honestly don’t believe they thought for a moment we could beat them. What is funny is that after the first game we’d played against them I’d told one of the coaches how Luke was just not comfortable being forced left. So it should have come as no surprise that we forced him left. As we were shaking hands I had said “I think we’ll play each other again” with the only way of that happening is if we met in the championship. If we could beat the JCC, at that moment I knew that we really could win it all.
After a little bit of warm-up, our team sat down for our pre-game meeting. The pre-game meeting revolved around, #3, Luke. When we played the team last time they were basically a one man show and so we talked about forcing Luke to his left. I talked about how happy I was to have the chance to play this team again since I didn’t think we had done our best the last time we played them. I said that I don’t think anyone, including me, was ready last time for how good this team was. We would be ready this time and it would make the difference. At least, I thought to myself, I hoped it would.
The game began. Luke tried his best to go to the right, but David, being the monster defender that he was, kept forcing him left. Luke was clearly uncomfortable with this. His coaches kept yelling “If he’s giving you the left, go left.” The game was hard fought the whole first half. We started off strong, as I think the HP game had us in game shape. The first half was fought tooth and nail, but by half time we were up to a four point lead.
A big controversy occurred late in the first half. JCC called its second time-out, as we continued to build momentum. It was clear what had happened: the rules as sent to me via e-mail said 3 time outs per half, a lot of time outs. I asked a question about this before our first game and was told 3 per game but obviously the JCC coaches had never been informed. In the end the decision was made to give each team 3 time-outs per half. This meant that my saving of all my time outs was for naught.
It was easy to be positive at half. The focus was on momentum. We also talked about the 1-3-1 zone they would sometime play. In the first half the JCC had done a good job of forcing us to score in transition or to settle for longer shots. We were fighting hard for rebounds and getting some put-back points, but the zone was doing exactly what it had been designed to do. I pointed out a few ways we could do better against the zone.
For subbing purposes I had every 5 minutes inserted 2 or 3 (and once in a while 4) players into the game. So I sort divided the halves into 4 parts. During this first part the game remained virtually unchanged. We did have our most remarkable possession of the season. We got the ball at half and held onto the ball, basically just passing it around, for 54 seconds before we found a good shot. The patience on that possession was just amazing. We didn’t end up with a basket, but it was an just an incredible display of passing and team work.
During the second part of the half I rested David. Jack P did an admirable job, both here and in the first half of guarding Luke. Where as David sat in both halves, Luke sat about 2 minutes, if even that, the whole game.
It was during the 3rd part that things changed dramatically. We were up by 4 points about half way through the part when Luke went on a tear. He started stealing every ball around him and taking them in for baskets. We got a basket here and there, but he got 7 points, including an incredibly lucky 3 point shot, in a space of only about 2 minutes. Luke’s 3 point shooting was actually a big bonus for us. There were several times where he just settled for the three, with his coach’s encouragement, and he missed a lot of the time and since we’re a good rebounding team we got the rebound a lot of the time. I’m guessing that in the long run this might not be a bad strategy, since many teams won’t out rebound them, but I am about as virulently against shooting regular 3 pointers at this age as you can get.
So now we’re entering the last part of the game and we’re down. And then we get down by some more, losing by 3 with about 90 seconds to go. I call our second time out (I had called one after the lucky three to try and calm the momentum, which was largely successful) and tried to get our team back on track. With 30 seconds left to go we narrow the game to 1. We get the ball with 14 seconds left in the game and I call our final time-out. I explain that there’s plenty of time left and we need to get a good shot. I tell them that I want to work the ball around since it’s likely we would get a good shot that way. My thinking was that they would so overload coverage on David, who has been playing his normally fantastic game, that they would leave someone else open.
JCC came out of the time-out and their defense was tough. We made a few passes around the perimeter of their zone and nothing was happening. Finally David gets the ball back. The clock is ticking down. I call on him to shoot. He pulls up just behind the free throw line and NAILS a jumper with 2.5 seconds left. JCC immediately calls their final time-out. In the huddle my speech is simple “We all know where this ball is going to go, to Luke. Make sure they in-bound the ball so the clock starts, and then pick-up your men at half court. Don’t foul.”
The ball is in bounded. Luke sprints up the court. He launches his final shot on the sideline, by our bench, just behind the half court line. The ball goes up and it’s got a real shot. My heart absolutely sinks as the ball looks might good. But it turns out to be long and we win the game at the buzzer. Luke literally crumples to the floor.
We did it. We had beaten, at the last second, the one team who had beaten us. Our team goes wild. We shake hands and I immediately pulled away by the conference organizer, before I can even talk to my team, for an explanation of some time changes for the next day. At the time I didn’t realize this, but our win basically finished us in second in our pool. We did discuss the various possibilities, but I predicted that JCC would blow-out HP. Eric, the HP Park District tournament organizer was skeptical, but I knew that’s what would happen. When he called later, he told me I was right and that we’d gotten the second seed.
I was so happy that we beat the JCC team. As the game went on I grew to dislike the JCC coaches more and more. They were loud. They didn’t promote team basketball. Their players didn’t look like they were having as much fun as we were. After the game as we shook hands they were clearly stunned. While we’d both said before the game how much we were looking forward to this match-up, I honestly don’t believe they thought for a moment we could beat them. What is funny is that after the first game we’d played against them I’d told one of the coaches how Luke was just not comfortable being forced left. So it should have come as no surprise that we forced him left. As we were shaking hands I had said “I think we’ll play each other again” with the only way of that happening is if we met in the championship. If we could beat the JCC, at that moment I knew that we really could win it all.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Exhibition Game vs JCC 1
So I started typing this post up on Tuesday December 19th. Then I got sick and never got around to finishing it. Until now. I will make a note where I started writing so far after the fact, just so you know where my memory might be a little hazier.
Last night was our exhibition game against JCC team 1. When I got to the gym I knew we were going to have a much closer game than I had anticipated. Their whole team was already there and they were a big team. Even more worrisome I saw a player on their team who I knew, Luke, and I knew him to be an exceptional athlete. For whatever reason we were slower than normal in arriving. Eventually we get all of the players I was expecting. Or rather we get the 8 players we’re going to have for the night. Noah, it had been decided, would miss the game due to injury. Scott, who I’d decided to give the nod to start to over either David or Jack M, was sick. I really hate going to the game and finding out there that a player will be missing. Someone needs to let me know ahead of time.
Anyway we do our warmup. All the while they are blaring music into the gym. It was pretty annoying, honestly, and a couple of my players moaned about it. It did create a funny situation where I was giving our pregame talk and I was having to scream and then all of a sudden the music went off and so in midsentence I switched to a normal volume. It gave us all a good laugh. With Scott not being there my plans to go with a large lineup were somewhat foiled. I had decided it was a good situation to not start David, and so on a spur of the moment I decided to go with Gordie as our fifth starter, along with Dante, Lucas, Jack P (playing point), and Tom. Gordie was actually playing the three here.
Dante did a nice job with the tip, something he hasn’t shown any particular ability to do before this. We did get off to an early 2-0 lead. However, that was when their star basically took control. After the first possession I had Jack P guard him, though Jack P was clearly outmatched in this case. When the first quarter ends it’s 8-6 and it’s a good ball game.
The second quarter was the difference maker. They came out in a 1-3-1 defense and absolutely destroyed us. They had been playing a 2-3 with a little man in the first quarter. We could get nothing going on offense. It didn’t matter rather we ran our zone breaker or our motion, they were shutting us down and not letting us find good shots. Matters hadn’t been helped in the first quarter that David, seeing that the other team was good, decided to try and be the hero and on his first two possessions down launched two ill advised shots. I gave him a quick pull, but I knew if we were going to compete in this game that we’d need his skills so I had him back in there in the second quarter. However, the combination of the good team, plus having their star player beat him a couple times on offense, threw David out of sorts.
However, the whole first half, really even through the second quarter, about the only foul the refs would call would be on our team doing something to their star. Now I’m not saying that they weren’t fouls, because they were, but at the same time we weren’t getting any where near the calls that they were getting. Talking to the refs in a situation like this is something that is currently beyond my comfort zone. I don’t ever complain, whether it’s baseball or basketball about the officiating. And there were things that they weren’t calling, such as Dante’s repeated 3 second violations, that benefited us. However, the home team advantage with the fouls was a bit much to swallow. Anyhow, the second quarter was a disaster for us and we go down by 8 into half. David guarded 3 for most of the second quarter, and was clearly frustrated on both offense and defense. Things just weren’t happening the way David was used to them happening. It didn’t help that since #3 was such a good ball handler even our full court man-to-man proved ineffective as even David simply couldn’t keep up with him the full length of the court. And let’s not forget David is VERY fast.
At half our team is shell shocked. I start to talk about some things we need to do differently, but it’s clear that our team is somewhat tuned out. I ask for someone to tell a joke to try and loosen the mood and get them to relax. The problem is that David comes up with “the refs”. This gets everyone to smile but isn’t quite as productive as I’d have liked. I do manage to get a couple of actual jokes out of them I then tell the team how this is our first real basketball game. We all know we’re still in this game, but the spark that the team normally has just isn’t there.
The third quarter doesn’t go particularly well for us. We are actually shutout, the first time we’ve failed to score at least one basket in a game all season. Even worse is that a couple minutes into the quarter David goes down hard and gets injured. He landed hard on his elbow. Honestly I think it was as much a frustration injury as anything. The good news is that we finally being to contain #3. #3, like oh so many players, has a tendency to go right every time and so we begin to play some better help defense knowing this.
We enter the 4th quarter down by 10. In the 4th quarter David says he’s ready to go back in. The good news is that we start to play our basketball game. We actually get the lead down to 6 at one point. However, we’re never able to get it closer than that. Our fast break offense had clicked, for the first time all game, and we were finding good shots on offense, partly thanks to some coaching on my part. But the baskets just don’t go in. And in the end we go down 26-16. To be honest while the margin of defeat doesn’t surprise me a whole lot, I am surprised we only managed 16 points. Our transition offense is normally just so good that we can score practically 16 points on that alone.
[Note: This is me typing far after the fact.] Funny thing happened in the 4th as well. Somehow after a time out we got 6 players in the game. I realized this, and not right away I’d add, when I only had two player sitting next to me on the bench. My first reaction was to get mad at the missing player for leaving the bench without my permission. That was when I looked at the court and realized we had six players in the game. I got the refs attention who let us score a basket as he tried to count our players. I kept point it out to him and he finally whistled the game to a stop. A player was pulled out and we got to keep our basket. I’m not quite sure how we got 6 players in the game in the first place but it had to have been my fault somehow.
After the game I pull the team together. We do a longer than normal post-game talk since there will be no practice again until after Winter Break. I really attempt to emphasize the importance of staying in shape over Winter Break and even hand out a log for them to record physical activities that they do. I don’t honestly expect more than 2 or 3, if that, to keep the log in any serious fashion, but it was just another way for me to emphasize the importance of staying in shape.
Taking a look at our players from the game:
Brian: Actually had the second most minutes on the team. He’d have had more until he started with the “you hate me” stuff again during the game and so I put him on the bench for a bad attitude. I really have to have a talk with about it since I don’t hate him, though clearly we need to work on some things between us.
Dante: Dante is just playing bad basketball. Now granted he was up against some really big guys but I don’t quite know what to do with him. He’s clearly trying hard out there and just coming up short. It’s times like this that I wish we had video so I could really take the time to analyze what he’s doing.
David: The other team’s assistant coach and I were talking after the game and one of things we talked about was what a talent David is. It’s hard not to recognize what a gifted player he is and I feel very fortunate to have him on the team. I think we’d still be a pretty good team with-out him, as our dismantling of HP, who appears to be above average, shows. However, I’m VERY happy that we do have him on the team.
Gordie: I let him have some crunch time minutes, as I feel players should get to experience all aspects of the game and will always try to have one of our end of the bench players in at crunch time so they get that kind of development. That said the kid needs to work on his shot selection and turnovers. He was 2 for 8 from the field, not actually a terrible shooting percentage at this age, but the real killer is the 7 turnovers he had. I set-up my stats spreadsheet to shoow stats/28 minutes (meaning if they played a full game) and Gordie has 11 turnovers/28 more twice as many as the next highest person.
Jack M: Jack also sat on the bench more than he might have otherwise due to some negative comments he made (about our ability to come back). As I have mentioned before he has a delicate psyche and so the music before the game really bothered him as did the poor reffing. I would go so far as to suggest it had an impact on his game play. Hopefully when he starts our next game some of the confidence will return.
Jack P: Did a good job of attempting to guard #3 despite being out matched. Gained some valuable experience as a PG. Jack had moved from Massachusetts over the summer and I learned before the game that there he played almost exclusively guard, which is obviously different from the forward/center positions I am asking of him. After giving him some time as guard I like him better in those other spots, which is nice considering that there are more minutes available there as well.
Lucas: He turned in another solid performance. He is clearly more comfortable the more chances he gets in our offense and at playing help defense. The stats that have been kept have really helped tune me into the little things he does much faster than if I just had to go off of observation.
Tom: Tom had a pretty good game. And he didn’t make any self-depreciating comments which was good.
Overall I’m glad we lost. It should hold off our getting too cocky which had been a concern of mine. And like I said after the MP2 game, we were never out of the game and it’s possible we could defeat this team were we to play them again.
My big concern is how in shape we come back from winter break. We have a BRUTAL schedule coming up. Our first practice back is January 8th. We have another practice on Friday. We then play MP, our competition for best in the league, on Saturday and WK, a team which is 1-3 thanks to its victory against one of the NF teams, on Sunday. Then we have no practice due to Martin Luther King Day and then we have at least three games in the tourney that Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. And then it looks like we might not be able to reschedule our Sunday game so we’d have a game then too. I still haven’t received word whether or not we got accepted into the A bracket, but I hope we did. So in some ways, with so much basketball, it’s good to be rested. But if we’re out of shape, oh am I dreading the game against MP. However, all this basketball is very exciting and I’m looking forward to what should be a fun couple of weeks.
Last night was our exhibition game against JCC team 1. When I got to the gym I knew we were going to have a much closer game than I had anticipated. Their whole team was already there and they were a big team. Even more worrisome I saw a player on their team who I knew, Luke, and I knew him to be an exceptional athlete. For whatever reason we were slower than normal in arriving. Eventually we get all of the players I was expecting. Or rather we get the 8 players we’re going to have for the night. Noah, it had been decided, would miss the game due to injury. Scott, who I’d decided to give the nod to start to over either David or Jack M, was sick. I really hate going to the game and finding out there that a player will be missing. Someone needs to let me know ahead of time.
Anyway we do our warmup. All the while they are blaring music into the gym. It was pretty annoying, honestly, and a couple of my players moaned about it. It did create a funny situation where I was giving our pregame talk and I was having to scream and then all of a sudden the music went off and so in midsentence I switched to a normal volume. It gave us all a good laugh. With Scott not being there my plans to go with a large lineup were somewhat foiled. I had decided it was a good situation to not start David, and so on a spur of the moment I decided to go with Gordie as our fifth starter, along with Dante, Lucas, Jack P (playing point), and Tom. Gordie was actually playing the three here.
Dante did a nice job with the tip, something he hasn’t shown any particular ability to do before this. We did get off to an early 2-0 lead. However, that was when their star basically took control. After the first possession I had Jack P guard him, though Jack P was clearly outmatched in this case. When the first quarter ends it’s 8-6 and it’s a good ball game.
The second quarter was the difference maker. They came out in a 1-3-1 defense and absolutely destroyed us. They had been playing a 2-3 with a little man in the first quarter. We could get nothing going on offense. It didn’t matter rather we ran our zone breaker or our motion, they were shutting us down and not letting us find good shots. Matters hadn’t been helped in the first quarter that David, seeing that the other team was good, decided to try and be the hero and on his first two possessions down launched two ill advised shots. I gave him a quick pull, but I knew if we were going to compete in this game that we’d need his skills so I had him back in there in the second quarter. However, the combination of the good team, plus having their star player beat him a couple times on offense, threw David out of sorts.
However, the whole first half, really even through the second quarter, about the only foul the refs would call would be on our team doing something to their star. Now I’m not saying that they weren’t fouls, because they were, but at the same time we weren’t getting any where near the calls that they were getting. Talking to the refs in a situation like this is something that is currently beyond my comfort zone. I don’t ever complain, whether it’s baseball or basketball about the officiating. And there were things that they weren’t calling, such as Dante’s repeated 3 second violations, that benefited us. However, the home team advantage with the fouls was a bit much to swallow. Anyhow, the second quarter was a disaster for us and we go down by 8 into half. David guarded 3 for most of the second quarter, and was clearly frustrated on both offense and defense. Things just weren’t happening the way David was used to them happening. It didn’t help that since #3 was such a good ball handler even our full court man-to-man proved ineffective as even David simply couldn’t keep up with him the full length of the court. And let’s not forget David is VERY fast.
At half our team is shell shocked. I start to talk about some things we need to do differently, but it’s clear that our team is somewhat tuned out. I ask for someone to tell a joke to try and loosen the mood and get them to relax. The problem is that David comes up with “the refs”. This gets everyone to smile but isn’t quite as productive as I’d have liked. I do manage to get a couple of actual jokes out of them I then tell the team how this is our first real basketball game. We all know we’re still in this game, but the spark that the team normally has just isn’t there.
The third quarter doesn’t go particularly well for us. We are actually shutout, the first time we’ve failed to score at least one basket in a game all season. Even worse is that a couple minutes into the quarter David goes down hard and gets injured. He landed hard on his elbow. Honestly I think it was as much a frustration injury as anything. The good news is that we finally being to contain #3. #3, like oh so many players, has a tendency to go right every time and so we begin to play some better help defense knowing this.
We enter the 4th quarter down by 10. In the 4th quarter David says he’s ready to go back in. The good news is that we start to play our basketball game. We actually get the lead down to 6 at one point. However, we’re never able to get it closer than that. Our fast break offense had clicked, for the first time all game, and we were finding good shots on offense, partly thanks to some coaching on my part. But the baskets just don’t go in. And in the end we go down 26-16. To be honest while the margin of defeat doesn’t surprise me a whole lot, I am surprised we only managed 16 points. Our transition offense is normally just so good that we can score practically 16 points on that alone.
[Note: This is me typing far after the fact.] Funny thing happened in the 4th as well. Somehow after a time out we got 6 players in the game. I realized this, and not right away I’d add, when I only had two player sitting next to me on the bench. My first reaction was to get mad at the missing player for leaving the bench without my permission. That was when I looked at the court and realized we had six players in the game. I got the refs attention who let us score a basket as he tried to count our players. I kept point it out to him and he finally whistled the game to a stop. A player was pulled out and we got to keep our basket. I’m not quite sure how we got 6 players in the game in the first place but it had to have been my fault somehow.
After the game I pull the team together. We do a longer than normal post-game talk since there will be no practice again until after Winter Break. I really attempt to emphasize the importance of staying in shape over Winter Break and even hand out a log for them to record physical activities that they do. I don’t honestly expect more than 2 or 3, if that, to keep the log in any serious fashion, but it was just another way for me to emphasize the importance of staying in shape.
Taking a look at our players from the game:
Brian: Actually had the second most minutes on the team. He’d have had more until he started with the “you hate me” stuff again during the game and so I put him on the bench for a bad attitude. I really have to have a talk with about it since I don’t hate him, though clearly we need to work on some things between us.
Dante: Dante is just playing bad basketball. Now granted he was up against some really big guys but I don’t quite know what to do with him. He’s clearly trying hard out there and just coming up short. It’s times like this that I wish we had video so I could really take the time to analyze what he’s doing.
David: The other team’s assistant coach and I were talking after the game and one of things we talked about was what a talent David is. It’s hard not to recognize what a gifted player he is and I feel very fortunate to have him on the team. I think we’d still be a pretty good team with-out him, as our dismantling of HP, who appears to be above average, shows. However, I’m VERY happy that we do have him on the team.
Gordie: I let him have some crunch time minutes, as I feel players should get to experience all aspects of the game and will always try to have one of our end of the bench players in at crunch time so they get that kind of development. That said the kid needs to work on his shot selection and turnovers. He was 2 for 8 from the field, not actually a terrible shooting percentage at this age, but the real killer is the 7 turnovers he had. I set-up my stats spreadsheet to shoow stats/28 minutes (meaning if they played a full game) and Gordie has 11 turnovers/28 more twice as many as the next highest person.
Jack M: Jack also sat on the bench more than he might have otherwise due to some negative comments he made (about our ability to come back). As I have mentioned before he has a delicate psyche and so the music before the game really bothered him as did the poor reffing. I would go so far as to suggest it had an impact on his game play. Hopefully when he starts our next game some of the confidence will return.
Jack P: Did a good job of attempting to guard #3 despite being out matched. Gained some valuable experience as a PG. Jack had moved from Massachusetts over the summer and I learned before the game that there he played almost exclusively guard, which is obviously different from the forward/center positions I am asking of him. After giving him some time as guard I like him better in those other spots, which is nice considering that there are more minutes available there as well.
Lucas: He turned in another solid performance. He is clearly more comfortable the more chances he gets in our offense and at playing help defense. The stats that have been kept have really helped tune me into the little things he does much faster than if I just had to go off of observation.
Tom: Tom had a pretty good game. And he didn’t make any self-depreciating comments which was good.
Overall I’m glad we lost. It should hold off our getting too cocky which had been a concern of mine. And like I said after the MP2 game, we were never out of the game and it’s possible we could defeat this team were we to play them again.
My big concern is how in shape we come back from winter break. We have a BRUTAL schedule coming up. Our first practice back is January 8th. We have another practice on Friday. We then play MP, our competition for best in the league, on Saturday and WK, a team which is 1-3 thanks to its victory against one of the NF teams, on Sunday. Then we have no practice due to Martin Luther King Day and then we have at least three games in the tourney that Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. And then it looks like we might not be able to reschedule our Sunday game so we’d have a game then too. I still haven’t received word whether or not we got accepted into the A bracket, but I hope we did. So in some ways, with so much basketball, it’s good to be rested. But if we’re out of shape, oh am I dreading the game against MP. However, all this basketball is very exciting and I’m looking forward to what should be a fun couple of weeks.
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