Sorry for the lateness of this update. I’ve been very busy lately and just haven’t had time to write this up. However, with an unexpected stomach bug keeping home from work today I’ve finally got the time.
After the behemoths of last night I was a little worried about what we’d face today. Fortunately looking at the team they weren’t nearly as intimidating as their 5th grade counterparts. HP was holding a 6th grade tournament and so we were playing after one of those games.
I decided to start the five players who were at both practices (only seemed fair) so it was Adam, Jacob, Ben, Jon, and Jack B getting the nod at the start of the game. I was not excited about this group of 5, but they did really well. Of particular note was Adam whose defense was noteworthy. In fact it was the first time he played like I’d seen him play in house league. Perhaps he’s adjusting to the size and speed of the game, at last.
The game is close in the first half actually ending tied at half time. The bad news is that we got into extreme foul trouble. The refs called a weird game with all too many jump balls, but that doesn’t excuse our fouls. I give one of my better half time speeches. I go over to the book to look at how things are and I discover that their #3 is basically their whole offense. I tell my team to focus on him, with his having scored 8 of their 14 points. The third quarter does not go our way and we’re down 25-22 heading into the 4th. The 4th quarter is just insane. Our offense clicks with tons of different kids scoring. We keep getting to with-in 1 but never manage to close the gap all together. In the end it’s our fouls that od us in with their team going 7-8 in the 4th. In particular we fould #3 all too often and he made us pay for it.
It was a disappointing loss because it was a close game and we just couldn’t pull it out. The refs didn’t help with several seemingly obvious fouls against AH not being called in the second half. Oh well.
Quick run down of our players:
Jacob – Continues to get good wide open shots and continues to fail to make them. Was a little better in the post than normal
Job – Made 4 foul shots for us and a 4th quarter basket. One of his better games
Zach – After a poor first half I had him concentrate on running the baseline and this proved more successful for him. In fact on the first play after I told him to do this he got a wide open shot (which he missed) and Jack B was like “Good coaching, Coach”. I told him after the game to expect me to use him more in this way in the future.
Jack A – Fouled out and really didn’t play that well. Got very upset about fouling out.
Josh – Played well in the 4th but had looked lack luster until then.
Ben – Probably our MVP having scored 6 points in the second to keep us in the game.
Henry – A non factor on offense and defense
Gavin – Sat a lot, but played fairly well in the 4th, despite letting his temper get the best of him. In fact he cost us a realistic shot at a 3 by slamming the ball down after they made a shot with 8 seconds left. I was NOT pleased.
Danny – Didn’t turn the ball over a ridiculous amount so that’s improvement right there, and added 4 points to boot.
Adam – Played some terrific defense in the 1st and grabbed some crucial 4th quarter rebounds, quite impressive considering his size.
Jack B – Not one of his best games, not really having done anything on offense or defense for us.
We have two games this weekend, tomorrow against WG, and Sunday against MP. I hope to get the mid season review up before the game tomorrow, but we’ll see.
Showing posts with label adam p. Show all posts
Showing posts with label adam p. Show all posts
Friday, January 18, 2008
Friday, November 2, 2007
HP House League Game
Well yesterday was a night full of basketball. It was the night of the first games for house league basketball in HP so I went out to cheer for my players. Unfortunately, due to GL’s practice I could only see about 1 and a half games. Being a house league they basically do mass substitutions every 5 minutes (with two 15 minute halves) which of course limited not only the time I got to see the players but also the time I got to see the players play against each other.
In the first game I saw Adam and Zach on one time, and Jack A on the other. Zach took over the game on offense. Kevin, who if you read my baseball blog you’ll remember is Park District employee, was officiating the game and told me how he thinks Zach is the best player in HP in the age group. This might be true, but he’s not so far above, at least from what I’ve seen. Anyhow, Zach’s play was definitely impressive. Adam and Jack presented a more mixed picture. Adam was acting as the point guard for his team and had the tendency to dribble the ball straight down the free throw line, rather than through the lane. He would then frequently get trapped there with the ball. If he’s getting trapped there in house, I fear what’ll happen to him in travel. His man to man defense continues to be suspect. On the good side, he hustled. Anytime the other team got a fast break, he hustled to get back and helped force some misses in that manner. He also found himself near the basket a lot on shots (see suspect man to man defense) but pulled down 4 rebounds, one of the higher totals for any individual player, despite being one of the shortest players out there. Jack did a great job of penetrating when there was a slower pace, and creating fast breaks. He didn’t always convert but he got good shots. He was particularly effective at doing the jump stop on the fast break to make pursuers over shoot him. The mixed bag part comes from the fact that it seemed like every time he touched the ball he ended up shooting. Were they smart shots? Yeah they were all good shots. But he’s going to have a harder time driving through the lane in travel than in house and I worry that we’re still going to see the same amount of shots from him as he would drive with his head down, hardly a good way to be ready to dish the ball off to a teammate.
Unfortunately because I had to get to the GL practice, I only was able to see about half of the next game which featured Ben and Jon on one team and Jacob on the other. Also fun was that Jeremy F’s and Matt A’s (from baseball) little brothers were on one team while Matt S’s brother was on the other, so I knew a lot of the kids out there. Ben and Jon were both used as point guards for their teams, a role that they will not be playing on our team, so that limited the value I was able to see in that capacity. Their defense and hustle were both excellent. However, Jon got winded very quickly, just as he had in practice. I think this means I will be, for the time being, using him in short bursts, of say 2 minutes with him frequently rotating back in. Ben played well overall except at one point when there was a small kid on the ground on the other team and Ben was clearly tempted to reach in and just take the ball from him, but didn’t. So the instinct was there but not the killer attitude to follow through. Hopefully I can nudge him towards following through on that. Then there is Jacob. Jacob is a very bright kid and enjoys talking with me. So I really like the kid. He does a lot of things right, such as space the floor. In fact, I was pleased in general with how well my players moved around the floor and kept it spaced. However, Jacob lacks many of the athletic skills to full take advantage of his technical knowledge and is not a good dribbler to boot. Not sure how much I can do about the athleticism but I can certainly work on his dribbling.
I was glad I got to see these games and was sad I didn’t get a chance to see my other 5 players play.
In the first game I saw Adam and Zach on one time, and Jack A on the other. Zach took over the game on offense. Kevin, who if you read my baseball blog you’ll remember is Park District employee, was officiating the game and told me how he thinks Zach is the best player in HP in the age group. This might be true, but he’s not so far above, at least from what I’ve seen. Anyhow, Zach’s play was definitely impressive. Adam and Jack presented a more mixed picture. Adam was acting as the point guard for his team and had the tendency to dribble the ball straight down the free throw line, rather than through the lane. He would then frequently get trapped there with the ball. If he’s getting trapped there in house, I fear what’ll happen to him in travel. His man to man defense continues to be suspect. On the good side, he hustled. Anytime the other team got a fast break, he hustled to get back and helped force some misses in that manner. He also found himself near the basket a lot on shots (see suspect man to man defense) but pulled down 4 rebounds, one of the higher totals for any individual player, despite being one of the shortest players out there. Jack did a great job of penetrating when there was a slower pace, and creating fast breaks. He didn’t always convert but he got good shots. He was particularly effective at doing the jump stop on the fast break to make pursuers over shoot him. The mixed bag part comes from the fact that it seemed like every time he touched the ball he ended up shooting. Were they smart shots? Yeah they were all good shots. But he’s going to have a harder time driving through the lane in travel than in house and I worry that we’re still going to see the same amount of shots from him as he would drive with his head down, hardly a good way to be ready to dish the ball off to a teammate.
Unfortunately because I had to get to the GL practice, I only was able to see about half of the next game which featured Ben and Jon on one team and Jacob on the other. Also fun was that Jeremy F’s and Matt A’s (from baseball) little brothers were on one team while Matt S’s brother was on the other, so I knew a lot of the kids out there. Ben and Jon were both used as point guards for their teams, a role that they will not be playing on our team, so that limited the value I was able to see in that capacity. Their defense and hustle were both excellent. However, Jon got winded very quickly, just as he had in practice. I think this means I will be, for the time being, using him in short bursts, of say 2 minutes with him frequently rotating back in. Ben played well overall except at one point when there was a small kid on the ground on the other team and Ben was clearly tempted to reach in and just take the ball from him, but didn’t. So the instinct was there but not the killer attitude to follow through. Hopefully I can nudge him towards following through on that. Then there is Jacob. Jacob is a very bright kid and enjoys talking with me. So I really like the kid. He does a lot of things right, such as space the floor. In fact, I was pleased in general with how well my players moved around the floor and kept it spaced. However, Jacob lacks many of the athletic skills to full take advantage of his technical knowledge and is not a good dribbler to boot. Not sure how much I can do about the athleticism but I can certainly work on his dribbling.
I was glad I got to see these games and was sad I didn’t get a chance to see my other 5 players play.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
HP Practice
We did not get off to an auspicious start with our HP practice today. At 9:00 we had half a team. Now granted at 9:02 4 players came in, but not the promptness I would have liked. I did start on time though so all those players were marked as late. Gavin came in just as I was finishing my practice introduction. Jack A? A complete no show.
We started off with doing our defensive continuous motion. They sort of dogged it in the middle but finished strong. They went just a tad over 6 minutes before I switched them into the relay race. Following this we practice our shell drill. I’m running a fairly conventional man to man scheme with HP whereas with GL, I am running more of a scheme. We’ll see how each works. Basically the HP team showed that they don’t have the basketball IQ that GL has and I don’t think it’s just because they are a year younger.
Next we did Animal Rebounding for the first time with the group. They were mostly getting a sense of the drill. What was interesting was that in both groups the first person to get 4 points, Jacob with the post players and Jack B with the guards, finished in 4th place. Ben and Danny won. Considering Danny was on the board of going between the guards and forwards I’m glad he won.
Following Animal Rebounding we did Triangle Passing where the 3 offensive players form a triangle and the defenders try and stop them from completing passes. Henry was the star of this drill, stealing the ball 3 out of the 4 times he was on defense. We then went back into the shell drill.
Finally we concluded with 3 on 2, 2 on 3. There was not as much figuring out as there was with the 5th graders but it was still a good drill. For instance, for the first time I saw why Josh made the team (he’s a pretty good shot). It was interesting seeing who played tough defense and who didn’t. In the didn’t category was Adam. I told him as much after practice. I had tentatively considered him a starter, but if he doesn’t play defense that won’t happen. Also dropping in my eyes was Jacob. He played hard the whole time, but his skills were weaker than many. In the good category, besides Henry, were the twins. Both played hard on defense and on offense.
Unfortunately I somehow forgot practice ended at 10:30 rather than 11 and so I had to end abruptly. Overall I’m pleased with how practices have been going. We simply don’t have enough of them. I can already tell that this once a week business is going to really hurt us between now and January when I get the team twice a week. So far the team seems to be enjoying themselves, and I think there’s learning going on, so those parts are good. Hopefully we’ll be able to compete when the season starts. We have two more practices before our first game to get there.
We started off with doing our defensive continuous motion. They sort of dogged it in the middle but finished strong. They went just a tad over 6 minutes before I switched them into the relay race. Following this we practice our shell drill. I’m running a fairly conventional man to man scheme with HP whereas with GL, I am running more of a scheme. We’ll see how each works. Basically the HP team showed that they don’t have the basketball IQ that GL has and I don’t think it’s just because they are a year younger.
Next we did Animal Rebounding for the first time with the group. They were mostly getting a sense of the drill. What was interesting was that in both groups the first person to get 4 points, Jacob with the post players and Jack B with the guards, finished in 4th place. Ben and Danny won. Considering Danny was on the board of going between the guards and forwards I’m glad he won.
Following Animal Rebounding we did Triangle Passing where the 3 offensive players form a triangle and the defenders try and stop them from completing passes. Henry was the star of this drill, stealing the ball 3 out of the 4 times he was on defense. We then went back into the shell drill.
Finally we concluded with 3 on 2, 2 on 3. There was not as much figuring out as there was with the 5th graders but it was still a good drill. For instance, for the first time I saw why Josh made the team (he’s a pretty good shot). It was interesting seeing who played tough defense and who didn’t. In the didn’t category was Adam. I told him as much after practice. I had tentatively considered him a starter, but if he doesn’t play defense that won’t happen. Also dropping in my eyes was Jacob. He played hard the whole time, but his skills were weaker than many. In the good category, besides Henry, were the twins. Both played hard on defense and on offense.
Unfortunately I somehow forgot practice ended at 10:30 rather than 11 and so I had to end abruptly. Overall I’m pleased with how practices have been going. We simply don’t have enough of them. I can already tell that this once a week business is going to really hurt us between now and January when I get the team twice a week. So far the team seems to be enjoying themselves, and I think there’s learning going on, so those parts are good. Hopefully we’ll be able to compete when the season starts. We have two more practices before our first game to get there.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
HP Clinic 1
My post about my GL tryouts will be going up tomorrow, but today is a special bonus post since it was the first of 3 clinics for HP basketball. Today was my first chance to start to put together what my team was going to be like. These clinics are option so of the 11 players on my team I think 8 of my 11 players were there. The clinics were divided into 4th/5th and 6th grade clinics. Today’s (and next Sunday’s, I believe) was focused on defense. With the younger age group this meant a lot of footwork drills, while the older group did a bunch of work with man to man defense, something I’m sorry my kids didn’t get.
I think my team has definite potential from what I saw, though they don’t know yet that they’re my team as it’s a secret until Tuesday (dumb if you ask me). Things sort of started off perfectly as one of the first kids to arrive was Adam, a short quick player who will be a guard. So he was shooting and being 9 was doing what many 9 year olds do in using their upper body, rather than lower body in shooting. After he’d missed a couple of shots outside his range I suggested he try using his legs to get more power. Fortunately he made his next couple of shots.
The twins Ben and Jon (they’re not identical so I THINK I can tell them apart) both look like they’ll be good players and are likely to be my post stalwarts. At the end of the clinic their father was waiting in the gym as the players were attempting to make 70 full court layups, with four balls, in 4 minutes. Their father made a “suggestion” to one of them that was not well received by the son, not to mention was not a suggestion I’d have made.
Then there is Gavin. Gavin is going to be a show boat. We were doing a free throw drill and he bragged to me how he made 5 shots (a legitimately good amount in that drill) and then repeated it 2 more times as I talked to some other player. I finally said “that’s pretty good but I did hear you the first time”. Not really pleased at my lack of awe he proceeded to try and tell another coach, at which point I pointed out that his individual accomplishment didn’t mean as much considering it was a team oriented drill. Fortunately, Gavin’s mother thinks I walk on water so at least I’ll have parent support to start with.
Besides this my players are a kind of mush in my head though again I was overall pleased with them. The exception to this is Josh. Josh is a shorter pudgy kid who did not impress me with anything today and very much looked like B team material. From what I saw today he wouldn’t have made my GL team last year so for him to be on the A team is remarkable and I will be paying pretty close attention to him next week in the hope that he just had an off day.
I did talk to Brian about the switch asking him “Should I be worried about the change”. His answer was no, but really the answer is yes. He went “we want you to be successful” and then explained how there is a lot of potential BS with the 6B team and they didn’t want me, as new to the program, to be caught up in that. He also commented how well the players responded to me, especially during a drill that I was able to lead.
I still think that the 6th graders would have been fun to coach. And I know I could have handled them, as one player said to a friend after I had just asked him not to sit down “He scares me but he seems awesome” which I like as an initial impression. I feel more excited about the team now that I’ve seen some of the talent, as I hadn’t paid too much attention to the talent during tryouts (why would I bother?). Interestingly enough, the one kid who I had pegged as a good player is on the B team. Hopefully that’s a good sign.
I think my team has definite potential from what I saw, though they don’t know yet that they’re my team as it’s a secret until Tuesday (dumb if you ask me). Things sort of started off perfectly as one of the first kids to arrive was Adam, a short quick player who will be a guard. So he was shooting and being 9 was doing what many 9 year olds do in using their upper body, rather than lower body in shooting. After he’d missed a couple of shots outside his range I suggested he try using his legs to get more power. Fortunately he made his next couple of shots.
The twins Ben and Jon (they’re not identical so I THINK I can tell them apart) both look like they’ll be good players and are likely to be my post stalwarts. At the end of the clinic their father was waiting in the gym as the players were attempting to make 70 full court layups, with four balls, in 4 minutes. Their father made a “suggestion” to one of them that was not well received by the son, not to mention was not a suggestion I’d have made.
Then there is Gavin. Gavin is going to be a show boat. We were doing a free throw drill and he bragged to me how he made 5 shots (a legitimately good amount in that drill) and then repeated it 2 more times as I talked to some other player. I finally said “that’s pretty good but I did hear you the first time”. Not really pleased at my lack of awe he proceeded to try and tell another coach, at which point I pointed out that his individual accomplishment didn’t mean as much considering it was a team oriented drill. Fortunately, Gavin’s mother thinks I walk on water so at least I’ll have parent support to start with.
Besides this my players are a kind of mush in my head though again I was overall pleased with them. The exception to this is Josh. Josh is a shorter pudgy kid who did not impress me with anything today and very much looked like B team material. From what I saw today he wouldn’t have made my GL team last year so for him to be on the A team is remarkable and I will be paying pretty close attention to him next week in the hope that he just had an off day.
I did talk to Brian about the switch asking him “Should I be worried about the change”. His answer was no, but really the answer is yes. He went “we want you to be successful” and then explained how there is a lot of potential BS with the 6B team and they didn’t want me, as new to the program, to be caught up in that. He also commented how well the players responded to me, especially during a drill that I was able to lead.
I still think that the 6th graders would have been fun to coach. And I know I could have handled them, as one player said to a friend after I had just asked him not to sit down “He scares me but he seems awesome” which I like as an initial impression. I feel more excited about the team now that I’ve seen some of the talent, as I hadn’t paid too much attention to the talent during tryouts (why would I bother?). Interestingly enough, the one kid who I had pegged as a good player is on the B team. Hopefully that’s a good sign.
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