Spartans vs. MP2

Well yesterday was going to be where the rubber met the road. We were going to face MP2. Their park district facility was HUGE and was very nice. We were playing on one of their gyms. When I got there some kids soccer team was finishing their practice. They were supposed to be done by 11:30, but didn’t end up finishing until 11:50, which was fine. The first thing we did once we got the court was to run through our inbounds place, with no defense, once with everybody (so in two groups). They ran the play well so that was good.

As we did our lay-up lines I realized just what awful form we have while shooting lay-ups. It’s no surprise we can’t make them in a game when we can’t really shoot them. And thinking back on it, I realized that we never did spend time on them in practice. I think it’s going to be layup boot camp this week at practice. Our poor layups continued in the game with Dante missing three easy layups and Jack M missing many an easy layup. In fact Jack M took 9 shots during the game and made ZERO of them.

MP2 is a big team compared to us. In fact their center is HUGE for a 4th grader. With Dante not starting I worry about his ability to just absolutely dominate us. Fortunately, he turns out to be a bit of an oaf and is pretty much a non-factor while in the game.

The game begins. I decided to give Lucas the start so we had a starting lineup of Lucas at 5, Scott at the 4, Jack P at 3, David at 2, Jack M at 1. As is usual we get off to a slow start. We also have trouble matching up. This would be a problem that would plague us throughout the game. I think that one of the reasons for this is that the numbers on the front of their jerseys were small and on the shoulder. This made it harder when I told some players to switch, which I did more than in other games, and when they subbed as such. It wasn’t a huge problem, but it was certainly an issue.

Anyhow, right off the bat it becomes clear from their first possession that they have a PG, #3, who is UNBELIEVABLY fast. He is also short. In fact he might have been shorter than all of the players on our team, and let’s not forget we’re a short team. After that first possession, which resulted in a lay-up, I quickly assign David to guard him. Our first possession down, we, without running our zone breaker, quickly destroy their 2-3. Unfortunately, we take 3 good, open, shots, and fail to convert any of them before they get a rebound.

At first, it looks like we’re going to be in real trouble. They have guys who can make outside shots. They have this killer point guard. They run a good play, with a couple of variations. However, as the first quarter goes on we slowly pull ahead. And there is one reason for it: David. When I told my dad after our last game that he was our best player, my Dad was somewhat dumb founded. And I don’t blame him. In the NF2 game David didn’t really do much of anything. This game, however, he just took over. Besides shutting down #3, he also created numerous fast break opportunities. He ended the game with 17 points, 7 rebounds, and 5 steals in 22 minutes of play.

When the second quarter starts David is exhausted and so I take him out for a breather. I assign Jack P to guard #3 and he does a nice job. Because of the speed of their team, I decide we will not try and press them at all. They do come out with a press. We struggle at first with it, almost to the point where I was going to call a time-out, but then things start to click for us and we are able to break it. Also, I’m proud that we forced them to switch to man to man during this quarter as we’d been getting so many good shots against their zone.

When the half comes we are comfortably ahead, by about 7, but the intensity of a game would suggest a much closer score (remembering that 7 is a lot of points for 4th graders). At half I diagram the play that they have been running. The play is quite simply a series of picks. Something must have clicked because in the 3rd quarter we held them to only 2 points. It was our best defensive effort of the season. We go up by about 14. Their best shooter, #12, was clearly frustrated by our defense. So frustrated he started crying. Why the coaches kept a player in the game who was crying is beyond me. Sub out the kid, let him compose himself and then send him back out on the court. His frustration almost caused an injury when he stupidly crashed into Brian chasing a ball at the end of the 3rd quarter.

When the 4th quarter comes we are on the verge of being able to dominate the game. I send out a slightly weaker unit to start the 4th quarter. However, their press, which was pretty good in the second, is now very good. It also doesn’t help that we can’t make any of our lay-ups. The momentum seems to be swinging back in their favor. However, we are able to reassert ourselves and though it gets to with-in 9 that is as close as it gets. We end the game with a solid victory. I wish I could tell you the final score, but I forgot that since it was an away game our book wasn’t being used and I needed to write down the final score. We won by about 11.

Overall, it was a good performance. The final score, whatever it may be, does not indicate how close a game it felt. Gordie’s step dad said as much as we left the gym, so I clearly was not the only person who felt that way. However, the fact that we won by as we did, against what is clearly one of the better teams in the conference, does give me concern that our cockiness will only become more of a problem. I also feel a little bad for MP2. They just lost two games in a row, both by good margins, and so they are going to be sitting at 1-2 despite being one of the best teams in the conference.

Taking a look at our players:

Brian – He played very well. Well enough to most likely earn a start in our next game. He found good shots, made a good percentage of them. He also played pretty good defense.

Dante – Dante had an off game. He was a non-presence. He played 19.5 minutes and only had 2 rebounds. Now granted he was playing against some big guys, but against NF2 he was rebounding against a kid bigger than him and he still came up with the boards.

David – As discussed above he was our game MVP. It’s been nice how we’ve had a different player be our MVP for each game, without it even being forced. I’d really like each of the players to be named game MVP at least once during the course of the season, though clearly, as in baseball, some of them are going to be more stretches than others. David will likely sit a lot against NF, our next opponent, as a way of making sure other kids get their chances.

Gordie – Gordie only saw 6 minutes of playing time. I do feel bad as I knew he hadn’t played a whole bunch but I thought he’d played more than that. I think I’m going to start him as well in our next game as a sort of “make-up”.

Jack M – Jack M kept finding good shots, as discussed, he just couldn’t make them. In fact at the end of the game, he kept getting fouled and actually went to the free throw line 10 times. He shot 4 of 10 from the line, which given his size and age, is a pretty good performance. These refs didn’t call lane violations so Jack got lucky there as he had quite a few of them.

Jack P – This was also not Jack’s best game. I believe I’ve mentioned before how I use something called Win Score to measure a player’s efficiency. The goal is to get above .100/minute. Jack, in the two games we’ve kept stats, has had a negative score. I feel like this doesn’t capture the good stuff he does on the court, but does temper some of my enthusiasm for him. He did limit his playing time in this game by getting into repeated foul trouble.

Lucas – Lucas played well. He was actually open quite a bit. However, many times when he was open he wasn’t ready for the ball, even if he was on the strong side. We’re going to work on remembering that feeding the ball into the post is one of our offensive rules. If Lucas continues to play well, and Dante does not, it will lead to an unexpected change of playing times.

Noah – Noah made his first basket of the season, meaning all of our players have now scored, which is nice. He looked particularly lost in breaking the press, which considering we haven’t really practiced breaking the press isn’t his fault.

Scott – Had a solid performance again. It’s great that he can guard guys so much bigger than he. I thought he’d played a lot and was surprised to see he had “only” played about 18 minutes (I’d have thought it was in the 20s).

Tom – In the 3rd and 4th quarter he was WIDE open repeatedly and Jack M and Brian just didn’t get the ball to him. It was frustrating for me, and no doubt frustrating for Tom.

So this game left little doubt that we’re a good team. I am going to be emailing Emily shortly letting her know we wish to play in the A bracket of the HP tourney. It is exciting and nerve wracking to think that the biggest challenge we have right now is over confidence.