Tourney Report: Karzen Game

For Lunch we went to a well known hot dog/hamburger place in HP. Scott had suggested we go to Hooters (which considering there isn’t a Hooters anywhere near by was a particularly amusing suggestion), while Brian was pushing hard core for Wendy’s. However, my suggestion won out when I said that if we went there they’d be able to see what I looked like when I was 10 (I played on a basketball team that they sponsored). Not to mention I knew that they had TVs that we could watch the Bears game on, before heading back to the rec center for what I hoped would be two more games.

We caravaned over there. Gordie’s, Noah’s, and Jack P’s mothers insisted on paying for my lunch, which was very nice of them. Lunch was a very nice affair. The kids all sat together and talked and then watched the Bears game together. I sat with the parents, doing stuff on my laptop, while they all talked and gossiped. Dante’s father and I talked a little bit and he asked me the very legitimate question of why I didn’t go for the three point shot late in the HP game when it would have tied the game. I answered that I felt that we had a better chance of making the basket and stealing the ball than making the shot. In reality? I blew it. Lunch was a real nice way to kill a couple of hours. Towards the end the kids got a little antsy, but it wasn’t too bad, and it was a great team experience.

During lunch a conversation which began towards the end of the WM game continued. Basically the question was would I be coaching the fifth grade team. I gave a non-committal answer along the lines of “I would love to move up with the team, but it’s a long time between then and now so who knows.” Dante’s father had said, even before that “Who do we need to write to about keeping you?” I smiled and he went, “No seriously, who?” It was a very gratifying experience. Part of this conversation, with the players, was also would everyone on the team make it again next year. I obviously had to tread very carefully here. My answer was “I love the team we have this year. Next year at try-outs I’ve got to choose the best 10 or 12 players for the team. I would be thrilled if we had the same team, but I’ll have to put together the best team.”

I was thrilled about something I had heard from the triplet's (and their step-mom). During the interim on Saturday between games Brian and I were talking. He told me that next year they planned on trying out for an And1 team. My heart sank. I asked if he was planning on doing two teams, and he responded, weakly, that he was. I think we'd be a really competitive B league team with-out the triplets but we wouldn't be as good as we are. The idea that we might lose them compounded my misery after the HP loss, and tempered some of my excitement from the JCC win. Well, during the game as we were talking about whether I'd pick the same team next year, David said, "I hope that it would be the same 10 people. We are such a good team." Step-mom also indicated how much all of them loved basketball this year. Losing David would be bad, but I think we'd still be a great team. Losing all the triplets would be catastrophic as they are 3 of our 4 or 5 best players, easily.

Just before half time in the Bears game we headed back to the gym. We caught some of the 4B and 5B championship games. More importantly we waited a long time. Games were still far behind schedule on our court. This meant that JCC was already comfortably ahead by the time our game began. I knew from watching the other team that this team would be scrappy. It was also clear that their coach spent a lot of time on fundamentals. Even in warm-ups they were doing defensive slides and such.

During the first part of the first half the game was a virtual tie, even a little bit in their favor. They played us real well. We seemed a little off balance. They weren’t any bigger than us, but they were really out rebounding us. They wanted the ball more than we did, which was just an amazing thing to happen to our team. In a tough game like this it can be a game of Russian Roulette to see who’ll blink first on calling a time out. While they had an early edge, we had fought back some, again thanks to very good ball movement and use of the post, and with about 6 minutes left in the half, the other coach blinked first and called a time-out. I had decided to call one at 5 minutes to get my last group of subs in and make the rebounding comment.
We have a small lead at half, but again it is the first part of the second half where we make our mark. What had been a close game, with us up by about four at half, suddenly became a game where we were very much in control. Our control only increased as the half went on. Finally with about 5 minutes left we were up by 13. I just couldn’t see them closing the gap, so I went with a weaker line-up with the intent of starting the players on the bench at the start of the JCC game.

At the same time I was backing off, Karzen made a push. The started a very effective press that we just didn’t have the skill on the court to beat. And slowly, bit by bit, they worked their way back. Finally it got to the point where I needed to insert Jack M with about 2 and a half minutes left just to make sure the game didn’t get out of hand. The combo of Jack P and Jack M were able to break through their press. Press break is something I had anticipated we’d really need, but never gotten around to teaching. David is practically a one man press breaking machine. And even if he’s stopped Scott, Brian, Jack M, and to a lesser extent Tom, Lucas and Jack P, all understand the basics of how to beat a press so it seemed like a poor use of time. Fortunately as it got late in the game they were forced to foul us and we did well on our free throws. We ended up winning by a far too close six points. A situation like this is difficult. If it weren’t for the pressure of the JCC game, I’d likely have inserted more of our a unit back into the game. You don’t want momentum to swing so far that your team is helpless to counter act it. However, JCC had finished their game well before the end of our game, and I wanted to give our players as much of a rest as possible. This game never got out of control, but it was might close there for a while.

So we had done it. After an inauspicious beginning we’d reached the tournament final. However, I was not confident. Perhaps the late swing in Karzen had contributed, but knowing that we’d have to play another near perfect game against JCC to beat them just did not inspire confidence. I was left in the trick position of trying to get us ready for another game against the JCC, while also not setting up a situation where we’d feel like failures if we came up short. It was in this mental state that we headed next door to play our now clear foes.