Tourney Wrap-up

After the game and into Monday’s practice the big question was when did I know that they would be a good team and did I really think that we’d win the tournament the whole time. I said that except for the first few minutes of the JCC game, when it looked like we were just too tired to play any more, I really believed that we had an excellent shot at winning the tournament. I also told how I didn’t know how good of a team we’d be until after our first game, when I knew we had a very good team.

For Monday’s practice I called only a half practice. I anted us to have a little time to debrief, I wanted to do our continuous motion, and I wanted a chance to talk to each of the players individually, about goals/thoughts/etc for the end of the season. I was a fun practice where everyone was still in a good mood after the heroics of the weekend.

Here’s a look at some notes that didn’t make it into the tourney reports as well as a few things that came out of my talks on Monday with the players.

Brian – The only big downside to the whole tourney was the conflict between Brian and David. The two went at each other several times and it became a problem. When I talked to each of them on Monday I really talked about how I just would not tolerate players not getting along with each other on the court and so they needed to stop arguing with each other. Brian asked me during our chat if “I can and should shoot more”. It was a great question. Brian didn’t put big numbers during the tourney. Mainly this was because he didn’t get the ball a whole lot. In our first game against the JCC he popped a 3 pointer, just because he could. When I pulled him, he got very mad and went into his defeatist mode. Despite the disrespect he’d shown, I decided the best way to handle the situation was to just ignore him and I let him start the second half. The two of us didn’t have a conflict again the rest of the weekend. He also played good defense during the tourney, not succumbing to his desire to leave his man alone to make the steal, and set a couple of picks, basically the only player on the team to do so, for which I gave him complements. So in response to his question I said that I would have liked to have seen him get the ball more during the tourney. He’s a good shooter so I don’t mind him shooting smart shots. He really seemed to appreciate that response, which was good.

Dante – Dante, not having played any soccer this weekend, did do better than normal during the tourney. He’s still a little too erratic for my tastes, as I can’t figure out what will cause him to have a good game or not. He’s not quite the inside presence that his size would suggest. However, he did seem to find his “spot” to shoot from so that part was good. We’ll see if he can find shots from there again.

David – The big watchword this weekend was “frustration”. Besides the conflict with Brian, just having him be calm and collected on the court is important. Of course the two times we needed him to be cool, with the last second shots, he was as collected as Jordan. EVERYONE seemed to know him because he’s just that gifted of an athlete. I was typing this before our HP game today and a parent from the HP B team, which we hadn’t played with David, who remarked how good #20 is. As long as David doesn’t try to do too much we’ll be in good shape. I let David know that I plan on having him play the post more during the second half of the season. By playing him in the post it’ll open more time up at the 1, 2, and 3 positions, which is good for the kids who can only play those spots.

Gordie – Gordie is a good kid and has a speech impediment that, combined with his small stature, makes him very cute. He loves the game of basketball, that much is clear. That said he just drove me nuts. When he wasn’t asking to go in, he was giving his “look at me I’m an angel” face when it was clear I was doing a sub. Part of the reason that this was likely driving me nuts is that I knew he wanted to play and was only giving him close to, and actually a bit under, the 10 minutes of playing time I wanted to get my players as a minimum. This guilt was even more pronounced with Noah. Now, to his credit, he is very coachable and does most of the things I ask him to do. During our talk it was clear that he wanted to play point guard. I mentioned how he gets the chance to play point in his house league games, but that turns out not to be true. So basically he’s not good enough to play point on a house league team, how in the world does he think he’s good enough to play point on a travel team? He was, I believe, the only player not to get a start during the tourney. I told him he’d get a few starts and some opportunities to play point. He doesn’t have the skill set to be a good point right now, so it’ll most likely be in games against the NFs that I give him his shot at point. In a bit of statistical humor, he was our leading rebounder in the WM game, since he got the outside rebounds, where all the inside rebounds were vacuumed up by their center.

Jack M – Jack stepped it up to a new level during the tourney. His defense was fantastic. He did a great job of moving the ball around and of penetrating. Not to mention his clutch free throws. When its needed it seems like he can take up his game a notch, whether it was because the triplets weren’t there for the first game of the season (his best game before this tourney) or in this tourney against tougher competition. I was most proud of how he made progress on being confident in the team. I think he finally believes it’s a good team and that should help him going forward in being a positive contributor.

Jack P – This kid needs to take 500 shots a day. He’s our most gifted athlete on the court next to David. He can dribble through a traffic jam if needed and he guarded Luke nearly as well as David had. But his shooting percentage kills me. He’s got a pretty looking shot, which means there has to be something mechanically wrong with his shot, and shot mechanics happens to be a part where I need to be a stronger coach with, so it’s a bad fit. He’s a great complement to David, and racked up the most minutes, deservedly, in the championship game. I just wished he could make more of his shots.

Lucas – He had a great game against WM, but other than that I don’t really recall much of what he did, which means he mostly did what he was supposed to. I think he really struggled guarding some of the better inside men, which isn’t surprising that he’s still not entirely comfortable in that role.

Noah – Noah just looks lost a lot of the time out there. His sense of where he needs to be on the court, both on offense and on defense just isn’t up to snuff compared with the rest of the team. He’s another good kid, and unlike Gordie he doesn’t drive me NUTS with whether or not he’s going to get to play, but he had the lowest number of minutes in the tourney of anyone on our team. Fortunately, I think he’s the kind of kid who doesn’t mind sitting on the bench as much. He loves sitting next to me (I sit in the middle of the kids rather than at the end) and I think he enjoys hearing me talk about the game.

Scott – He has many of the best qualities of his two brothers. When we were talking I told him how if he saw his brothers getting frustrated he might be able to, where I cannot, to get him to calm. I told him if he ever felt uncomfortable saying something, that he shouldn’t, but that he might be able to say chill, where it would be meaningless coming from me.

Tom – The mystery that is Tom continues. I don’t think Tom is having as good of a time as the other kids, which is a shame. I don’t know if the problem is with me, or himself, or what. I’m going to try and give him some time at point and see if he does better there, which I think is a definite possibility. I really like Tom and I wish I could know what I could do to make him succeed and seem like he’s having more fun.

Me – Tom’s mom cracked me up. She and I were talking after the championship game. And she said to me, “Did you know you were entering them in the A tourney?” I mean what did she think it came as complete surprise to me? Perhaps this was the adult version of “Did you know they we were this good?” It was very gratifying to receive so many complements on what a well coached team they were. Of course when you’re winning there are always complements to be had. The complement I appreciated most was a comment from Lucas’s father. He sent me a congratulatory e-mail and referenced how much he liked one particular thing. David had made an awful pass in the 4th quarter of the championship game. He’d made another not so good pass a little earlier. He was really upset with himself and I told him to smile. Normally moments like that are done away from the parents, so they don’t get to hear it, but it was nice that someone heard it and though to say something about it. I think I did a good job of keeping the team on an even keel. While I talk about in baseball how Steve is the better rah-rah guy, I think I’ve done a pretty good job of getting them going when they needed it.

Refs – The officiating overall at this tournament was very good. Except for the one guy I talked about during the WM game, there weren’t any disputes or problems. There was a woman ref who reffed both of our JCC games and our game against Karzen. She was excellent. She always had a smile on her face and would naturally give an explanation if an explanation was needed to the players. She was fabulous and by far the best ref I’d seen at this level of play.

After the tournament I decided to go out and celebrate by having dinner at my favorite steak place. My parents came along as well and we had wonderful dinner. However, I was not the only winning coach in the restaurant that day. Lovie Smith was there as well and my family had finished dinner and desert just as the Colts/Pats game was ending so I got to watch the end of that game with Lovie standing about six feet away. It was a really neat experience.