Last year’s team compiled a 20-5 record, winning the Conference Tourney and finishing second for the season, despite losing the team’s best player (and one of the league’s best players at that age), David, part way through the season. The reason for the team’s continued success after losing David was David’s two brothers, Scott and Brian. I heard a very unsubstantiated rumor over the summer that David was going to play on the team of our dread arch-rivals, JCC.
At first I was concerned that I would lose Scott and Brian, as well as David, to the team. I had invested a lot of time and effort into both of the, especially Brian, and it hurt me to think that some other coach would reap the benefit of what I’d done and it especially hurt to think that it was going to be those *&!$# at JCC. Now I’m concerned that they’ll be back. Because if they come back we’re in a very awkward place. The Commissioner of the league talked about moving us up to the A Conference from the B Conference last season. With David, there is no question that is where we belong. After all, we went into the HP tourney and won their fourth grade A level tourney. Without David we were the second best B team, as MP1 was really better than us. We only beat them in the Conference tourney since their best player was home sick. If we moved up to the A Conference and got crushed week after week that doesn’t seem good. .500, what we’d be with David, I can handle. Team that other teams beat up upon? Not so excited about that possibility.
On the other hand, if all three triplets go, it’s clear we’re a B level team. We’re an upper mid level team in that case, again something I’d be just fine with. I’ve already thought of some ideas about how we’d change things up in this case, even. So much of my anxiety is over whether any of the triplets will show up.
Now as these paragraphs make clear, I am not going to pretend that the tryouts are an even playing field. Several players from last year have a lower bar to cross. The triplets, for instance, are unlikely to go from having been 3 of our best players to not being one of the best 10 of 15 or so (remembering that I got 16 for last year’s tryouts). After the triplets, Lucas has the lowest bar to cross. While he’s not the most intellectual player on the team, he’s a gifted natural athlete (on the day we won the Conference tourney, having played two games, he then went to a hockey game and help them win their championship as well) and a quite kid who doesn’t, I think, have a mean bone in his body. In our first play-off game, we struggled and a large reason for that struggle is that we were missing Jack M. The problem with Jack M is that he’s short, and if we’re moving up to the A Conference especially this could be a problem. But again I imagine he’ll make the team.
Then there is the middle group of Dante & Jack P. Jack P is a great athlete, however his poor shooting was a fairly big problem by the end of the season. If he’s improved there he could actually be one of the team’s best players. If not, well it could be interesting. Dante was our big man last year. He’s not much of a physical presence, but he is coordinated, if slow, which is nice to have in a bag man.
Then there is the bottom group of Tom, Gordie, and Noah. Tom was the heart of the team last year. He’s every coaches dream in that not only does he work exceedingly hard, but he’s a leader who’ll encourage others to work hard. That said he had dropped over the course of the season from being a mid-level talent to one of our three bottom players. However, I’ll be looking for a reason to take him. Gordie and Noah are more of a mixed bag. Noah, without a doubt, showed the most growth relative to where he started. However, he still wasn’t all that great by the end of the season. And then there is his behavior. On the one hand, the kid was grateful for every moment he played in a game since he knew he wasn’t the best. On the other hand, he was often off task on practice, enough that it was aggravating. He’s a good kid, but distractible, which makes it frustrating to coach him at times. Finally, there is Gordie. Gordie who had been a star in earlier years. Except that Gordie was the shortest player on the team (“beating” Jack M by a smidge). And bigger players took advantage of that. He led the team in turnovers despite having played the fewest minutes per game. And sitting on the bench killed him. Mind you he averaged 13.3 minutes a game, which is a lot considering we have 28 minute games. But when the fourth quarter came around and I would shift players in and out and he was rarely one of those players? It killed him.
What will kill me is cutting a kid from last year, as I really do genuinely feel affection for each and every kid on the team. While that would be hard enough, I have decided that any kid who is at the tryouts on the last night will find out that night whether or not they make the team. So cutting a kid who I like from last year will be hard, but I told the team last year when the subject would come up, and I’m going to say it in my opening speech, that my goal is to put together the best team for this year. And I mean it. I know that it is quite likely that some kid will be there who is better than at least one of my players from last year. I’m also going to have a check on me to make sure I’m not viewing last year’s players with tunnel vision. The other boys travel coach, Jon, will be assisting me with our tryouts, while I assist him with his. This second pair of eyes should help.
I have planned out Days 1 and 2 of tryouts. Here’s what we’ll be doing.
Day 1
Introduction
Full court dribbling: right and left hands with jump stops every quarter court (2x?) With fingers?
Power lay-ups?
1 vs 1 dribbling and defensive slides
Full-court lay-ups (One minute each at each side basket) or Rebound Lay-ups (Throw up ball, outlet to coach, coach passes ahead, player collects ball and performs lay-up)
TRIANGLE PASSING Drill
Break up team into 3 Lines. Line 1 is at top of the key, Line 2 is on baseline 3 pt. line left, Line 3 is baseline 3pt. line right.
2 players start in the lane on D. First player in each line moves forward to the nail hole (center of ft lane) and each of the blocks. Thus your triangle. The three offensive players try to complete 10 passes without causing the offense to leave their spot by more than about 6 inches. The 2 defenders can do anything they want to steal the ball but must follow this one rule, someone must always guard the ball. Offense can not throw passes above eye level, too easy. So you must use your jab step to keep the defender back, pivot to pass, step through to pass, read the D. Fouls are allowed.
Hot spots
Animal Rebounding/Knockout?
3 on 3 (At least 10 minutes)
Running?
Thank yous
Day 2
Introduction Have players recap yesterday’s speech as a reminder/intro for players not there yesterday
Dribbling Crossovers, through the legs, behind the backs, 1 vs 1 with choice of move
Other of Full-court lay-ups (One minute each at each side basket) or Rebound Lay-ups (Throw up ball, outlet to coach, coach passes ahead, player collects ball and performs lay-up)
Three Man Weave/2 on 1 back
Guts
Free Throw Shooting
Water Break
3 on 3?
Animal Rebounding/Knockout?
5 on 5 no dribble
The things with question marks mean that they might get scratched depending on how long these are taking and what I feel like. I really want to get Animal Rebounding, a drill which shows aggressiveness and post play, in there at some point so if I don’t get it in Days 1 and 2 it’ll be there on Day 3 for sure (I’ll explain how it works when I actually use it). Guts is a drill where players are simply asked to run sprints until they can’t anymore, and then a new player does it, giving them a short break, and then they do it again. Not jogging mind you, but sprints. If they do it right, it won’t take very long but will be a good drill to help determine desire and commitment.
So I’m ready to go. I have my introduction speech all set to go (which I’ll post with the Day 1 recap). I have the plan laid out. And now it’s just waiting until 7:15 tomorrow to get going. I will be posting an update on how things go either tomorrow night after practice, or more likely Tuesday before Day 2 of tryouts.
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