It’s been a while since I’ve written an update on GL except for my short update. Basically Brian had gotten out of control at practice this had a negative effect overall on the team and their concentration. I had not been terribly happy with the team’s performance since winter break except for the MP2 game. We beat LV the following day 34-32, in a game we almost blew. That Tuesday we played our arch-rival JCC, and they basically were in control the whole game earning a 5 point victory. Last weekend we played HP. We took an easy 25-18 victory, brought only that close thanks to a late 3.
The common theme to all of these games is the lack of a killer instinct that defined us so well last season. It seems as though we were merely going through the motions, coasting more on talent than anything else. And frankly I’ve got to think that’s my coaching in some way. In some way I’ve either failed to find the right motivational buttons to push, or even worse, my coaching has made them worse. However, considering that HP has only got more aggressive as the season has gone on, I don’t think it’s that my coaching has made them worse.
So here I’ve been generally unhappy with the team. And it hasn’t meant much because we’ve been winning. Actually in some ways it’s worse because I’ve been unhappy with the team, and the team has been winning, meaning there’s a disconnect between how the team sees itself and how I’m seeing it. I resolved after HP game that something I needed to do was have more fun coaching the team. I was not having fun, and part of that was because of the attitude problems. But if I started having fun that would, I hoped, break the cycle and help mitigate the attitude issues I was having. Also of help with the attitude? Brian did not play against HP after I sent Dad a long email outlining his unacceptable behavior at just one practice. I was quite hopeful going into last Wednesday’s practice that we’d have a good practice before the HP tourney (we had no gym space on Monday). But Wednesday’s practice was canceled due to a snow storm, so we went the week before the HP tourney with-out a practice.
And so this weekend we had the HP tourney. And all of the things I’ve feared finally came to pass. We lost our first tourney game to an inferior team composed mainly of players from MP and MP2. We got down by 10. We attempted a comeback, with 2 three’s by Andrew being a big help, but came up 2 points short. We then got annihilated by LS. You would never know that we’d beaten them twice. Of course the next day they went on to beat AH, so clearly they’re a team which has improved considerably. The LS game was an example of a game where we were just outclassed. Those games don’t bother me. However, because of the tournament structure after we lost to LS we basically were eliminated from advancing. And so it goes back to the first game where we lost to a team that we beat. The good news, or at least I think it’s good news, is that we beat the final team in our pool. This team had beaten both of the other two teams and had the #1 seed out of our pool so it’s not like they were a bad team. I’m glad that we didn’t finish 0-3, but at the same time I can’t help but wonder if that won’t interfere with the wake-up call.
This weekend should be interesting. We play three teams all in the bottom half of the standings. Will we once again go out and play just good enough to win or will we play up to the talent level that we have?
I don’t know. I do know that coaching has, as of late, brought me very little joy. I have to write-up a few HP games, but basically the story is the same one that it’s been all season: they play their hearts out, even if they’re not always playing well, but that frequently just isn’t good enough and they lose. And worse than that is the fact that the games Brian has been at, HP has played particularly poorly. I keep feeling like we’re on the edge of getting over the hump, but we just can’t do it ever and that is incredibly frustrating.
So I have a talented team which is underperforming and another team which isn't underperforming but neither are they making progress. It's just a maddening combo. If it weren't for the fun I'm having with HP at practices and even during games, despite the losses, I shudder to think how I'd be feeling at the moment.
So it's not all bad, but there's a lot of bad accompanied by the feeling that as coach that the problems are in areas where I could be making a difference. Motivation is I feel one of the few areas that a coach can make an impact. And while a good coach can only make a slight difference in the winning or losing of a team, that's all HP would need: a slight positive difference. And so in the end the poor play of both teams falls on my shoulders and I just hate doing a poor job at something at which I try so hard and care so much about.
Showing posts with label LS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LS. Show all posts
Monday, February 11, 2008
Monday, November 12, 2007
GL vs LS
Long story short, GL won in our game against LS. But it was not pretty at all. We jumped off to a nice 4 point lead at the end of the first. I was pleased. We even extended our lead to six at one point in the second. But then LS started pressing and the wheels came off. The team was just totally unprepared for their suffocating man press and that has to be chalked up as my fault. I said as much at half when we were either tied or down by 2. We cranked it back up in the third and extended our lead to 6, once again, before it started to get close. They got back to with-in 3, with 30 seconds left, but Brian hit a clutch free throw (and he was 1-6 from the line for the day) to put us up by 4 and seal the victory.
Overall I’m feeling pretty depressed about our performance. The press tore us up. We fell apart against a good man to man defense. We played good defense, they were forced to take numerous outside shots, which they missed, but then just got POUNDED on the boards. It was a very disheartening victory. We have so much to work on. We’ve now shown we have trouble against zone and man defenses, don’t always box out negating our aggressiveness against a bigger team, have trouble against a press. I’ve liked our defense, but the fact that we’re allowing so many points each game suggests that perhaps our offense is in better shape than it appears and it’s our defense that needs work. Oh yeah I forgot to mention we were 4-11 from the free throw line.
Fortunately we have two real practices this week. After this week, we go to having a half hour less each week and I certainly can use that half hour.
Individual notes:
Andrew – Was absent. This allowed me to really spread out the playing time nicely.
Brian – Killed us with his 1-6 from the FT line. He’s a liability on defense, for the most part. But did put up a good game on the offensive side overall.
Cameron – Played some real solid defense. He actually got some crunch time playing as a result. Is a complete non-factor on offense, at best, and against the superior skill LS showed, was a liability.
Dante – Once again was basically a non-factor. Had three rebounds, but was noticeably slower against their big men, who would often come far outside the post.
David – I’m pleased he didn’t get discouraged with himself when he struggled in the 2nd versus their press. He made some amazing shots for us in the 4th, and was the leader I needed him to be. Not to mention he set an all time high for the team with 5 assists. His play making was terrific.
Jack M – Did really well for us in the first. Unfortunately, after that he seemed to get intimidated by their big men and his efficiency went down. He missed several lay-ups which hurt us.
Jack P – Once again shot efficiently and well. Unfortunately, he played sloppily on defense and fouled, denying us his presence during crunch time.
Justin – The kid is amazing. Was 6-6 on his shooting. However, he only came down with 4 boards against a physical team, kind of what I was expecting from how he did in practice. I hope he’ll benefit the most from the blocking out practice we’re going to do this week.
Lucas – Just didn’t have it. Couldn’t find a way to contribute offensively, and turned the ball over a fair amount on the touches he did find. Defensively he was alright, but struggled against the bigger players that LS has.
Scott – He played well. Unfortunately due to some bad calls he got into foul trouble and ended up fouling out. His 1 rebound, an all time low for him, shows just how badly we were hurting on the boards.
Tom – I didn’t get him the playing time he deserved. The problem, as I’ve said before, is that while he doesn’t do anything too poorly, he doesn’t do anything well.
Overall I’m feeling pretty depressed about our performance. The press tore us up. We fell apart against a good man to man defense. We played good defense, they were forced to take numerous outside shots, which they missed, but then just got POUNDED on the boards. It was a very disheartening victory. We have so much to work on. We’ve now shown we have trouble against zone and man defenses, don’t always box out negating our aggressiveness against a bigger team, have trouble against a press. I’ve liked our defense, but the fact that we’re allowing so many points each game suggests that perhaps our offense is in better shape than it appears and it’s our defense that needs work. Oh yeah I forgot to mention we were 4-11 from the free throw line.
Fortunately we have two real practices this week. After this week, we go to having a half hour less each week and I certainly can use that half hour.
Individual notes:
Andrew – Was absent. This allowed me to really spread out the playing time nicely.
Brian – Killed us with his 1-6 from the FT line. He’s a liability on defense, for the most part. But did put up a good game on the offensive side overall.
Cameron – Played some real solid defense. He actually got some crunch time playing as a result. Is a complete non-factor on offense, at best, and against the superior skill LS showed, was a liability.
Dante – Once again was basically a non-factor. Had three rebounds, but was noticeably slower against their big men, who would often come far outside the post.
David – I’m pleased he didn’t get discouraged with himself when he struggled in the 2nd versus their press. He made some amazing shots for us in the 4th, and was the leader I needed him to be. Not to mention he set an all time high for the team with 5 assists. His play making was terrific.
Jack M – Did really well for us in the first. Unfortunately, after that he seemed to get intimidated by their big men and his efficiency went down. He missed several lay-ups which hurt us.
Jack P – Once again shot efficiently and well. Unfortunately, he played sloppily on defense and fouled, denying us his presence during crunch time.
Justin – The kid is amazing. Was 6-6 on his shooting. However, he only came down with 4 boards against a physical team, kind of what I was expecting from how he did in practice. I hope he’ll benefit the most from the blocking out practice we’re going to do this week.
Lucas – Just didn’t have it. Couldn’t find a way to contribute offensively, and turned the ball over a fair amount on the touches he did find. Defensively he was alright, but struggled against the bigger players that LS has.
Scott – He played well. Unfortunately due to some bad calls he got into foul trouble and ended up fouling out. His 1 rebound, an all time low for him, shows just how badly we were hurting on the boards.
Tom – I didn’t get him the playing time he deserved. The problem, as I’ve said before, is that while he doesn’t do anything too poorly, he doesn’t do anything well.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
HP Update (With a little GL thrown in)
We had a practice on Wednesday with GL. It was uneventful; hence I have not posted about it. As I will be trying to keep up on both teams as the season moves forward, I will likely just not posting about certain practices in order to keep things reasonable. Especially come January I would guess I would only post about each team’s practice once a week. Information from practice will also find its way into game reports as appropriate. This has been a long way of saying, that this will be an HP focused entry.
HP House League Games
Thursday GL had no practice because the gym wasn’t available so I went to see the house league teams I hadn’t seen play yet. Where I was impressed with the level of play the previous week, this week’s play was thoroughly unimpressive. There was a lot of drive and shoot without much passing by my players. Not too much different from our game, frankly, and not the type of basketball that will win it for us in the long run. Worse is the fact that there are, in reality, two kids on our team who I think will be able to consistently drive past their men in travel, but in house all of our players have that ability. I’m guessing my players have fun, but it does not help them become the kind of players I’d want them to be. Part of the difference, a large part, is that last week it was Kevin officiating the game. This week it was some random high schooler. Kevin knew how to strike the balance between making the appropriate foul and travel calls, and ignoring calls. The kids who officiated Thursday made no travel calls in the 3 games I saw and were far too inconsistent with foul calls. Basically it was organized street ball, which is fine, but could be so much more.
Josh, was still battling whatever sickness he’d had on Sunday. His team played a double header, losing the first. His team then won the second game, against a team that had far superior talent, by 1. But they did it with-out Josh in the second half, as he initially sat himself owing to renewed coughing and general not feeling well. When he then appeared like he was going to go back in for the final 5 minutes, his mom and I conferred and I told Josh that he wasn’t going in. Josh told his coach.
There wasn’t nearly as much for me to cheer about as there had been before. I cheered every good pass that was made, as there were so few of them. The positive to come out of the game was my continued belief that Jack B knows basketball. It’s a shame that he’s by far the shortest kid out there. I’m going to start him anyway tomorrow.
HP Practice
Had a fairly good practice, with all 11 players practicing. Ben tells me the doctor has cleared him to play with-out his boot and Josh is mostly recovered from his illness though I do sit him during continuous motion and our scrimmage when I hear the cough. I had two goals (well maybe closer to three) for the practice: work on breaking the press, and work on dribbling with our heads up and making passes, besides doing our normal continuous motion conditioning.
For the first part we do a 2 on 4 get the ball across half court. Overall it was fairly successful. Hopefully that success will carry over to tomorrow if/when NF comes out pressing.
We also did a drill where they had a partner and attempted to pass a tennis ball back and forth while not dropping the tennis ball or losing control of the ball they were dribbling. This seemed to work well as when they started dribbling during our scrimmage later they mostly did it with their heads up.
We did in fact spend the last half hour with one of my rare scrimmages. Now granted the first fifteen minutes was spent with no dribble. They actually adjusted fairly well to this conditioning, and, on the whole, spread out far more than my GL team has while running the same drill. Of course matters were helped slightly by the fact that Gavin and Jack A, playing on the same team, were defending other people’s men as much as their own. Gavin’s man, in particular, was often open due to Gavin not playing defense. After a period of complete no dribble, I allowed them to dribble in the back court, and press, and then allowed them to have one dribble in the area of the lane, which was never really used. For the last 7-8 minutes I let them dribble as much as they wanted, but they needed to have at least 5 passes to 3 different people. They also couldn’t dribble with their heads down. They didn’t struggle too much with this requirement, but it still cut way down on the number of shots created simply though penetration, which was my goal. They also couldn’t dribble with their heads down, something that happened surprisingly infrequently considering how they’d played in house league and at our first game. I hope that the tennis ball drill’s effectiveness carries over to tomorrow.
Next week we must do some man to man defense work. But overall, I was happy with the practice today.
Tomorrow’s Games
GL plays LN. LN who did very well in their first game, winning 44-27. I expect a tough game, but again a winnable game for us. LN has never seen David play before, so I think that’s a plus for us. And rumor has it that they’ve added a good new player, but so have we in Justin, so that should cancel each other out. I was going to give Andrew a start, in recognition of his being the only player to ask to sub out last game, but he’s out of town this weekend so that rules that plan out. So I think we’ll go with a starting lineup of Jack M (in recognition of his hard work during practice), David, Jack P, Lucas, and Justin. This is an aggressive group who will penetrate well. If we can set the pace as up tempo, I’m confident we’ll be able to out run them in the long run. At least that’s what we did last year.
HP plays NF. This is the same NF team that gave us a tough go in the play-offs though I didn’t remember until I read my game write-up for it that we’d gone with equal playing time for the game, which hindered us. More troubling from that write-up? The fact that our lack of point guard really killed us in the game. Uh oh. We could be in trouble. I will be going with a starting 5 of Zach, Jack B, Ben, Jon, and Gavin. I think they match-up well and give us a fairly versatile group to start.
I think both games are winnable for us and am cautiously optimistic I will be the coach of two 2-0 teams at this time tomorrow.
HP House League Games
Thursday GL had no practice because the gym wasn’t available so I went to see the house league teams I hadn’t seen play yet. Where I was impressed with the level of play the previous week, this week’s play was thoroughly unimpressive. There was a lot of drive and shoot without much passing by my players. Not too much different from our game, frankly, and not the type of basketball that will win it for us in the long run. Worse is the fact that there are, in reality, two kids on our team who I think will be able to consistently drive past their men in travel, but in house all of our players have that ability. I’m guessing my players have fun, but it does not help them become the kind of players I’d want them to be. Part of the difference, a large part, is that last week it was Kevin officiating the game. This week it was some random high schooler. Kevin knew how to strike the balance between making the appropriate foul and travel calls, and ignoring calls. The kids who officiated Thursday made no travel calls in the 3 games I saw and were far too inconsistent with foul calls. Basically it was organized street ball, which is fine, but could be so much more.
Josh, was still battling whatever sickness he’d had on Sunday. His team played a double header, losing the first. His team then won the second game, against a team that had far superior talent, by 1. But they did it with-out Josh in the second half, as he initially sat himself owing to renewed coughing and general not feeling well. When he then appeared like he was going to go back in for the final 5 minutes, his mom and I conferred and I told Josh that he wasn’t going in. Josh told his coach.
There wasn’t nearly as much for me to cheer about as there had been before. I cheered every good pass that was made, as there were so few of them. The positive to come out of the game was my continued belief that Jack B knows basketball. It’s a shame that he’s by far the shortest kid out there. I’m going to start him anyway tomorrow.
HP Practice
Had a fairly good practice, with all 11 players practicing. Ben tells me the doctor has cleared him to play with-out his boot and Josh is mostly recovered from his illness though I do sit him during continuous motion and our scrimmage when I hear the cough. I had two goals (well maybe closer to three) for the practice: work on breaking the press, and work on dribbling with our heads up and making passes, besides doing our normal continuous motion conditioning.
For the first part we do a 2 on 4 get the ball across half court. Overall it was fairly successful. Hopefully that success will carry over to tomorrow if/when NF comes out pressing.
We also did a drill where they had a partner and attempted to pass a tennis ball back and forth while not dropping the tennis ball or losing control of the ball they were dribbling. This seemed to work well as when they started dribbling during our scrimmage later they mostly did it with their heads up.
We did in fact spend the last half hour with one of my rare scrimmages. Now granted the first fifteen minutes was spent with no dribble. They actually adjusted fairly well to this conditioning, and, on the whole, spread out far more than my GL team has while running the same drill. Of course matters were helped slightly by the fact that Gavin and Jack A, playing on the same team, were defending other people’s men as much as their own. Gavin’s man, in particular, was often open due to Gavin not playing defense. After a period of complete no dribble, I allowed them to dribble in the back court, and press, and then allowed them to have one dribble in the area of the lane, which was never really used. For the last 7-8 minutes I let them dribble as much as they wanted, but they needed to have at least 5 passes to 3 different people. They also couldn’t dribble with their heads down. They didn’t struggle too much with this requirement, but it still cut way down on the number of shots created simply though penetration, which was my goal. They also couldn’t dribble with their heads down, something that happened surprisingly infrequently considering how they’d played in house league and at our first game. I hope that the tennis ball drill’s effectiveness carries over to tomorrow.
Next week we must do some man to man defense work. But overall, I was happy with the practice today.
Tomorrow’s Games
GL plays LN. LN who did very well in their first game, winning 44-27. I expect a tough game, but again a winnable game for us. LN has never seen David play before, so I think that’s a plus for us. And rumor has it that they’ve added a good new player, but so have we in Justin, so that should cancel each other out. I was going to give Andrew a start, in recognition of his being the only player to ask to sub out last game, but he’s out of town this weekend so that rules that plan out. So I think we’ll go with a starting lineup of Jack M (in recognition of his hard work during practice), David, Jack P, Lucas, and Justin. This is an aggressive group who will penetrate well. If we can set the pace as up tempo, I’m confident we’ll be able to out run them in the long run. At least that’s what we did last year.
HP plays NF. This is the same NF team that gave us a tough go in the play-offs though I didn’t remember until I read my game write-up for it that we’d gone with equal playing time for the game, which hindered us. More troubling from that write-up? The fact that our lack of point guard really killed us in the game. Uh oh. We could be in trouble. I will be going with a starting 5 of Zach, Jack B, Ben, Jon, and Gavin. I think they match-up well and give us a fairly versatile group to start.
I think both games are winnable for us and am cautiously optimistic I will be the coach of two 2-0 teams at this time tomorrow.
Friday, March 23, 2007
End of Season Wrap-Up
After our double header our next game is against MP2. We completely dismantle them and based on their poor showing of sportsmanship at the HP tourney, I let the team score 50 for a final score of 50-31. Not sure what got into me, but there you go.
We then have a weekend off, because of President’s Day. That is when a bit of drama arises, though it could have been far more disastrous than it was. Our next game is against NF1. While we are waiting there, I learn that David won’t be at the game due to conflicts with another team from his caregiver. As we’re standing around I learn from Brian who sort of lets it slip that this might not be a one time thing but instead he might have to quit the team. As I have heard nothing along these lines I don’t let it bother me.
The game against NF is unexceptional. We go out do our thing and win. This was the first game where I went with what I called hockey subs. We had only 8 players (Tom had gotten very sick and was basically out for a month) so I divided the team into two groups of four. Every half a quarter I would yank a group and put in a new group with one player from the other shift. This was done as a way to give players equal playing time. Well David showed up from his other game just before the 4th quarter. I call him over to sit on our bench. He asks if he could play and I say of course, since I can understand his need to miss a game because of conflicts. At the end of the game their coach’s weren’t happy about this. My response simply was that I wanted every player on my team to have a chance to play. I had even alerted them ahead of time that I normally wouldn’t play him in the 4th in a game like that, but it was an unusual circumstance. Their moaning was a bit unjustified considering that he scored all of two points.
That game was on a Saturday. However, MP needed us to reschedule our Sunday game and after a lot of emails it got set for the last Sunday of the season as a double header.
We end up having a couple of weeks off then with-out a game as our game against WK has to be canceled as there is no time when we can reschedule the game. As they were the ones unable to play they have to forfeit to us, but I still rather would have played the game. Instead, the WK coach and I setup a scrimmage after the official end of the season between our team and his A team. His A team who is dominating the division. During this time it becomes clear from Scott and Brian that David will not be playing for us again. Does David or Dad ever bother to contact me? Not until March 10th, 3 weeks, essentially after it has been decided that David will quit the team, does their Dad bother to call me to let me know about this decision. I am more upset by this lack of communication than anything.
On March 11th we have our end of season double header after having been out of action for a couple of weeks. Our first game is against LS. I go with hockey subs again. After the first quarter we gain a lead and hold onto it. It is a great game to watch as we can’t quite ever put LS away but do manage to hold on for the win.
We have a few hours off before our next game against MP for the regular season championship. I am pretty exhausted as the night before I had a wedding which I didn’t get home from until after 1 o’clock (and could have stayed later). This combined with Daylight Savings means I am not at the top of my game for the first game and by the second game I am extremely exhausted. At the start of the game we’re missing Brian, Scott, and Lucas who are, I later learn, stuck in traffic due to a horrendous accident.
Anyway, we start off the game very strongly. Gordie, who missed our earlier game due to having his house league championships, comes out on fire and scores a couple of early baskets. MP gets their composure back and evens it up by the end of the first quarter. After that it’s a seesaw game until the third quarter when they build up a lead. This momentum carries into the fourth and the game has slipped away from us. This is where my coaching should have been better. One of our biggest problems though, throughout the game, was picking up our men on defense. This led to MANY easy baskets for them and was really pretty inexcusable at this point in the season.
More seriously is that early in the 4th Brian collapsed in absolute agony with his ankle. Normally when a player gets injured I go and see how they’re doing, give them a couple moments to collect themselves and then help them off the court of have them walk off. Despite my being out of it, it was quite clear that he wasn’t going anywhere. I then proceed to literally carry him off the court. Play resumes while I comfort him on the sideline. His mom is there and it’s quickly decided that he should go to the hospital. I write off Brian for the rest of the season at that point considering his past history with the ankles (having broken both of them in the past year).
The next day we have our scrimmage against WK. As predicted they are bigger, faster, and stronger than we are. We get blown-out. However, the team never gives up. Even down by 20+ we’re still scrapping away. The dismantling we faced exposed quite a few weaknesses of ours, most notably against the zone.
We end the season in second place. Overall we’d had a good season and I’m optimistic about our chances entering the play-offs. While MP will likely be a problem for us, I still believe we can take them. Despite the loss of David the team remains upbeat and confident about our chances.
We then have a weekend off, because of President’s Day. That is when a bit of drama arises, though it could have been far more disastrous than it was. Our next game is against NF1. While we are waiting there, I learn that David won’t be at the game due to conflicts with another team from his caregiver. As we’re standing around I learn from Brian who sort of lets it slip that this might not be a one time thing but instead he might have to quit the team. As I have heard nothing along these lines I don’t let it bother me.
The game against NF is unexceptional. We go out do our thing and win. This was the first game where I went with what I called hockey subs. We had only 8 players (Tom had gotten very sick and was basically out for a month) so I divided the team into two groups of four. Every half a quarter I would yank a group and put in a new group with one player from the other shift. This was done as a way to give players equal playing time. Well David showed up from his other game just before the 4th quarter. I call him over to sit on our bench. He asks if he could play and I say of course, since I can understand his need to miss a game because of conflicts. At the end of the game their coach’s weren’t happy about this. My response simply was that I wanted every player on my team to have a chance to play. I had even alerted them ahead of time that I normally wouldn’t play him in the 4th in a game like that, but it was an unusual circumstance. Their moaning was a bit unjustified considering that he scored all of two points.
That game was on a Saturday. However, MP needed us to reschedule our Sunday game and after a lot of emails it got set for the last Sunday of the season as a double header.
We end up having a couple of weeks off then with-out a game as our game against WK has to be canceled as there is no time when we can reschedule the game. As they were the ones unable to play they have to forfeit to us, but I still rather would have played the game. Instead, the WK coach and I setup a scrimmage after the official end of the season between our team and his A team. His A team who is dominating the division. During this time it becomes clear from Scott and Brian that David will not be playing for us again. Does David or Dad ever bother to contact me? Not until March 10th, 3 weeks, essentially after it has been decided that David will quit the team, does their Dad bother to call me to let me know about this decision. I am more upset by this lack of communication than anything.
On March 11th we have our end of season double header after having been out of action for a couple of weeks. Our first game is against LS. I go with hockey subs again. After the first quarter we gain a lead and hold onto it. It is a great game to watch as we can’t quite ever put LS away but do manage to hold on for the win.
We have a few hours off before our next game against MP for the regular season championship. I am pretty exhausted as the night before I had a wedding which I didn’t get home from until after 1 o’clock (and could have stayed later). This combined with Daylight Savings means I am not at the top of my game for the first game and by the second game I am extremely exhausted. At the start of the game we’re missing Brian, Scott, and Lucas who are, I later learn, stuck in traffic due to a horrendous accident.
Anyway, we start off the game very strongly. Gordie, who missed our earlier game due to having his house league championships, comes out on fire and scores a couple of early baskets. MP gets their composure back and evens it up by the end of the first quarter. After that it’s a seesaw game until the third quarter when they build up a lead. This momentum carries into the fourth and the game has slipped away from us. This is where my coaching should have been better. One of our biggest problems though, throughout the game, was picking up our men on defense. This led to MANY easy baskets for them and was really pretty inexcusable at this point in the season.
More seriously is that early in the 4th Brian collapsed in absolute agony with his ankle. Normally when a player gets injured I go and see how they’re doing, give them a couple moments to collect themselves and then help them off the court of have them walk off. Despite my being out of it, it was quite clear that he wasn’t going anywhere. I then proceed to literally carry him off the court. Play resumes while I comfort him on the sideline. His mom is there and it’s quickly decided that he should go to the hospital. I write off Brian for the rest of the season at that point considering his past history with the ankles (having broken both of them in the past year).
The next day we have our scrimmage against WK. As predicted they are bigger, faster, and stronger than we are. We get blown-out. However, the team never gives up. Even down by 20+ we’re still scrapping away. The dismantling we faced exposed quite a few weaknesses of ours, most notably against the zone.
We end the season in second place. Overall we’d had a good season and I’m optimistic about our chances entering the play-offs. While MP will likely be a problem for us, I still believe we can take them. Despite the loss of David the team remains upbeat and confident about our chances.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
End of Season Wrap-Up
Ok it’s time to bring this to some closure. My plan is to somewhat rapidly go through the regular season, do some more detailed description of the playoffs, and give some overall season reflections. I am not quite sure why I stopped writing, so I’m going to blame the month of February which is just a nasty month and often seems to sap the energy out of me.
When we last left we were facing a game without the triplets. I actually did a writeup for the game which I never posted. Here it is:
It’s clear from their other games that this could be a real trap game for us. We don’t have three of our best players (remembering that the Triplets are out of town at the Super Bowl) and they’ll be a team which could take advantage of that. We do our pre-game routine. As I’m talking to the team Jack M is being obnoxious, for about the eighth time, about who is starting and so while I had intended to start him he ends up starting the game on the bench.
The first quarter is close. Neither team really gets anything going which is our pretty typical first quarter. The son of the coach is both the tallest player on the team and their ball handler. Dante gets very excited about the fact that he is guarding a guard. It’s pretty funny. In the second quarter, the close game is maintained. I don’t have us do any sort of full court press because I am frankly very concerned about fatigue setting in. At half time the game is tied at 10.
I keep the half time speech short. I really believe at this point that we’ll gut out a win. We’re a team that’s shown a lot of fortitude, and this is where all the confidence that’s made practice hard should pay off. Except the third quarter begins. They sink a couple of threes and we can’t seem to work the ball well on offense. Our normally tight man to man, gives way to sloppy man to man. A tie becomes a two point lead, then a five, and finally a seven point lead by the time the quarter ends. There was likely a point in there where I should have called a time out. Except that momentum just gradually swung in their favor. This gradual swing meant that there was no time where I was like “it’s time to call a time-out” to try and calm it down. This was likely still a mistake on my part.
Going into the fourth I know that the game is going to be an uphill climb. Gordie already has four fouls going into the fourth. He would not be in the five I’d want in there at the end of the game (that group being Jack M, Jack P, Dante, Lucas, and Tom) so I decide that I’ll leave Gordie in there and let him just foul out rather than pull him. I talk about how we’ve scored lots of points in quarters before, so this game could still be ours.
We come out playing hard, but LS realizes that this game is in their grasp. With 3 minutes to go in the game we’re still down by 7. Gordie fouled out with about 4 minutes left, which considering how he’d been playing was better than I expected. When two minutes left comes around we’re down by five. We’ve long been in full court man to man mode, but we just can’t seem to close the gap. And that’s when Lucas goes on a tear. He seems to be everywhere at once. It was probably the most dominating single game performance we’ve had. While there have been times where David’s seemed to be everywhere on offense, or David and Scott being everywhere on defense, we’ve never had a player do it on both ends. In those last two minutes, Lucas easily had four or five steals plus quite a few rebounds. Suddenly there are 34 seconds left in the game and we’re down by a basket and they’ve been forced to call a time-out. A game which I honestly believed to be out of reach suddenly is very close.
34 seconds, however, is an eternity in basketball and I know it’s far too soon to get our hopes up. I tell the team that we have plenty of time to close the gap. I complement them on how well they’re playing. The two teams exchange baskets and there is a stoppage of play with about 15 seconds left, with them having the ball. I call a time-out. I explain that we need a stop and we need to score quickly. I tell them that if we tie this in regulation we’ll win it in overtime so we’re just looking for a good shot for two points, so don’t rush or panic. Our home crowd is pumped up. We do what it takes on defense and get the ball back. Jack M comes driving down the court and drives right by three players for a great looking lay-up and
misses. But wait there is a foul. I call a time-out. I explain that if Jack makes the first shot, great. If he misses the first shot that he should intentionally miss the second shot. If for either reason the second shot is missed we need to rebound and put it right back up as there is now a second and change left on the clock. If they were to get the rebound we need to quickly foul. Jack does indeed miss the first shot. The other team calls a time-out, no doubt telling them the importance of getting the rebound. Jack goes out there. I’ve reminded him that the ball needs to hit the rim. He throws the ball up and it hits the rim, but as soon as he does that he rushes into the lane. It’s an OBVIOUS lane violation. This effectively ends the game.
I am, admittedly, disappointed, in the result. For three quarters we played as well, if not better, than the team. We made an amazing comeback and nearly won. More frustratingly is the fact that I honestly believe part of the reason we lost is we just got tired. You give me one more player, and we win. With the triplets? We win easily. In the post game speech I talk about how we lost for two reasons. One is that we just got tired. The second is that we didn’t play defense 100% of the time and they made us pay in the third. I, do, however, focus on the positives of the fourth quarter. I remind them that we have another game the next day against NF2.
The next day rolls around. I am not concerned at all about our play against NF2. In the first part of the first quarter we don’t show that we’re a much better team and the reffing annoys me. They don’t call clear travel violations, for instance. However, at the end of the first quarter we snap out of stupor and we end up by 8. I let them know that we’ll do some full court press, but that if we score one basket we’ll have to stop. We get the ball at the start of the quarter, score one basket, and just continue our momentum. Shortly after the start of the quarter I restrict our team’s running of fast breaks.
At half we have a good discussion about sportsmanship. I explain that it’s not good sportsmanship to just score a lot of points because we can. I talk about how we’re more athletic than them and we play better as a team than they do so what are we really proving by scoring a lot?
We win the game in a convincing manner. There were more details no doubt but they have long ago been forgotten.
When we last left we were facing a game without the triplets. I actually did a writeup for the game which I never posted. Here it is:
It’s clear from their other games that this could be a real trap game for us. We don’t have three of our best players (remembering that the Triplets are out of town at the Super Bowl) and they’ll be a team which could take advantage of that. We do our pre-game routine. As I’m talking to the team Jack M is being obnoxious, for about the eighth time, about who is starting and so while I had intended to start him he ends up starting the game on the bench.
The first quarter is close. Neither team really gets anything going which is our pretty typical first quarter. The son of the coach is both the tallest player on the team and their ball handler. Dante gets very excited about the fact that he is guarding a guard. It’s pretty funny. In the second quarter, the close game is maintained. I don’t have us do any sort of full court press because I am frankly very concerned about fatigue setting in. At half time the game is tied at 10.
I keep the half time speech short. I really believe at this point that we’ll gut out a win. We’re a team that’s shown a lot of fortitude, and this is where all the confidence that’s made practice hard should pay off. Except the third quarter begins. They sink a couple of threes and we can’t seem to work the ball well on offense. Our normally tight man to man, gives way to sloppy man to man. A tie becomes a two point lead, then a five, and finally a seven point lead by the time the quarter ends. There was likely a point in there where I should have called a time out. Except that momentum just gradually swung in their favor. This gradual swing meant that there was no time where I was like “it’s time to call a time-out” to try and calm it down. This was likely still a mistake on my part.
Going into the fourth I know that the game is going to be an uphill climb. Gordie already has four fouls going into the fourth. He would not be in the five I’d want in there at the end of the game (that group being Jack M, Jack P, Dante, Lucas, and Tom) so I decide that I’ll leave Gordie in there and let him just foul out rather than pull him. I talk about how we’ve scored lots of points in quarters before, so this game could still be ours.
We come out playing hard, but LS realizes that this game is in their grasp. With 3 minutes to go in the game we’re still down by 7. Gordie fouled out with about 4 minutes left, which considering how he’d been playing was better than I expected. When two minutes left comes around we’re down by five. We’ve long been in full court man to man mode, but we just can’t seem to close the gap. And that’s when Lucas goes on a tear. He seems to be everywhere at once. It was probably the most dominating single game performance we’ve had. While there have been times where David’s seemed to be everywhere on offense, or David and Scott being everywhere on defense, we’ve never had a player do it on both ends. In those last two minutes, Lucas easily had four or five steals plus quite a few rebounds. Suddenly there are 34 seconds left in the game and we’re down by a basket and they’ve been forced to call a time-out. A game which I honestly believed to be out of reach suddenly is very close.
34 seconds, however, is an eternity in basketball and I know it’s far too soon to get our hopes up. I tell the team that we have plenty of time to close the gap. I complement them on how well they’re playing. The two teams exchange baskets and there is a stoppage of play with about 15 seconds left, with them having the ball. I call a time-out. I explain that we need a stop and we need to score quickly. I tell them that if we tie this in regulation we’ll win it in overtime so we’re just looking for a good shot for two points, so don’t rush or panic. Our home crowd is pumped up. We do what it takes on defense and get the ball back. Jack M comes driving down the court and drives right by three players for a great looking lay-up and
misses. But wait there is a foul. I call a time-out. I explain that if Jack makes the first shot, great. If he misses the first shot that he should intentionally miss the second shot. If for either reason the second shot is missed we need to rebound and put it right back up as there is now a second and change left on the clock. If they were to get the rebound we need to quickly foul. Jack does indeed miss the first shot. The other team calls a time-out, no doubt telling them the importance of getting the rebound. Jack goes out there. I’ve reminded him that the ball needs to hit the rim. He throws the ball up and it hits the rim, but as soon as he does that he rushes into the lane. It’s an OBVIOUS lane violation. This effectively ends the game.
I am, admittedly, disappointed, in the result. For three quarters we played as well, if not better, than the team. We made an amazing comeback and nearly won. More frustratingly is the fact that I honestly believe part of the reason we lost is we just got tired. You give me one more player, and we win. With the triplets? We win easily. In the post game speech I talk about how we lost for two reasons. One is that we just got tired. The second is that we didn’t play defense 100% of the time and they made us pay in the third. I, do, however, focus on the positives of the fourth quarter. I remind them that we have another game the next day against NF2.
The next day rolls around. I am not concerned at all about our play against NF2. In the first part of the first quarter we don’t show that we’re a much better team and the reffing annoys me. They don’t call clear travel violations, for instance. However, at the end of the first quarter we snap out of stupor and we end up by 8. I let them know that we’ll do some full court press, but that if we score one basket we’ll have to stop. We get the ball at the start of the quarter, score one basket, and just continue our momentum. Shortly after the start of the quarter I restrict our team’s running of fast breaks.
At half we have a good discussion about sportsmanship. I explain that it’s not good sportsmanship to just score a lot of points because we can. I talk about how we’re more athletic than them and we play better as a team than they do so what are we really proving by scoring a lot?
We win the game in a convincing manner. There were more details no doubt but they have long ago been forgotten.
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