HP vs MP

The next day is a new chance as we play MP, a team which I got to see Saturday against NF. I learned that they basically run variations on the pick and roll over and over again and who their 3 best players were. It was good information to have.

I had decided that night that after our running out of steam that hockey subs would be the way to go and so that’s what I do. I prepare a group of 4 and a group 5, expecting to have the twins back for the game.

And the first quarter starts off with us really pushing hard, exactly what I wanted to see. And then weirdness ensues. About 45 seconds into the game the ref gives MP a warning about no pressing. It seemed pretty unjustified, as 4th graders aren’t always the quickest to make the transition. I was surprised, but figured big deal. Game goes on. About 2 and a quarter minutes in, with my first group of 5 ready to sub in, one of their players does the MILDEST of presses and the ref t’s them up. Their coach is understandably upset but argues in a completely respectful sort of way. The coach then says something to his players and HE gets t’ed up. Absurd. Fortunately I know my rules and so I get Adam into the game to shoot the FTs. He misses the first two but makes the second two after I tell him that technicals are the hardest free throws to make. For a kid that age having everyone staring at you when you are the only player around has to be unnerving.

The first quarter proceeds with us playing an upbeat tempo and MP just not able to handle us on offense. We are up 12-8 at the quarter. In the second quarter they sort of collapse and we take a 20-12 lead going into half. Their coach does a good job of calming them at half but the rest of the game is essentially a wash with a final score of 28-21. In the end we wore down, we didn’t have the energy in the 4th that we had early on, but fortunately we’d built up enough of a lead that it didn’t matter.

Assorted notes:

Zach had a sudden asthma attack at the end of the WG game. That certainly didn’t help us in the waning moments. Fortunately he’s fine. I told him he needed to let me know if he’s ever feeling the symptoms so I can get him out. He said that it came on suddenly. He played without issue against MP.

We were warming up in the side gym before the game against MP. I went into the main gym briefly to give our official roster and when I come back Gavin’s dad is coaching the team on man to man defense. Gavin’s dad, as you might recall, was very hot to help at the start of the season, however, he was gently rebuffed. Now Gavin was a surprise show up since his mom had said he would be unavailable all weekend. Anyway so Gavin’s dad is in there giving advice about not turning their backs on man. I tell him I would prefer him not to say anything so that there is a clear message. He responds that he wasn’t doing any harm and that the team doesn’t know how to play man defense. Now, this is where I should have been less nice. Here’s a guy whose kid has missed several games, who can’t come to practices on one of our scheduled days, and whose kid had missed several of the practices on the day he could come, lecturing me. And if this had happened after the game I would have realized he was talking about his own kid, who, no surprise considering how much practice has been missed, doesn’t know how to play man. This has stayed with me a bit and I am progressively more upset about it. Ok so maybe I was better off, given this guy’s temper, of being nice. My response simply was that we worked hard at it every practice & we’re getting better. He backed down after this, thankfully.

Jacob finally got some of his shots to fall, thankfully. Next to Gavin, his parents are definitely the highest maintenance so his success combined with team success makes my life easier.

We shot the fewest shots all season that made we wince.

Jack B continues to just sort of disappear out there. He plays great defense, on and off ball, which is worth something. However, his short size means that he sometimes gets scored on because of that. And he’s not been in the right place, as he was earlier in the season, for a good look on offense.

HP House League Game

Well yesterday was a night full of basketball. It was the night of the first games for house league basketball in HP so I went out to cheer for my players. Unfortunately, due to GL’s practice I could only see about 1 and a half games. Being a house league they basically do mass substitutions every 5 minutes (with two 15 minute halves) which of course limited not only the time I got to see the players but also the time I got to see the players play against each other.

In the first game I saw Adam and Zach on one time, and Jack A on the other. Zach took over the game on offense. Kevin, who if you read my baseball blog you’ll remember is Park District employee, was officiating the game and told me how he thinks Zach is the best player in HP in the age group. This might be true, but he’s not so far above, at least from what I’ve seen. Anyhow, Zach’s play was definitely impressive. Adam and Jack presented a more mixed picture. Adam was acting as the point guard for his team and had the tendency to dribble the ball straight down the free throw line, rather than through the lane. He would then frequently get trapped there with the ball. If he’s getting trapped there in house, I fear what’ll happen to him in travel. His man to man defense continues to be suspect. On the good side, he hustled. Anytime the other team got a fast break, he hustled to get back and helped force some misses in that manner. He also found himself near the basket a lot on shots (see suspect man to man defense) but pulled down 4 rebounds, one of the higher totals for any individual player, despite being one of the shortest players out there. Jack did a great job of penetrating when there was a slower pace, and creating fast breaks. He didn’t always convert but he got good shots. He was particularly effective at doing the jump stop on the fast break to make pursuers over shoot him. The mixed bag part comes from the fact that it seemed like every time he touched the ball he ended up shooting. Were they smart shots? Yeah they were all good shots. But he’s going to have a harder time driving through the lane in travel than in house and I worry that we’re still going to see the same amount of shots from him as he would drive with his head down, hardly a good way to be ready to dish the ball off to a teammate.

Unfortunately because I had to get to the GL practice, I only was able to see about half of the next game which featured Ben and Jon on one team and Jacob on the other. Also fun was that Jeremy F’s and Matt A’s (from baseball) little brothers were on one team while Matt S’s brother was on the other, so I knew a lot of the kids out there. Ben and Jon were both used as point guards for their teams, a role that they will not be playing on our team, so that limited the value I was able to see in that capacity. Their defense and hustle were both excellent. However, Jon got winded very quickly, just as he had in practice. I think this means I will be, for the time being, using him in short bursts, of say 2 minutes with him frequently rotating back in. Ben played well overall except at one point when there was a small kid on the ground on the other team and Ben was clearly tempted to reach in and just take the ball from him, but didn’t. So the instinct was there but not the killer attitude to follow through. Hopefully I can nudge him towards following through on that. Then there is Jacob. Jacob is a very bright kid and enjoys talking with me. So I really like the kid. He does a lot of things right, such as space the floor. In fact, I was pleased in general with how well my players moved around the floor and kept it spaced. However, Jacob lacks many of the athletic skills to full take advantage of his technical knowledge and is not a good dribbler to boot. Not sure how much I can do about the athleticism but I can certainly work on his dribbling.

I was glad I got to see these games and was sad I didn’t get a chance to see my other 5 players play.