This weekend was our conference's tournament. Having finished the regular season 7-0 we were the #1 seed. Using a traditional bracket we drew the #8 seed in our first round game. When we played this team during the regular season we won 56-13 using two five man line-ups that basically split the game time 50-50. This time around my plan was to let our starters start the game and the third quarter, get their points and get minutes for our bench guys. For the first two minutes, it looked like our starters did not even want to be in the gym as we actually trailed 4-0. We settled down and scored the next 40 points though leading 16-4 at the end of the 1Q, 36-4 at halftime, and 51-7 at the end of the 3Q on the way to winning 68-13. Highlights of the game were 1) scoring the most points in a game this season even with a running clock for the entire second half and 2) our least used player (our very own "Rudy") was actually our high scorer with 13 points. He simply could not miss. His made shots included one 3 pointer and a couple head-fakes + one dribble + shot- just like we practice. Everyone on the team and - especially his mother - was pretty jacked for his "coming out" game. It was a good way to start the tournament.
*****
Our semi-final game was against the #4 seed whom we had previously beaten by only 5. In that game, we were up by 22 points in the fourth quarter before sleep walking and holding on at the end to win. The have a couple guys who rebound and run well, but they are driven by their best player who is a stocky 61" and dribbles well and attacks the basket well. Last time we contained him with our best all-round player and our 6'2" center.
The tournament, to this point, had played out anything but normal. In the first round the #6 seed shocked the #3 seed with a 3-pointer at the buzzer to win and then turned around and beat the #2 seed in their semi-final to advance to the championship game. This did not matter much to us since we have beaten them (and the #2 seed) by 20+ in the regular season. If we could handle our business we looked to be able to claim our championship the next day. And then our best all-round player inexplicably did not physically show up for our semi-final game. And he did not call me or anyone else with his whereabouts. And the rest of the team inexplicably could not function in his absence.
Our only problem was with our opponent's best player, who feasted upon our lack of skill defensively and our soft post players on his way to 22 first half points. Offensively, we were getting all the shots we wanted but next to none of them were going in and our bigs could not and would not rebound to save their lives. After the 1Q we were only down 7-3, but by half time we were down 31-15.
Needless to say, we had a lot of work to do and were sorely missing our point guard/forward/center who - along with our shooting guard - make up 27 of the 36 points a game we average. Add to this, our shooting guard had 3 foolish fouls by half time so I had to sit him to start the second half.
We came out determined to stop their star's penetration and shored up our defense with a 2-1-2 zone. Our defensive intensity kicked in (we held our opponent scoreless for the 3Q) and our bigs grabbed some boards but we could still barely score and trailed 31-20 heading into the fourth quarter. In the 4Q we cut the lead down to 7 once, 9 a couple times, but nearly every time we would get the lead to single digits we would blow one (or more) lay-ups and could never get the game down to two possessions. In the end we lost 37-26 and had no one to blame but ourselves. We could have used the 13pts and extra man that our missing player brings, but he could not be blamed for our inability to grab rebounds and our failure to execute defensive principles that we have worked on for over 10 weeks now.
I spoke to my missing player later last night and his story does not match up entirely with the story I got from the team family that usually drives him to the game. Some sort of apology and punishment is clearly warranted, but how severe has to be determined before tomorrow. For this team to build any kind of momentum going into the next two weeks - and the two biggest tournaments of the year - we need to win tomorrow and we need to win big.
*****
As we were getting dressed in our locker room for the 3rd place game, it was understood that none of us wanted to be there- we all wanted to be preparing for the championship, but since that was not our reality we all agreed that we were ready to take out our frustration on our opponent. Our missing player was back but would sit out the first half as punishment for going AWOL last night.
Our opponent had struggled mightily in their semi-final loss with their opponent's full court press. We used our press to run out to an early xx-xx lead. They settled down a little but not enough to make up for the points they lost to turnovers and we lead xx-xx at the end of the 1Q. The second quarter they got their press break going and actually won the quarter 9-7 leaving us ahead xx-xx at half time. The whole quarter was characterized by our mistakes: both our starting bigs picked up their second foul and came to the bench, my starting point guard could not get his attitude together and came to the bench, and our press was leaking. The lone bright spot was our shooting guard who was finding his touch again.
Half time was another of our painfully-too-often "what will it take to get you guys to understand that when we stick to our game, our game plan we are a very good team" talks. Having yet to make a statement with our play and also now having our MIA player back, we were in a good spot to break the game open- which is exactly what we did.
Starting out with our press again we scored a quick 6 with ease. When they did break our press we stopped them quickly and our two best scorers went to work inside and out and we flew to a xx-xx lead at the end of the 3Q. In the 4Q, we dropped out of our press, but now our defense was mostly going and offensively we were still getting any shot we wanted. The final score was xx-xx. We finally did exactly what we wanted and it felt good. The silver lining of the win was that we ended up getting home in time to catch 3/4 of the Super Bowl and our 3rd place trophy was literally only about an inch smaller than the championship trophy.
Hopefully we can carry this momentum into next weekends big Lutheran school tournament.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
17-4
This week brought our "regular" season to a close with a non-conference and a conference game on back-to-back nights.
Thursday's game was against my church's school's team. Size wise they are very comparable to us, but talent wise - at least the last two seasons - we are a couple steps ahead of them. When I set the game up I mentioned to their AD that we had a pretty good squad so we would not mind them having 9th graders suit up (since their school goes through 12th grade) and they agreed to do just that. It did not end up mattering too much.
We played 7 minute quarters (one more minute than we are used to, one less minute than high school games) which made the game feel much longer than normal (which made sense since it was 25% longer) and allowed extra minutes for guys to play. One of our starters missed practice the day before so he did not get to start, but our line-up needed only a minute or so to get into our rhythm. Once we got our first basket we were able to use our press to create a series of easy looks- though we missed a LOT of them- and we rolled to an 18-6 lead heading into the 2Q.
The next quarter we lost some steam due to our opponent settling in to the game plus our rotating through a couple line-up changes and continually missing point-blank shots. Even with the extra minutes we managed to stay out of foul trouble and won the 2Q 9-8 to take a 27-14 lead into half time. The third quarter was much of the same as the second, in that we were sluggish and they had a couple good series that allowed them to get a little momentum. The school just opened their gymnasium this year, so there is a lot of excitement about the facility. Thus, they had a good sized crowd on hand and at this point in the game their team started giving them something to get loud about. We did enough right, though, to lead 34-20 heading into the last quarter.
Typically, we jump on teams in the 3Q, but in this game we "decided" to wait until the fourth to do it. Eventually, we wore them down and - although we still missed an obscene amount - made a lot of lay-ups. We won the quarter 17-4 on our way to winning 51-24.
Overall, it was good to get so many minutes on a regulation sized floor. Defensively, we are very good when our press is clicking. Once other teams break it, we still have some work to do. Offensively, we are at our best when we are running and pushing the pace. When teams force us to work through our half court sets, we still do not run our most basic sets with high competence. The next three weekends are our big tournaments, how well we bear down and defend and play "our" game will determine whether or not we win anything of significance.
**********
Thursday's game was against my church's school's team. Size wise they are very comparable to us, but talent wise - at least the last two seasons - we are a couple steps ahead of them. When I set the game up I mentioned to their AD that we had a pretty good squad so we would not mind them having 9th graders suit up (since their school goes through 12th grade) and they agreed to do just that. It did not end up mattering too much.
We played 7 minute quarters (one more minute than we are used to, one less minute than high school games) which made the game feel much longer than normal (which made sense since it was 25% longer) and allowed extra minutes for guys to play. One of our starters missed practice the day before so he did not get to start, but our line-up needed only a minute or so to get into our rhythm. Once we got our first basket we were able to use our press to create a series of easy looks- though we missed a LOT of them- and we rolled to an 18-6 lead heading into the 2Q.
The next quarter we lost some steam due to our opponent settling in to the game plus our rotating through a couple line-up changes and continually missing point-blank shots. Even with the extra minutes we managed to stay out of foul trouble and won the 2Q 9-8 to take a 27-14 lead into half time. The third quarter was much of the same as the second, in that we were sluggish and they had a couple good series that allowed them to get a little momentum. The school just opened their gymnasium this year, so there is a lot of excitement about the facility. Thus, they had a good sized crowd on hand and at this point in the game their team started giving them something to get loud about. We did enough right, though, to lead 34-20 heading into the last quarter.
Typically, we jump on teams in the 3Q, but in this game we "decided" to wait until the fourth to do it. Eventually, we wore them down and - although we still missed an obscene amount - made a lot of lay-ups. We won the quarter 17-4 on our way to winning 51-24.
Overall, it was good to get so many minutes on a regulation sized floor. Defensively, we are very good when our press is clicking. Once other teams break it, we still have some work to do. Offensively, we are at our best when we are running and pushing the pace. When teams force us to work through our half court sets, we still do not run our most basic sets with high competence. The next three weekends are our big tournaments, how well we bear down and defend and play "our" game will determine whether or not we win anything of significance.
**********
Saturday night was our last conference game and the only thing standing between us and a perfect conference record and a regular season championship. Our opponent had one really good player and not a whole lot else. This was fortunate as three of our starters were in trouble - 2 of which I benched for the first quarter due to their behavior in one of our assistant's class.
We played the first quarter much like a team with 2 non-starters starting and one more starter starting for the first time this season (maybe ever for him). We were sluggish, slow and disorganized and actually lost the 1Q 9-8. At the start of the second quarter we had our regular starters in, but not much of a rhythm (which was understandable with two starters having to sit much longer than they were used to- kind of like what Rip Hamilton is now going through for the Pistons). Our press produced enough easy baskets to give us the lead 24-18 at half time.
Our biggest concern in the second half was to not allow our opponent to hang around, since teams that can stay within striking distance tend to build momentum believing they can win the game. We did not have our typical outburst in the third quarter but we did what we had to to win the quarter 14-4 and take a 38-22 lead into the fourth. The last quarter was typical for a game out of reach except for a tense 30 seconds when our lead (which had ballooned to almost 20) fell to 11 with our opponents shooting a free throw. I had to put our starters back in for a couple possessions to get the clock under 2 minutes and the lead back to over 15.
The game ended with one of our guards - who does not get a lot of minutes or shots - making a sweet spin move and nailing a jump shot as time expired to the great delight of the bench and his mom. We won the game 50-35 and the regular season conference championship with a 7-0 conference record. The conference tournament is next weekend and we have put ourselves in the best position possible to win that- if we have a good week of disciplined preparation.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
15-4
Last night's match-up was between the first place and last place teams in our conference and pretty much played itself out like a first v. last would/should play out. The biggest drama of the night was due to my directions to the game. Our opponent was a team that represented two schools and I Mapquested directions to the school they don't play their games at. With a few phone calls we made it to the correct gym.
We divided our team (of ten guys) into 2 relatively even groups of 5 and played the first three quarters alternating between the two line-ups before finally giving the end of the 3Q and the entire 4Q to our guys who do not usually get a lot of minutes and/or buckets. Every guy on the roster ended up scoring (for the first time this season) as we cruised to a 56-13 victory. We are now one game and victory away (next week) from finishing the conference season undefeated.
We divided our team (of ten guys) into 2 relatively even groups of 5 and played the first three quarters alternating between the two line-ups before finally giving the end of the 3Q and the entire 4Q to our guys who do not usually get a lot of minutes and/or buckets. Every guy on the roster ended up scoring (for the first time this season) as we cruised to a 56-13 victory. We are now one game and victory away (next week) from finishing the conference season undefeated.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
14-4
Due to a snowed out game the last day of school before Christmas break, we had back to back nights of conference games and a chance to establish ourselves as the best team in our conference with 2 conf. games left.
Friday night was a game we have been looking forward to for several weeks now. At the end of all of our previous conference games the opposing coaches have all asked me if we had played St. John's yet, since they are the other "team to beat" this year.
Coming off of our poor showing at last weekend's tournament we had a so-so week of practice, but it looked like our guys were getting back into the swing of things and were ready to get back on track. We also had our brand new vegas gold jerseys to break out for this game (which, incidentally, was a good thing because our opponent played in black jerseys - the same color as our other set). We looked sharp walking out for the opening tip and for the first 2 minutes it looked like we might run away with the game as we jumped all over them with our 3/4 press and worked our way to an early 13-4 lead. Like any good team they utilized a time-out, settled down, made some adjustments and started to play better. Add to that our center picking up two early fouls in the quarter and having to sit out, they managed to pull closer as we lead 16-9 at the end of the 1Q.
In the second quarter our shooting guard picked up his second foul and we switched defensively to a 1-3-1 zone that we have been struggling with. They stepped up their defensive pressure and we made some crucial mistakes in the final minute of the quarter and ended up losing the quarter 10-7, but still lead 23-19 at the half.
At half time there was not much to say other than to continually point out that when our guys stick to the game plan and play our team's brand of basketball, with energy on every possession, we are capable of putting many teams away early. But, when we resort to playing within our bad habits and trying to do things we have not practiced and create things that are not there, we allow many teams to stick around.
Usually the 3Q is our quarter to get our act together, but not this time. For the first 4:30 of the quarter we were unable to even score but we managed to stop them as well. With just under 2 minutes to play in the quarter they got a steal and converted the break to take their first lead of the game. We managed to get a couple baskets off of defensive play in the final 90 seconds to take an unstable 27-25 lead into the final quarter.
The last quarter was a fairly exciting quarter as far as middle school basketball goes. The only major concern I had was the officials. This game's referees were easily in the top 5 most frustrating officials I have ever "worked" with. The home team getting less fouls (4 v. 13) and more free throws (11 v. 4) is a natural part of basketball but the calls going against us were - at times - preposterous. Just as frustrating as the calls going against us were the "imaginative" explanations I was getting from the officials as to why the calls were going against us. These moments prove to be some of the more comical of this season with two assistants on our bench. Both are life long basketball guys (as am I), one is a certified referee and the other is the son of a referee. At the very least it is comforting to have two people in close proximity to affirm my "view" of what was happening.
None-the-less, we found ourselves up 3 with under a minute to play and on defense. We had scrapped the 1-3-1 at half time and we playing man-to-man and got a rebound off their miss with 45ish seconds remaining. At this point they only had 2 team fouls and began a half-hearted attempt at pressuring us and fouling. They only got off two fouls as our guards spaced, moved, passed and dribbled 40 seconds off the clock before the defense knocked the ball out of bounds with 4 seconds left. We are up by 3, with the ball, 4 seconds left- a great position to be in. On the in bounds play - after a time out - our guys ran the play we wanted, but their guy defending the pass tipped it and they got possession, a dribble, a pass and a desperation 3 attempt that hit the top of the backboard and we won 33-30.
Not really a statement game, but a win none-the-less leaving our conference record perfect, for the time being. Somehow, we have to find a way to motivate our guys to channel their play from the first 2 minutes for the whole game. If we can do that, we are going to have plenty of opportunities still this season to play great ball and see rewards for our efforts.
**********
Our Saturday night game was against a team that we took 2 out of 3 from last year. Of all the Lutheran school gyms we play in (which are all great), theirs is the best. Besides the full length and width floor, they have spacious sidelines and a lower and upper level seating (not that a middle school games would ever necessitate the upper level, but it's nice to have).
We saw this opponent play at an earlier holiday tournament where they won the consolation championship (while we took 2nd). From seeing them there and during their warm-ups, we were fairly comfortable in thinking we should have won this game.
We came out a little slow and a little sloppy. The gym was loud and our opponent was ready to play. There were a lot of turnovers for both sides in the first quarter, but we did enough right to take an 8-4 into the second quarter.
At this point the pace of the game picked up significantly. In most cases this ends up being to our advantage, but since our opponents' frantic amped up pace caused us to play frantic our guys were making way too many mistakes to capitalize. The quarter was a 10-10 tie leaving us in the lead 18-14.
It appeared that we were stuck in whatever slump we fell in for most of Friday's game. At halftime we had nothing to say that we had not already said for the entire season at halftime breaks. When we play disciplined and within our plan, we are good enough to make plays and control the game. When we do not, games we should easily win become games where the outcome is in doubt until the very end.
There was no magic in the locker room, but something set in as we returned with a more typical third quarter and then some as we rolled 13-0 in the quarter on our way to a 31-14 lead heading into the final quarter. At that point we were able to get some of our less experienced guys some good minutes, shots and baskets as we coasted to a 44-26 victory.
The win put us at 5-0 in our conference with two games left to play, both against opponents in the bottom half of our conference's standings. (I actually got an email from a coach congratulating us on our conference championship, flattering but a tad bit early for me.) I felt way better after Saturday night than I did Friday, knowing that - at least for 12 minutes - we had played the basketball we were capable of playing and had definitively defeated someone.
With four weeks to go, and our 3 biggest tournaments, we are hoping that this is a sign of a team peaking at the right time.
Friday night was a game we have been looking forward to for several weeks now. At the end of all of our previous conference games the opposing coaches have all asked me if we had played St. John's yet, since they are the other "team to beat" this year.
Coming off of our poor showing at last weekend's tournament we had a so-so week of practice, but it looked like our guys were getting back into the swing of things and were ready to get back on track. We also had our brand new vegas gold jerseys to break out for this game (which, incidentally, was a good thing because our opponent played in black jerseys - the same color as our other set). We looked sharp walking out for the opening tip and for the first 2 minutes it looked like we might run away with the game as we jumped all over them with our 3/4 press and worked our way to an early 13-4 lead. Like any good team they utilized a time-out, settled down, made some adjustments and started to play better. Add to that our center picking up two early fouls in the quarter and having to sit out, they managed to pull closer as we lead 16-9 at the end of the 1Q.
In the second quarter our shooting guard picked up his second foul and we switched defensively to a 1-3-1 zone that we have been struggling with. They stepped up their defensive pressure and we made some crucial mistakes in the final minute of the quarter and ended up losing the quarter 10-7, but still lead 23-19 at the half.
At half time there was not much to say other than to continually point out that when our guys stick to the game plan and play our team's brand of basketball, with energy on every possession, we are capable of putting many teams away early. But, when we resort to playing within our bad habits and trying to do things we have not practiced and create things that are not there, we allow many teams to stick around.
Usually the 3Q is our quarter to get our act together, but not this time. For the first 4:30 of the quarter we were unable to even score but we managed to stop them as well. With just under 2 minutes to play in the quarter they got a steal and converted the break to take their first lead of the game. We managed to get a couple baskets off of defensive play in the final 90 seconds to take an unstable 27-25 lead into the final quarter.
The last quarter was a fairly exciting quarter as far as middle school basketball goes. The only major concern I had was the officials. This game's referees were easily in the top 5 most frustrating officials I have ever "worked" with. The home team getting less fouls (4 v. 13) and more free throws (11 v. 4) is a natural part of basketball but the calls going against us were - at times - preposterous. Just as frustrating as the calls going against us were the "imaginative" explanations I was getting from the officials as to why the calls were going against us. These moments prove to be some of the more comical of this season with two assistants on our bench. Both are life long basketball guys (as am I), one is a certified referee and the other is the son of a referee. At the very least it is comforting to have two people in close proximity to affirm my "view" of what was happening.
None-the-less, we found ourselves up 3 with under a minute to play and on defense. We had scrapped the 1-3-1 at half time and we playing man-to-man and got a rebound off their miss with 45ish seconds remaining. At this point they only had 2 team fouls and began a half-hearted attempt at pressuring us and fouling. They only got off two fouls as our guards spaced, moved, passed and dribbled 40 seconds off the clock before the defense knocked the ball out of bounds with 4 seconds left. We are up by 3, with the ball, 4 seconds left- a great position to be in. On the in bounds play - after a time out - our guys ran the play we wanted, but their guy defending the pass tipped it and they got possession, a dribble, a pass and a desperation 3 attempt that hit the top of the backboard and we won 33-30.
Not really a statement game, but a win none-the-less leaving our conference record perfect, for the time being. Somehow, we have to find a way to motivate our guys to channel their play from the first 2 minutes for the whole game. If we can do that, we are going to have plenty of opportunities still this season to play great ball and see rewards for our efforts.
**********
Our Saturday night game was against a team that we took 2 out of 3 from last year. Of all the Lutheran school gyms we play in (which are all great), theirs is the best. Besides the full length and width floor, they have spacious sidelines and a lower and upper level seating (not that a middle school games would ever necessitate the upper level, but it's nice to have).
We saw this opponent play at an earlier holiday tournament where they won the consolation championship (while we took 2nd). From seeing them there and during their warm-ups, we were fairly comfortable in thinking we should have won this game.
We came out a little slow and a little sloppy. The gym was loud and our opponent was ready to play. There were a lot of turnovers for both sides in the first quarter, but we did enough right to take an 8-4 into the second quarter.
At this point the pace of the game picked up significantly. In most cases this ends up being to our advantage, but since our opponents' frantic amped up pace caused us to play frantic our guys were making way too many mistakes to capitalize. The quarter was a 10-10 tie leaving us in the lead 18-14.
It appeared that we were stuck in whatever slump we fell in for most of Friday's game. At halftime we had nothing to say that we had not already said for the entire season at halftime breaks. When we play disciplined and within our plan, we are good enough to make plays and control the game. When we do not, games we should easily win become games where the outcome is in doubt until the very end.
There was no magic in the locker room, but something set in as we returned with a more typical third quarter and then some as we rolled 13-0 in the quarter on our way to a 31-14 lead heading into the final quarter. At that point we were able to get some of our less experienced guys some good minutes, shots and baskets as we coasted to a 44-26 victory.
The win put us at 5-0 in our conference with two games left to play, both against opponents in the bottom half of our conference's standings. (I actually got an email from a coach congratulating us on our conference championship, flattering but a tad bit early for me.) I felt way better after Saturday night than I did Friday, knowing that - at least for 12 minutes - we had played the basketball we were capable of playing and had definitively defeated someone.
With four weeks to go, and our 3 biggest tournaments, we are hoping that this is a sign of a team peaking at the right time.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
A Sloppy 12-4
This season marks the first time I have ever had a tournament over Christmas break, particularly the weekend before kids return to school and I was really looking forward to it. In the past, players tend to come back from the long break with a little rust, thus I was glad to have a tournament waiting to get some of that rust taken care of before an important week when we got back.
The tournament had six teams with two divisions, so we played the other two teams in our division before advancing to a "place" game. Also, instead of four quarters, this tournament played two 20 minute halves with a running clock (which amounts to basically the same amount of actual playing time). Of the six teams, four were from the city and two were elite academy schools from the 'burbs. Our first game was against one of those schools.
After our two practices at the end of our break I was fairly sure our guys were as ready as they ever could be after two weeks off, but the first couple minutes of our first game showed me otherwise. We were flat and lazy and fell behind 4-2. We took a time-out, shook off the silliness, got our press in order and closed out the first half up 34-15. This game marked the coming out party for our 6'2" center. Since our opponent did not have anyone to match his size, he got lay-up after lay-up on his way to a 16 point half. The second half was more of the same but at a slower pace as we ended up winning 56-36.
Our second game was against a public school that featured an older brother of one of our seventh graders. In their match-up with our first opponent, they did not look like a great team. However, in our game with them- they had a player or two that did not play in the first game and they apparently decided to bring their "A" game.
Like most city schools they played a fast paced offense and added a very effective trapping defense. Our guys hung with them for about 30 seconds before falling behind for good. Their defense rattled us enough that we ended up with a season high for turnovers and were unable to get anything going offensively. We trailed 32-12 at half on our way to losing 58-31. Our center - coming off of his biggest game of the year - failed to score until the very end of the game. Our shooting guard - who averages around 16-17 points a game - had one basket. The gym had low ceilings and arches that extended even lower and got hit at least twice in every game of the tournament. This clearly messed with our shooters' heads as we failed to record even one 3-point basket in the game and the entire tournament. Overall, we looked scared, slow and sloppy. We had no heart and we looked exactly like a team that had taken two weeks off. Very frustrating.
To finish the tournament, we played for third place against a team we had already beaten this year at our tournament. They came to this tournament with essentially the same team we played. Our team, however, was not the team they had played - at least not on this day. Besides our lackadaisical play, we were missing our starting power forward who had missed our two practices and had not called me or anyone else, for that matter.
The game was close the whole way, both teams playing sloppy. Defensively, we were never able to settle on either man-to-man or our 1-3-1 zone as our most effective way of stopping them. Offensively, we ran our new set against a zone fairly well, but our guys were not paying close enough attention to their roles to be effective in carrying it out. At half-time, we were down 13-11. The second half looked a lot like the first half, except now several of our players were beginning to show signs of being tired and showed no heart in battling to try to win the game. I ended up benching our leading scorer for the final 5+ minutes after twice taking him out of the game to plead with him to give us whatever fight and energy he had left, to no avail. We ended up losing 36-30, the only bright spot being that we got to get some of our younger guys into a tense, meaningful situation at the end.
Hopefully, this tournament served as a "taking out of the garbage" for the guys and they return this week to school determined to play better this week as we face two of our closest conference foes.
The tournament had six teams with two divisions, so we played the other two teams in our division before advancing to a "place" game. Also, instead of four quarters, this tournament played two 20 minute halves with a running clock (which amounts to basically the same amount of actual playing time). Of the six teams, four were from the city and two were elite academy schools from the 'burbs. Our first game was against one of those schools.
After our two practices at the end of our break I was fairly sure our guys were as ready as they ever could be after two weeks off, but the first couple minutes of our first game showed me otherwise. We were flat and lazy and fell behind 4-2. We took a time-out, shook off the silliness, got our press in order and closed out the first half up 34-15. This game marked the coming out party for our 6'2" center. Since our opponent did not have anyone to match his size, he got lay-up after lay-up on his way to a 16 point half. The second half was more of the same but at a slower pace as we ended up winning 56-36.
Our second game was against a public school that featured an older brother of one of our seventh graders. In their match-up with our first opponent, they did not look like a great team. However, in our game with them- they had a player or two that did not play in the first game and they apparently decided to bring their "A" game.
Like most city schools they played a fast paced offense and added a very effective trapping defense. Our guys hung with them for about 30 seconds before falling behind for good. Their defense rattled us enough that we ended up with a season high for turnovers and were unable to get anything going offensively. We trailed 32-12 at half on our way to losing 58-31. Our center - coming off of his biggest game of the year - failed to score until the very end of the game. Our shooting guard - who averages around 16-17 points a game - had one basket. The gym had low ceilings and arches that extended even lower and got hit at least twice in every game of the tournament. This clearly messed with our shooters' heads as we failed to record even one 3-point basket in the game and the entire tournament. Overall, we looked scared, slow and sloppy. We had no heart and we looked exactly like a team that had taken two weeks off. Very frustrating.
To finish the tournament, we played for third place against a team we had already beaten this year at our tournament. They came to this tournament with essentially the same team we played. Our team, however, was not the team they had played - at least not on this day. Besides our lackadaisical play, we were missing our starting power forward who had missed our two practices and had not called me or anyone else, for that matter.
The game was close the whole way, both teams playing sloppy. Defensively, we were never able to settle on either man-to-man or our 1-3-1 zone as our most effective way of stopping them. Offensively, we ran our new set against a zone fairly well, but our guys were not paying close enough attention to their roles to be effective in carrying it out. At half-time, we were down 13-11. The second half looked a lot like the first half, except now several of our players were beginning to show signs of being tired and showed no heart in battling to try to win the game. I ended up benching our leading scorer for the final 5+ minutes after twice taking him out of the game to plead with him to give us whatever fight and energy he had left, to no avail. We ended up losing 36-30, the only bright spot being that we got to get some of our younger guys into a tense, meaningful situation at the end.
Hopefully, this tournament served as a "taking out of the garbage" for the guys and they return this week to school determined to play better this week as we face two of our closest conference foes.
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