At our last tournament, there was a photographer in attendance who takes photos for the local (Grafton) sports teams. He took 174 pictures at our game, including our team photo when it was all over.
Check out the photos [here].
Monday, February 23, 2009
Monday, February 16, 2009
27-5 with Another Championship!
Two weeks ago we were recovering from a disappointing and dysfunctional 3rd place finish in our conference tournament. Now our season has become a rare, incredibly rewarding and memorable one as we won our second straight large Lutheran school tournament.
Our semi-final opponent was a team from our conference that we had played already twice this season, most recently last week in the semi-finals of our Wisconsin Synod tournament. In both cases we played sluggish and got into unnecessary foul trouble but found a way to win by 3 and 1. This time around we were ready to show them once and for all that we were the better team. Our only concern was whether or not our 6'2" center would get home (from visiting his sister at college) in time to play our 1pm game. We got our answer at 12:15 when he called me to let me know he and his family were over an hour away from Milwaukee (plus the tournament was another 30 minutes away). In the locker room we talked about how this was a statement game- we needed to make a statement to our opponent that we were the better team by beating them 3 out of 3 tries and we needed to make a statement to ourselves that even without a key player we could all step up and play great basketball.
I told our guys to be ready for a team that would be hungry to finally beat us and who would come at us with something to prove- but it was clear from the earliest moments of this game that our opponent was not going to be that team. Maybe they had already decided that they could not beat us, maybe they had all stayed up too late the night before, or maybe it was something else but they did not come out with any fire against us.
The first quarter was slow and sluggish for both teams but we were on top 8-6 when it ended. The semi-final before us featured the host school vs. a team from Chicago. The officials had turned that game into a foul and FT fest that was so obnoxious that the home fans were even ripping into the refs (by name in many cases!), so we were a little concerned that our game would end up that way as well. Despite many baffling calls (and even more baffling explanations from the officials), we were never really knocked out of our game plan. The school's gym is smaller than official size, especially on the wings where a player with over a size 10 shoe cannot physically attempt a 3-pointer. The "smallness" of the court worked to our advantage with our press. We were the only team at the tournament who used a press in every game, all game long. We won the second quarter 7-4 to extend our lead to 15-10 at the break.
The third quarter was more of the same from the first half. We forced our opponent to play our game and converted our fast break opportunities to take the quarter 12-6 and take a 27-16 lead into the fourth quarter. It was evident by this time that we had this game under control as our opponent's best player had no energy left playing the entire quarter with his jersey untucked and no real confidence against our defense. We actually lost the quarter by 1 point but won the game 37-27. All of our guys were pretty excited to have definitively beat this team a third team to move on to another championship (thus securing our name in future tournament programs again) and to have done this without our center.
I had emailed the tournament director earlier this week to let her know that our center would not be playing Saturday (because of a family trip) but would be back Sunday. I just wanted to cover our bases since it would be obvious to all that he had not been there Saturday. As it turned out our opponent in the championship was the host school and their head coach told me at the start of the tournament that he was aware of our situation. So, even though our opponent's players (and parents) did not know he was coming- their coach did.
Last week's championship was huge for numerous reasons, this time around it was all about cementing a legacy (if there is such a thing in middle school) of greatness. There was no way I could replicate my pre-game speech from the previous week so instead I prepped the guys for a game with a loud crowd totally against them, officiating that would probably go against them all game, and a chance to demonstrate who we really were. The guys were ready to go, our only question was whether or not our center would be ready for a championship game (having not played the previous three).
The environment in the gym was great. Though the gym (built in 1961- the first year of the tournament- and filled to capacity) was probably over 90% for the home team, we had our largest crowd of fans for any of our four games this weekend, complete with a couple grandparents and parents who had yet to see their kids play this year. The first quarter went exactly how we wanted it to, fast paced and intense. Our press and 1-3-1 zone were doing enough to rattle their offensive plans and our shooting guard was "getting off" hitting all three of his 3-point attempts as we rolled to a 17-11 first quarter lead. It was evident that our center was not ready for this intense of a game after a "vacation" and his back-up was also not ready.
The second quarter we had a couple boys pick up their second fouls and found the bench since we were still ahead by 4-6 points the entire quarter. We lost a little bit of steam and had some crucial mental errors (and one bogus three point play against us) in the final minute that lead to a tie score (23-23) at the break. Our half time coaches' discussion was our longest of the season thanks to the host school's cheerleaders performing at half time (thus extending the normal 5 minute intermission to 10 minutes). We noticed that our opponent had figured out our 1-3-1, so we decided to switch to our 2-1-2 and keep the press going. Offensively, we were getting the shots we wanted- we just needed our bigs to "man" up and do their assigned jobs. All 23 of our points had come courtesy of our two leading scorers and it did not appear that they were going to have any trouble getting buckets in the second half, but they were going to need some help for us to win the game.
In the third quarter other guys started to contribute. Despite falling behind early (for the first and only time in the game), we kept our composure and went to work. Our center finally settled down and gave us the defensive effort we were missing (he finished the game with 6 blocks). Our scorers scored but we also got buckets from two other guys as well on our way to a 13-8 quarter victory and a 36-31 lead with 6 minutes to play.
The fourth quarter played out the way a fourth quarter of a championship should with the crowd into it and the players battling on every possession. Ultimately, the game was decided in the final 3 minutes. Our center denied several point blank shot attempts and scored two huge baskets (his only two of the game). We found ourselves up 6 when our shooting guard stole the ball at the top of the key and raced down the foul for a lay-up that would, for all intents and purposes, seal the win. But, instead of going right to the backboard he tried to make a high-light lay-up and missed. Thus, giving our opponent one last gasp to get the game down to two possesions or less. We harassed them enough on the ensuing possession to get a turn over and the ball out of bounds under our opponent's basket. They had only three fouls at this point in the second half and went into a full court press for the first time in the game. Our two best players were able to run off screens by our center, get the in bounds passes and literally dribble out the final minute and a half never even needing to shoot bonus free throws.
There was not much to say to the boys after the game, they were stoked to win another championship, giddy about the big individual medals everyone got, and even more excited that our name would be listed as 2009 CHAMPION for years to come in the program.
In my post game notes that I write down for every game, I was hard pressed to single out crucial errors we made. All the things we did "wrong" could be chalked up to middle school boys playing in an intense championship game. Our boys did everything we asked them to do, everything we had been coaching and training them to do since October. Back then we knew we had the talent to be a good team and we set our sights on these past two weekends as the tournaments we wanted to be ready for and knew we could compete in. Yet, there were never really any moments that we ever believed (at least as a coaching staff) that this group of guys would actually pull it all together they way they have over the past eight games and truly become a great team. But they did it and they earned these two championships and the invitation to play in the Lutheran schools state tournament in three weeks.
It will be a challenge to keep our guys focused for THREE weeks when they have accomplished what they have, but at this point they have earned some space to be goofy kids. But, if we can find a way to let them enjoy their just rewards AND get them re-focused, we are primed to make some noise at State.
Our semi-final opponent was a team from our conference that we had played already twice this season, most recently last week in the semi-finals of our Wisconsin Synod tournament. In both cases we played sluggish and got into unnecessary foul trouble but found a way to win by 3 and 1. This time around we were ready to show them once and for all that we were the better team. Our only concern was whether or not our 6'2" center would get home (from visiting his sister at college) in time to play our 1pm game. We got our answer at 12:15 when he called me to let me know he and his family were over an hour away from Milwaukee (plus the tournament was another 30 minutes away). In the locker room we talked about how this was a statement game- we needed to make a statement to our opponent that we were the better team by beating them 3 out of 3 tries and we needed to make a statement to ourselves that even without a key player we could all step up and play great basketball.
I told our guys to be ready for a team that would be hungry to finally beat us and who would come at us with something to prove- but it was clear from the earliest moments of this game that our opponent was not going to be that team. Maybe they had already decided that they could not beat us, maybe they had all stayed up too late the night before, or maybe it was something else but they did not come out with any fire against us.
The first quarter was slow and sluggish for both teams but we were on top 8-6 when it ended. The semi-final before us featured the host school vs. a team from Chicago. The officials had turned that game into a foul and FT fest that was so obnoxious that the home fans were even ripping into the refs (by name in many cases!), so we were a little concerned that our game would end up that way as well. Despite many baffling calls (and even more baffling explanations from the officials), we were never really knocked out of our game plan. The school's gym is smaller than official size, especially on the wings where a player with over a size 10 shoe cannot physically attempt a 3-pointer. The "smallness" of the court worked to our advantage with our press. We were the only team at the tournament who used a press in every game, all game long. We won the second quarter 7-4 to extend our lead to 15-10 at the break.
The third quarter was more of the same from the first half. We forced our opponent to play our game and converted our fast break opportunities to take the quarter 12-6 and take a 27-16 lead into the fourth quarter. It was evident by this time that we had this game under control as our opponent's best player had no energy left playing the entire quarter with his jersey untucked and no real confidence against our defense. We actually lost the quarter by 1 point but won the game 37-27. All of our guys were pretty excited to have definitively beat this team a third team to move on to another championship (thus securing our name in future tournament programs again) and to have done this without our center.
I had emailed the tournament director earlier this week to let her know that our center would not be playing Saturday (because of a family trip) but would be back Sunday. I just wanted to cover our bases since it would be obvious to all that he had not been there Saturday. As it turned out our opponent in the championship was the host school and their head coach told me at the start of the tournament that he was aware of our situation. So, even though our opponent's players (and parents) did not know he was coming- their coach did.
Last week's championship was huge for numerous reasons, this time around it was all about cementing a legacy (if there is such a thing in middle school) of greatness. There was no way I could replicate my pre-game speech from the previous week so instead I prepped the guys for a game with a loud crowd totally against them, officiating that would probably go against them all game, and a chance to demonstrate who we really were. The guys were ready to go, our only question was whether or not our center would be ready for a championship game (having not played the previous three).
The environment in the gym was great. Though the gym (built in 1961- the first year of the tournament- and filled to capacity) was probably over 90% for the home team, we had our largest crowd of fans for any of our four games this weekend, complete with a couple grandparents and parents who had yet to see their kids play this year. The first quarter went exactly how we wanted it to, fast paced and intense. Our press and 1-3-1 zone were doing enough to rattle their offensive plans and our shooting guard was "getting off" hitting all three of his 3-point attempts as we rolled to a 17-11 first quarter lead. It was evident that our center was not ready for this intense of a game after a "vacation" and his back-up was also not ready.
The second quarter we had a couple boys pick up their second fouls and found the bench since we were still ahead by 4-6 points the entire quarter. We lost a little bit of steam and had some crucial mental errors (and one bogus three point play against us) in the final minute that lead to a tie score (23-23) at the break. Our half time coaches' discussion was our longest of the season thanks to the host school's cheerleaders performing at half time (thus extending the normal 5 minute intermission to 10 minutes). We noticed that our opponent had figured out our 1-3-1, so we decided to switch to our 2-1-2 and keep the press going. Offensively, we were getting the shots we wanted- we just needed our bigs to "man" up and do their assigned jobs. All 23 of our points had come courtesy of our two leading scorers and it did not appear that they were going to have any trouble getting buckets in the second half, but they were going to need some help for us to win the game.
In the third quarter other guys started to contribute. Despite falling behind early (for the first and only time in the game), we kept our composure and went to work. Our center finally settled down and gave us the defensive effort we were missing (he finished the game with 6 blocks). Our scorers scored but we also got buckets from two other guys as well on our way to a 13-8 quarter victory and a 36-31 lead with 6 minutes to play.
The fourth quarter played out the way a fourth quarter of a championship should with the crowd into it and the players battling on every possession. Ultimately, the game was decided in the final 3 minutes. Our center denied several point blank shot attempts and scored two huge baskets (his only two of the game). We found ourselves up 6 when our shooting guard stole the ball at the top of the key and raced down the foul for a lay-up that would, for all intents and purposes, seal the win. But, instead of going right to the backboard he tried to make a high-light lay-up and missed. Thus, giving our opponent one last gasp to get the game down to two possesions or less. We harassed them enough on the ensuing possession to get a turn over and the ball out of bounds under our opponent's basket. They had only three fouls at this point in the second half and went into a full court press for the first time in the game. Our two best players were able to run off screens by our center, get the in bounds passes and literally dribble out the final minute and a half never even needing to shoot bonus free throws.
There was not much to say to the boys after the game, they were stoked to win another championship, giddy about the big individual medals everyone got, and even more excited that our name would be listed as 2009 CHAMPION for years to come in the program.
In my post game notes that I write down for every game, I was hard pressed to single out crucial errors we made. All the things we did "wrong" could be chalked up to middle school boys playing in an intense championship game. Our boys did everything we asked them to do, everything we had been coaching and training them to do since October. Back then we knew we had the talent to be a good team and we set our sights on these past two weekends as the tournaments we wanted to be ready for and knew we could compete in. Yet, there were never really any moments that we ever believed (at least as a coaching staff) that this group of guys would actually pull it all together they way they have over the past eight games and truly become a great team. But they did it and they earned these two championships and the invitation to play in the Lutheran schools state tournament in three weeks.
It will be a challenge to keep our guys focused for THREE weeks when they have accomplished what they have, but at this point they have earned some space to be goofy kids. But, if we can find a way to let them enjoy their just rewards AND get them re-focused, we are primed to make some noise at State.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
25-5
This weekend's tournament is one of our favorites from last year, if not our favorite. We enjoy it for many reasons: it is run by a Missouri Synod Lutheran school (thus we get to see new/different teams), they do little things that make the tournament fun (selling buttons and beads for every school, team signs everywhere), we did really well last year (2nd place, ensuring that our school name will be in their tournament program for years to come), and because the competition gets good.
Our first two games of the tournament featured a scare and a slaughter. Our first opponent was a team we played last year in the second round and won easily, this time around it should have been easier but it did not play out that way. Our 6'2" center was visiting his sister at college for the day so we were forced into our "small" line-up. It should have not matter as we had our press going really well in the smaller gym that hosts the tournament. We used our traps to jump out to a 21-13 1Q lead with our scoring duo putting up 17 points between them in the quarter. In the second quarter, those two guys got all our points as our opponent adjusted to our tempo and barely lost the quarter to us, 14-13, extending our lead to 35-26 at half time.
In the third quarter, our go to guys got their buckets and a couple other guys pitched in on our way to a 20 point quarter. We lead 55-41 with one quarter to play and it looked like I might be coaching my first game ever where my team hit 70. The only problem was our opponent's point guard was having the best game of his life! With a shot that looked like it hurt him to even attempt he lead their crazy comeback in the 4Q. He got a little miracle help from a couple of his teammates as well as they simply could not miss anything that they threw towards the basket. Their point guard finished with 36 ridiculous points which included a buzzer beating 3 pointer at the end of the game- but we were up 4 when he hit it. Thus, we quietly walked away with a 62-61 victory having lost the 4Q 20-7. In the locker room we made sure that the guys understood that they should be glad, but not proud of the win. (BTW- our best player had a triple double, 20 points-13 rebounds-11 assists, which I am pretty sure is the first player I have ever coached who has done that!)
On top of our gross play- I have been battling my first ever sinus cold/flu/infection and this morning's game seemed to be the "pinnacle" of awfulness. On the way home I stopped at Walgreen's and found the strongest drugs they offered, came home, took some and slept for an hour or so and then laid in the tub with the hottest water I could get from my faucet for another 30+ minutes. After eating some soup and resting for another halfish hour, I took my shooting guard and another player to Ponderosa for dinner. Last year, I took our shooting guard to Ponderosa in between games at this same tournament and he responded that night with a 28 point outburst in 3 quarters of play. I was hoping he would do it again.
Well, he brought his "A" game- but it was completely unnecessary as we controlled the game literally from the opening tip. Our press proved too much for our quarter final opponent as we scored the first 12 points on our way to winning the 1Q 18-4. In the 2Q we limited their scoring to two free-throws while we scored 15 to lead 33-6 at half time. We won the 3Q 13-2 to take a 46-8 lead into the 4Q. All the while our bench guys were getting good extended minutes. We only had eight guys at the game, so we always had a couple starters on the floor to help facilitate our bench guys and their scoring. Even with a slowed down game, we managed to win the 4Q 11-7 and rolled to a 57-15 victory.
Our opponent tomorrow is a familiar one as they are from our conference and we have played (and beat) them twice this season. When we met in conference play at their gym, the officiating was a little off (their head coach actually apologized to me after the game for the officials) and we won by 3, in our tournament last week our best player was in major foul trouble and we still managed to win by 1 (the other game this year in which our opponent hit a 3 pointer at the buzzer when we were up by 4 to bring the final score to within one). I really would like to play somebody new, but we know that this team has yet to see us at our best and we are still 2-0 against them. We also know they really want to get us, so it should be a good game. Win or lose our second game Sunday is also going to be a battle- so it is shaping up to be a good test to see if last weekend was really who we are or if we just got hot and put it together for one weekend. We are hoping it is a repeat of a week ago.
Our first two games of the tournament featured a scare and a slaughter. Our first opponent was a team we played last year in the second round and won easily, this time around it should have been easier but it did not play out that way. Our 6'2" center was visiting his sister at college for the day so we were forced into our "small" line-up. It should have not matter as we had our press going really well in the smaller gym that hosts the tournament. We used our traps to jump out to a 21-13 1Q lead with our scoring duo putting up 17 points between them in the quarter. In the second quarter, those two guys got all our points as our opponent adjusted to our tempo and barely lost the quarter to us, 14-13, extending our lead to 35-26 at half time.
In the third quarter, our go to guys got their buckets and a couple other guys pitched in on our way to a 20 point quarter. We lead 55-41 with one quarter to play and it looked like I might be coaching my first game ever where my team hit 70. The only problem was our opponent's point guard was having the best game of his life! With a shot that looked like it hurt him to even attempt he lead their crazy comeback in the 4Q. He got a little miracle help from a couple of his teammates as well as they simply could not miss anything that they threw towards the basket. Their point guard finished with 36 ridiculous points which included a buzzer beating 3 pointer at the end of the game- but we were up 4 when he hit it. Thus, we quietly walked away with a 62-61 victory having lost the 4Q 20-7. In the locker room we made sure that the guys understood that they should be glad, but not proud of the win. (BTW- our best player had a triple double, 20 points-13 rebounds-11 assists, which I am pretty sure is the first player I have ever coached who has done that!)
On top of our gross play- I have been battling my first ever sinus cold/flu/infection and this morning's game seemed to be the "pinnacle" of awfulness. On the way home I stopped at Walgreen's and found the strongest drugs they offered, came home, took some and slept for an hour or so and then laid in the tub with the hottest water I could get from my faucet for another 30+ minutes. After eating some soup and resting for another halfish hour, I took my shooting guard and another player to Ponderosa for dinner. Last year, I took our shooting guard to Ponderosa in between games at this same tournament and he responded that night with a 28 point outburst in 3 quarters of play. I was hoping he would do it again.
Well, he brought his "A" game- but it was completely unnecessary as we controlled the game literally from the opening tip. Our press proved too much for our quarter final opponent as we scored the first 12 points on our way to winning the 1Q 18-4. In the 2Q we limited their scoring to two free-throws while we scored 15 to lead 33-6 at half time. We won the 3Q 13-2 to take a 46-8 lead into the 4Q. All the while our bench guys were getting good extended minutes. We only had eight guys at the game, so we always had a couple starters on the floor to help facilitate our bench guys and their scoring. Even with a slowed down game, we managed to win the 4Q 11-7 and rolled to a 57-15 victory.
Our opponent tomorrow is a familiar one as they are from our conference and we have played (and beat) them twice this season. When we met in conference play at their gym, the officiating was a little off (their head coach actually apologized to me after the game for the officials) and we won by 3, in our tournament last week our best player was in major foul trouble and we still managed to win by 1 (the other game this year in which our opponent hit a 3 pointer at the buzzer when we were up by 4 to bring the final score to within one). I really would like to play somebody new, but we know that this team has yet to see us at our best and we are still 2-0 against them. We also know they really want to get us, so it should be a good game. Win or lose our second game Sunday is also going to be a battle- so it is shaping up to be a good test to see if last weekend was really who we are or if we just got hot and put it together for one weekend. We are hoping it is a repeat of a week ago.
Monday, February 9, 2009
23-5 with a CHAMPIONSHIP!
Our quarterfinal match-up this weekend was with the team that beat us last weekend at our conference tournament. We were missing our best all-round player then and lost, this time around it was a completely different story.
With our team at full strength we decided to use a zone to cut down on their best player slashing to the hoop at will and it was an effective change. The 1Q was fast paced and we lead 15-12 going into the 2Q. That was when our shooting guard (and our defense) got going. We won the quarter 22-10 and lead 37-22 at the break. The 3Q we were sluggish, but still lead 42-31 heading into the 4Q. The last six minutes we kept the game out of reach and rolled into the semi-finals with a comfortable 53-40 victory. Our two best players had scored 41 between then (23 from our shooting guard and 18 from our do-all guy).
Our semi-final opponent was from our conference and, during the regular season, was the only team in our conference to lose to us by a single digit margin. In that game the officiating was a little off as was our effort and we squeaked out a 3 point victory. This game ended up being eerily similar.
The first sign that this game was not going to go according to our plans was when our main guy picked up his second foul 1:12 into the game. He would pick up his 3rd (on a very shady call) before the end of the quarter. We would play the entire second quarter without his services and yet we lead 13-8 after the 1Q and 20-14 at halftime. In the 3Q our shooting guard picked up the scoring slack and we did enough right defensively to extend our lead to 27-18 heading into the 4Q. The last six minutes were frustrating and sloppy. Neither of our best scorers made even one basket. We lost the quarter 16-8, but ultimately found ourselves up 4 with 3 seconds left and watched safely as they threw in a three pointer at the buzzer to make the final score 35-34. We were on the championship to face the same team that beat us in the championship of a local holiday tournament earlier this year.
Our earlier game with our championship opponent was a case study in dysfunctional middle school basketball. Our main guy scored 9 1Q points and then failed to score the rest of the game. The fouls and FT's were lopsided favoring our opponent. Our 3/4 court press was sloppy and got abused. Out bigs refused to man up and exploit our huge size advantage. Even with all that went wrong, that game was tied with a minute to go before we lost it. We were confident that if our guys would finally "get it" and play our team's "game" we should and would beat these guys. Our guys did just that and more.
From the opening tip it was clear that our guys were on a mission and that our opponent was not going to match our intensity on this night. They had no player even 5'10" tall. We have a 6'2" center and our main threat is 5'10". But it was not our size that got us going early. Instead, it was our point guard- who averages 2ish points a game but nailed his first 3 shots to get us rolling. During this tournament we modified one of our 3/4 court presses and it was majorly messing with the other team. The only thing they had going was a set shooter who nailed a few shots and at the end of the 1Q we were up 13-11. Defensively we were playing a 2-1-2 zone the whole way, knowing they could not match us physically inside. Our guards on the perimeter and our guys and the wing were harassing their shooters enough to hold them to 9 second quarter points. Meanwhile, on the offensive side we ran every possession through our do-all guy, now playing post. For the first time this season he realized he knew post moves and the smaller defenders were no match for him as he scored 14 of our 15 second quarter points leading us to a 29-20 halftime lead. It might have been unknown to others, but to us it was all but over right then.
In the third quarter our zone defense and our "hot hand" on offense went right back to work and we took the 3Q 15-7 to extend our lead to 44-27 with one quarter to play. The only tense moments came when our opponent threw a sort-of-press on us and got a couple baskets to cut the lead to 10 midway through the 3Q and then when our main guy picked up two quick silly fouls to then have 4 personals.
Even with him out to start the 4Q, our zone defense was too impenetrable for our opponents and our center- who finally was becoming the player we thought he was months ago- asserted his 6'2" self and refused to let them come down low. By the time we got our star back in, the game was out of reach for all intents and purposes. Their coach realized it and we both got our benches in for 90ish seconds. We were up 19 when they threw in a buzzer beating three pointer to bring the final total to 57-41.
Earlier in the day when we were meeting as a coaching staff, we decided that it had to be basketball fate that we would win for the following reasons:
1. We were playing one of my assistant's alma mater at his high school alma mater's gym.
2. 5 years ago (almost to the date), I coached my first championship game while my wife was pregnant with our first child. She is again pregnant with an April due date.
Fictitious fate aside, our boys would not be denied. Everyone of them finally bought into what we have been preaching and teaching to them since October and they became the unstoppable force we thought we were convinced they could become.
As far as Wisconsin Lutheran Synod middle school basketball goes in the entire greater Milwaukee metropolitan area, this tournament is the end-all, be-all prime time show and WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!
With our team at full strength we decided to use a zone to cut down on their best player slashing to the hoop at will and it was an effective change. The 1Q was fast paced and we lead 15-12 going into the 2Q. That was when our shooting guard (and our defense) got going. We won the quarter 22-10 and lead 37-22 at the break. The 3Q we were sluggish, but still lead 42-31 heading into the 4Q. The last six minutes we kept the game out of reach and rolled into the semi-finals with a comfortable 53-40 victory. Our two best players had scored 41 between then (23 from our shooting guard and 18 from our do-all guy).
Our semi-final opponent was from our conference and, during the regular season, was the only team in our conference to lose to us by a single digit margin. In that game the officiating was a little off as was our effort and we squeaked out a 3 point victory. This game ended up being eerily similar.
The first sign that this game was not going to go according to our plans was when our main guy picked up his second foul 1:12 into the game. He would pick up his 3rd (on a very shady call) before the end of the quarter. We would play the entire second quarter without his services and yet we lead 13-8 after the 1Q and 20-14 at halftime. In the 3Q our shooting guard picked up the scoring slack and we did enough right defensively to extend our lead to 27-18 heading into the 4Q. The last six minutes were frustrating and sloppy. Neither of our best scorers made even one basket. We lost the quarter 16-8, but ultimately found ourselves up 4 with 3 seconds left and watched safely as they threw in a three pointer at the buzzer to make the final score 35-34. We were on the championship to face the same team that beat us in the championship of a local holiday tournament earlier this year.
Our earlier game with our championship opponent was a case study in dysfunctional middle school basketball. Our main guy scored 9 1Q points and then failed to score the rest of the game. The fouls and FT's were lopsided favoring our opponent. Our 3/4 court press was sloppy and got abused. Out bigs refused to man up and exploit our huge size advantage. Even with all that went wrong, that game was tied with a minute to go before we lost it. We were confident that if our guys would finally "get it" and play our team's "game" we should and would beat these guys. Our guys did just that and more.
From the opening tip it was clear that our guys were on a mission and that our opponent was not going to match our intensity on this night. They had no player even 5'10" tall. We have a 6'2" center and our main threat is 5'10". But it was not our size that got us going early. Instead, it was our point guard- who averages 2ish points a game but nailed his first 3 shots to get us rolling. During this tournament we modified one of our 3/4 court presses and it was majorly messing with the other team. The only thing they had going was a set shooter who nailed a few shots and at the end of the 1Q we were up 13-11. Defensively we were playing a 2-1-2 zone the whole way, knowing they could not match us physically inside. Our guards on the perimeter and our guys and the wing were harassing their shooters enough to hold them to 9 second quarter points. Meanwhile, on the offensive side we ran every possession through our do-all guy, now playing post. For the first time this season he realized he knew post moves and the smaller defenders were no match for him as he scored 14 of our 15 second quarter points leading us to a 29-20 halftime lead. It might have been unknown to others, but to us it was all but over right then.
In the third quarter our zone defense and our "hot hand" on offense went right back to work and we took the 3Q 15-7 to extend our lead to 44-27 with one quarter to play. The only tense moments came when our opponent threw a sort-of-press on us and got a couple baskets to cut the lead to 10 midway through the 3Q and then when our main guy picked up two quick silly fouls to then have 4 personals.
Even with him out to start the 4Q, our zone defense was too impenetrable for our opponents and our center- who finally was becoming the player we thought he was months ago- asserted his 6'2" self and refused to let them come down low. By the time we got our star back in, the game was out of reach for all intents and purposes. Their coach realized it and we both got our benches in for 90ish seconds. We were up 19 when they threw in a buzzer beating three pointer to bring the final total to 57-41.
Earlier in the day when we were meeting as a coaching staff, we decided that it had to be basketball fate that we would win for the following reasons:
1. We were playing one of my assistant's alma mater at his high school alma mater's gym.
2. 5 years ago (almost to the date), I coached my first championship game while my wife was pregnant with our first child. She is again pregnant with an April due date.
Fictitious fate aside, our boys would not be denied. Everyone of them finally bought into what we have been preaching and teaching to them since October and they became the unstoppable force we thought we were convinced they could become.
As far as Wisconsin Lutheran Synod middle school basketball goes in the entire greater Milwaukee metropolitan area, this tournament is the end-all, be-all prime time show and WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
20-5 with Some Drama
Our big Lutheran school tournament kicked off last night, but the drama leading up to it started days (actually weeks) ago.
On Tuesday of this week there were murmurs afloat at lunch that our 6'2" center was quitting the team with 2 weeks to go. (He had already informed me that he was planning to go visit his sister at college next weekend instead of playing in our season's final tournament.) At the end of the school day he found me, gave me his team sweatshirt and said he was quitting. When I asked him why, he told me to ask his teammates. When I refused to accept his answer he told me again to ask his teammates. He and I moved our conversation to a smaller room where he stood his ground about wanting to quit. I made my case and we had an impasse. After about 15 minutes of sitting alone in our school's kitchen (by himself, in the dark) he left but then turned around and told me quietly he did not want to quit.
On Wednesday I was out of school to watch our sick kids, so our assistant coaches ran practice. Everybody but our starting point guard and best all-round player had a good practice in my absence. Those two guys decided to treat practice like a day at school with a substitute teacher. When I spoke to them Thursday, they felt that their behavior was no big deal. I decided to not start either of them in our first round game.
When it was time to dress for the game we knew for certain that two guys were not coming and a third was extremely late, leaving us with seven guys- but one did not have his shoes, just his school shoes. That mean we had six guys and I wanted to not start two of them. In the moment I decided to have our two bad attitude guys work out their punishment in the hallway instead of the benching. One guy did and the other did not- in fact he so disliked my "solution" that he went to get his school clothes and change out of his game gear to go home but his teammates stopped him. They did not, however, stop his bad attitude from continuing.
The game was one we could afford to not be at full roster strength as it was a huge mismatch. The only problem - besides the missing shoes and the bad attitude - was that I only had one sub, so I had four guys on the floor at all times that could legitimately score at will. Doing the best that we could to not be jerks, we won 56-13 to set up a rematch Saturday morning with the team we lost to this past weekend at our conference tournament- when we were missing our best all-round player. Hopefully, everyone will show up for the game.
On Tuesday of this week there were murmurs afloat at lunch that our 6'2" center was quitting the team with 2 weeks to go. (He had already informed me that he was planning to go visit his sister at college next weekend instead of playing in our season's final tournament.) At the end of the school day he found me, gave me his team sweatshirt and said he was quitting. When I asked him why, he told me to ask his teammates. When I refused to accept his answer he told me again to ask his teammates. He and I moved our conversation to a smaller room where he stood his ground about wanting to quit. I made my case and we had an impasse. After about 15 minutes of sitting alone in our school's kitchen (by himself, in the dark) he left but then turned around and told me quietly he did not want to quit.
On Wednesday I was out of school to watch our sick kids, so our assistant coaches ran practice. Everybody but our starting point guard and best all-round player had a good practice in my absence. Those two guys decided to treat practice like a day at school with a substitute teacher. When I spoke to them Thursday, they felt that their behavior was no big deal. I decided to not start either of them in our first round game.
When it was time to dress for the game we knew for certain that two guys were not coming and a third was extremely late, leaving us with seven guys- but one did not have his shoes, just his school shoes. That mean we had six guys and I wanted to not start two of them. In the moment I decided to have our two bad attitude guys work out their punishment in the hallway instead of the benching. One guy did and the other did not- in fact he so disliked my "solution" that he went to get his school clothes and change out of his game gear to go home but his teammates stopped him. They did not, however, stop his bad attitude from continuing.
The game was one we could afford to not be at full roster strength as it was a huge mismatch. The only problem - besides the missing shoes and the bad attitude - was that I only had one sub, so I had four guys on the floor at all times that could legitimately score at will. Doing the best that we could to not be jerks, we won 56-13 to set up a rematch Saturday morning with the team we lost to this past weekend at our conference tournament- when we were missing our best all-round player. Hopefully, everyone will show up for the game.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
19-5 with some 3rd Place Hardware
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.
*****
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)