Week One Thoughts

Our first official week of practice is over and we are starting slow. I am glad that we started the season so early because of weeks like this.

Our roster currently has 19 boys on it, 12 on the A squad and 7 on the B. Of that list, 1 is currently out of school for one more week (thus no practice), another has not turned in his waiver and cannot participate yet and our center is still out until he gets medically cleared. With the remaining guys, each of the three days of practice had at least one not bring his practice gear, a couple in after school tutoring, and a couple more decide not to come to practice without telling Coach. Add to that a couple guys who needed to be sent home early from practice for attitude and we were left with a group of about 7 each day.

We put in some good work with the guys who did come with good attitudes. With only three guys returning from last year and two of them not practicing yet, every thing is new. Getting our pre-game warm-up routine down along with learning all the drills and stations we do by name is taking some time. But, with the early start to the season, our margin for error is much bigger than with past teams.

We still have only worked on one offensive set and the guys are starting to get it down pretty well. We will start to introduce our other sets and plays with each coming week. Defensively we want to run man as our staple defense, but we will add some zones in later along with our presses. We have enough guys who are quick and smart to run effective presses- again assuming everyone stays eligible.

My biggest concern at this point is getting guys to buy into the whole program of living right off the court and in the classroom and working hard in the gym. We can have a good season and a good time with whomever wants to do these things, but if everyone buys into this we could be very good.