MONDAY - No school today, but we had practice and it was probably our best of the season. 10 of the 11 'A' guys showed up and they brought their 'A' attitudes and effort. I am really pleased with how the guys are picking up our defensive concepts so far. Last year we were blessed with the best player I have ever coached along with a couple big guys and a couple good shooters, thus we won a lot of games on our ability and athleticism. By the end of the year, when we were playing our hardest competition, we showed that we had not worked hard enough on defense and defensive concepts. This year it is my aim to make sure we are solid on D and so far, so good. I also got some good work out of one of our post players that will have to be a part of our plans whether or not our center gets medical clearance.
TUESDAY-WEDNESDAY - Not much to report other than a lot of the same. We are ready for a game which is supposed to sort of happen tomorrow with a tentatively scheduled scrimmage with a local AAU team. The guys are still struggling with our expectations for them as young men on and off the court.
THURSDAY - No scrimmage, the other team never got back to us. Instead we ran through some warm-up drills and then ran 4-on-4 for an hour. (Our gym is regulation length but the width is about 3-4 feet too thin on each side due to the walls that are there.) I got some GREAT news during the scrimmage when our 6'2" center called me from the doctor's office and said he had been cleared to play ball again. So, what we learned from letting the guys go a little...
Our starting five is going to be good. We have the aforementioned center who will no doubt face maybe 2 or 3 players his size all season, if not less. Our shooting guard is really good at shooting. We have an 8th grader who can play any of our 5 positions and play them well. We have a guard returning from last year who understands what I want and am trying to do better than almost any player I have had in 7 seasons. We have a 7th grade point guard who will be able to run the show against most of our opponents and should get better as the season goes on. (If he can't our multi-position guy can easily be our point). These five will make a very good first unit. Defensively they are aggressive (not good for the two suburban tournaments we are going to- but great for the rest of the season in the city). Once we get our 2-2-1 zone press in place, these guys will be tough to get past.
We have 2 good subs. One is a 5'9ish" 8th grader that is raw in his skill set, but he is wicked fast, can JUMP and has shown brief flashes of athleticism that made my assistant and I look at one another and grin. If he can listen and learn and grow mechanically he will get plenty of minutes and maybe get some starts for a line up change occasionally. The other probable regular sub is a seventh grader who physically makes me think of Tayshaun Prince. Standing at maybe 5'7" his wingspan is easily 6'. He - like many 7th graders I have coached before - is in the midst of that awful adolescent span when your body will not cooperate with much of what you want to do. However, his basketball IQ is great for a 7th grader. Defensively, he really is tracking with what we are trying to do. He will be great for getting the starters extended minutes of rest.
Of the next 5-7 guys, a couple might fight for some minutes but really should see their best minutes in games we put away early and there should be enough of those.
Our first game is 6 days away and we are ready. We will not have our team shoe since guys are dragging their heels getting me the money, but everything else should be in order to get the game season underway the right way.
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