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.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
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.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
11-2
Last night we braved the snow and slush to play a game that was cancelled last week due to snow and slush. Our opponent came from a school that boasts only eight 8th graders- none of which play boys' basketball. Last year we beat this school by a lot in the first round of our big Lutheran school tournament, this year's squad was not much better.
We had a couple guys starting that do not usually start (one who has never started) as a result of wanting to reward one guy and punish a starter, thus we started out slow- for about 2 minutes. Once we got our act together we assumed control of the game and never let it go. We lead 20-6 after 1Q, 28-6 at H, 38-10 after 3Q and won by a score of 46-15.
The game did little more than allow us the chance to get our younger players significant minutes and baskets. This Friday we play one of the better teams in our conference, but I will be gone (missing only the second game ever in my 7 years of coaching). After that, Christmas break- which both the boys and the coaches need.
We had a couple guys starting that do not usually start (one who has never started) as a result of wanting to reward one guy and punish a starter, thus we started out slow- for about 2 minutes. Once we got our act together we assumed control of the game and never let it go. We lead 20-6 after 1Q, 28-6 at H, 38-10 after 3Q and won by a score of 46-15.
The game did little more than allow us the chance to get our younger players significant minutes and baskets. This Friday we play one of the better teams in our conference, but I will be gone (missing only the second game ever in my 7 years of coaching). After that, Christmas break- which both the boys and the coaches need.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
10-2 and Our 2nd 2nd Place Trophy
This weekend our tournament was only about 6 blocks south and 4 blocks west of us at a local Lutheran school. It was a 10 team tournament and we were one of the two teams that had to await an early game to find out who our opponent was. We drew the host school, which is one of the two games that I was told last year (by my principal) that I must win (The other game is against our sister school). The host school was where my principal got his start in education and we still have several strong relationships with their staff. They (and our sister school) are probably the closest thing we have to a rivalry.
As I talked to other coaches leading up to the tournament and while at the tournament, it became apparent to me that our team had played several more games than most - if not all - of the participants. Some teams had played as few as 2 games before this weekend, while we had already played 9 (it would have been 10 if not for snow last Tuesday). This gave us an advantage since we have already - in theory - worked through many of our early season mistakes.
Last year when we played the host school, we jumped on them early, they rallied and then it was a decent game before we pulled away at the end. This year we repeated the first step (scoring the first 10 points of the game), but then we decided not to let this game play out the way last year's had gone.
One our opponent settled down in the first quarter they were able to run a few good sets and we lead 15-6 heading into the second quarter. The game stayed pretty much the same for the next six minutes and we took a 27-11 lead into the locker room. So far this season, the third quarter has predominantly been our quarter and we kept it so outscoring our opponent 14-6 on our way to a 41-17 lead with one quarter to go. The fourth was an even matched six minutes as the final score was 57-32.
*****
Our semi-final game was against last year's champion. This team is the only team not from a local school (they travel up from Illinois). Last year's squad gave us our first loss of the season and our only loss before Christmas. They bring a troop of kids (19 this year) and are the most organized and systemic middle school squad I have ever seen. Their talent level was down this year, but they still can throw any guy from the bench into the game and get exactly what the coach wants anyway.
It was evident from the first possession that their plan against us was to be deliberately patient as they ran through their offensive sets multiple times before even attempting their first shot. (Imagine the first game Gene Hackman coached in Hoosiers - only way more passes.) Our guys had probably never even seen a team do this before, let alone played against one doing it versus them. Their first possession took nearly two minutes off the clock before they scored, after which they came right at us with their typical hard nosed man-to-man defense. Our guys responded poorly and chose not to run our offense and abruptly turned it over. Back to defense again and more picks, passes and patience. When we did get the ball back it was more frustration and poor improvisation. With about 2 minutes to go we called a time-out trailing 4-0. We managed one basket - one basket - before the end of the quarter and trailed 8-2.
The second quarter was a near carbon copy of the first. Our opponent was dead set on working through every last cut and pass option of their offense before shooting. Defensively they were everywhere causing our boys nothing but headaches. We again found a way to get ONE basket, but also held them to just five points before our point guard hit a shot from just inside half court to close the gap to 13-7 before half time.
We made two adjustments at half time, the first was to get a seventh grader off our bench and into the game and the second was to tighten up our defense picking them up at 3/4 court. This - combined with our point guard waking up - allowed us to shut them out for the entire third quarter and lead 15-13 heading into the fourth. From there it was a fairly exciting game. With a little under two minutes to play, they hit a three pointer to take an 18-17 lead. We came out of our time-out and were stopped offensively. With just under a minute to go, our eighth grade forward - who has struggled up to now to understand our defensive concepts - found himself guarding his man out at half court. His man caught a pass and turned to face our guy with the ball right out in front of him. Our forward swatted the ball out of his hands, took it up court, switched sides and made the lay-up to pull us ahead 19-18. We got a stop on the following possession and then were fouled a couple times to get into bonus free throws. Out point guard made two to put us ahead 21-18. After taking a time-out our opponent set up a series of picks to free up their best three point shooter, but we had the perimeter blanketed and he air balled his attempt. Our point guard got the rebound and was fouled again. This time nerves took over and he front ended his first attempt. There was a scramble to get the rebound and our assistant (who keeps the book for us - meticulously) had us as getting the next jump ball- but the official score keeper did not. So, our opponent had the ball needing to go the length of the floor in less than 4 seconds with no time-outs and down by three. They ended up not even getting a shot off as we redirected their dribbling enough times to run the clock out and we were on to the championship with an ugly 21-18 victory.
*****
Our opponent in the championship round was a short, fast, good team. They only had one guy even 5'10" tall but they made up for their lack of size with a trapping defense and a lot of running. While our semi-final game was a deliberately slowed down game, the championship was the polar opposite.
The first quarter went about as well as we could expect it to, considering our opponent was a good team. They chose not to start out in their press and they had little difficulty breaking ours. Our top two scorers combined for 12 points and we lead 14-10 heading into the second.
We ran into some foul trouble in the second quarter as three of our starters picked up their second foul. I am of the conservative-Larry Brown approach when it comes to players and fouls. I always sit guys down for the rest of the first half when they get 2 fouls so as to have 3 to play with in the second. With a little over 3 minutes to go in the second, we were down by five and had only two starters on the floor with three reserves (one of which barely ever gets minutes). I was about to put my point guard back in - so as not to let the game get away from us - when the reserve guys started playing lock-down defense and our shooting guard hit some big shots. These elements allowed me to save all our guys in foul trouble and give us a little momentum heading into half time tied at 24.
The third quarter was played at a frantic pace and this ultimately proved to be a bad thing for us. Guys who were normally clutch for us were missing several easy baskets and as a result were too upset to play good defense. We managed a few good stops and a few good shots, but trailed 33-31 with one quarter to go.
At this point in the game it was clear to us that our bigs (center and power forward) were only hurting us as they proved incapable of using their size to our advantage, so we went with our smaller line-up for the rest of the game. The quarter was everything you would expect a championship fourth quarter to be between two evenly matched teams all the way down to a minute to go with the score tied. We were on defense and had a mental lapse leading to a lay-up and then on the ensuing inbound pass, our normally-good-at-making-decisions guard had his pass intercepted for another lay-up and a foul. We were now down 4 and took a time-out. Not out of the game yet, we regrouped and headed back out for the free throw. On a FT, the shooting team has two guys in addition to the shooter who are available to rebound and the other team (us in this situation) have four, leaving two guys to cover the shooter on the rebound. The shooter missed his free throw and, sure enough, got his own rebound. He made another bonus free throw, we squandered another possession and were forced to foul again. They made two free throws to lead by seven and we made a meaningless three pointer at the buzzer to cut the final margin to 46-42.
The loss was frustrating on so many levels.
- For two straight games we let our opponent dictate what kind of game we would play.
- Our bigs do not understand how to play as true post players.
- Our top two scorers missed, between them, thirteen lay-ups.
- For two straight games we failed to run offensive sets that we have been practicing since October, because our opponent played fierce defense.
- Our guys seem to really think they are something. They are athletic and have ability, no doubt, but - at this point - they do not understand that they need to work to be great. This is our biggest challenge with one week to go before Christmas break.
We still have 4 tournaments left this year, 2 of which are big tournaments. We are good enough to challenge for titles in all four, but our level of commitment and our attitudes are standing in our way, for now.
As I talked to other coaches leading up to the tournament and while at the tournament, it became apparent to me that our team had played several more games than most - if not all - of the participants. Some teams had played as few as 2 games before this weekend, while we had already played 9 (it would have been 10 if not for snow last Tuesday). This gave us an advantage since we have already - in theory - worked through many of our early season mistakes.
Last year when we played the host school, we jumped on them early, they rallied and then it was a decent game before we pulled away at the end. This year we repeated the first step (scoring the first 10 points of the game), but then we decided not to let this game play out the way last year's had gone.
One our opponent settled down in the first quarter they were able to run a few good sets and we lead 15-6 heading into the second quarter. The game stayed pretty much the same for the next six minutes and we took a 27-11 lead into the locker room. So far this season, the third quarter has predominantly been our quarter and we kept it so outscoring our opponent 14-6 on our way to a 41-17 lead with one quarter to go. The fourth was an even matched six minutes as the final score was 57-32.
*****
Our semi-final game was against last year's champion. This team is the only team not from a local school (they travel up from Illinois). Last year's squad gave us our first loss of the season and our only loss before Christmas. They bring a troop of kids (19 this year) and are the most organized and systemic middle school squad I have ever seen. Their talent level was down this year, but they still can throw any guy from the bench into the game and get exactly what the coach wants anyway.
It was evident from the first possession that their plan against us was to be deliberately patient as they ran through their offensive sets multiple times before even attempting their first shot. (Imagine the first game Gene Hackman coached in Hoosiers - only way more passes.) Our guys had probably never even seen a team do this before, let alone played against one doing it versus them. Their first possession took nearly two minutes off the clock before they scored, after which they came right at us with their typical hard nosed man-to-man defense. Our guys responded poorly and chose not to run our offense and abruptly turned it over. Back to defense again and more picks, passes and patience. When we did get the ball back it was more frustration and poor improvisation. With about 2 minutes to go we called a time-out trailing 4-0. We managed one basket - one basket - before the end of the quarter and trailed 8-2.
The second quarter was a near carbon copy of the first. Our opponent was dead set on working through every last cut and pass option of their offense before shooting. Defensively they were everywhere causing our boys nothing but headaches. We again found a way to get ONE basket, but also held them to just five points before our point guard hit a shot from just inside half court to close the gap to 13-7 before half time.
We made two adjustments at half time, the first was to get a seventh grader off our bench and into the game and the second was to tighten up our defense picking them up at 3/4 court. This - combined with our point guard waking up - allowed us to shut them out for the entire third quarter and lead 15-13 heading into the fourth. From there it was a fairly exciting game. With a little under two minutes to play, they hit a three pointer to take an 18-17 lead. We came out of our time-out and were stopped offensively. With just under a minute to go, our eighth grade forward - who has struggled up to now to understand our defensive concepts - found himself guarding his man out at half court. His man caught a pass and turned to face our guy with the ball right out in front of him. Our forward swatted the ball out of his hands, took it up court, switched sides and made the lay-up to pull us ahead 19-18. We got a stop on the following possession and then were fouled a couple times to get into bonus free throws. Out point guard made two to put us ahead 21-18. After taking a time-out our opponent set up a series of picks to free up their best three point shooter, but we had the perimeter blanketed and he air balled his attempt. Our point guard got the rebound and was fouled again. This time nerves took over and he front ended his first attempt. There was a scramble to get the rebound and our assistant (who keeps the book for us - meticulously) had us as getting the next jump ball- but the official score keeper did not. So, our opponent had the ball needing to go the length of the floor in less than 4 seconds with no time-outs and down by three. They ended up not even getting a shot off as we redirected their dribbling enough times to run the clock out and we were on to the championship with an ugly 21-18 victory.
*****
Our opponent in the championship round was a short, fast, good team. They only had one guy even 5'10" tall but they made up for their lack of size with a trapping defense and a lot of running. While our semi-final game was a deliberately slowed down game, the championship was the polar opposite.
The first quarter went about as well as we could expect it to, considering our opponent was a good team. They chose not to start out in their press and they had little difficulty breaking ours. Our top two scorers combined for 12 points and we lead 14-10 heading into the second.
We ran into some foul trouble in the second quarter as three of our starters picked up their second foul. I am of the conservative-Larry Brown approach when it comes to players and fouls. I always sit guys down for the rest of the first half when they get 2 fouls so as to have 3 to play with in the second. With a little over 3 minutes to go in the second, we were down by five and had only two starters on the floor with three reserves (one of which barely ever gets minutes). I was about to put my point guard back in - so as not to let the game get away from us - when the reserve guys started playing lock-down defense and our shooting guard hit some big shots. These elements allowed me to save all our guys in foul trouble and give us a little momentum heading into half time tied at 24.
The third quarter was played at a frantic pace and this ultimately proved to be a bad thing for us. Guys who were normally clutch for us were missing several easy baskets and as a result were too upset to play good defense. We managed a few good stops and a few good shots, but trailed 33-31 with one quarter to go.
At this point in the game it was clear to us that our bigs (center and power forward) were only hurting us as they proved incapable of using their size to our advantage, so we went with our smaller line-up for the rest of the game. The quarter was everything you would expect a championship fourth quarter to be between two evenly matched teams all the way down to a minute to go with the score tied. We were on defense and had a mental lapse leading to a lay-up and then on the ensuing inbound pass, our normally-good-at-making-decisions guard had his pass intercepted for another lay-up and a foul. We were now down 4 and took a time-out. Not out of the game yet, we regrouped and headed back out for the free throw. On a FT, the shooting team has two guys in addition to the shooter who are available to rebound and the other team (us in this situation) have four, leaving two guys to cover the shooter on the rebound. The shooter missed his free throw and, sure enough, got his own rebound. He made another bonus free throw, we squandered another possession and were forced to foul again. They made two free throws to lead by seven and we made a meaningless three pointer at the buzzer to cut the final margin to 46-42.
The loss was frustrating on so many levels.
- For two straight games we let our opponent dictate what kind of game we would play.
- Our bigs do not understand how to play as true post players.
- Our top two scorers missed, between them, thirteen lay-ups.
- For two straight games we failed to run offensive sets that we have been practicing since October, because our opponent played fierce defense.
- Our guys seem to really think they are something. They are athletic and have ability, no doubt, but - at this point - they do not understand that they need to work to be great. This is our biggest challenge with one week to go before Christmas break.
We still have 4 tournaments left this year, 2 of which are big tournaments. We are good enough to challenge for titles in all four, but our level of commitment and our attitudes are standing in our way, for now.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
8-1 with a Familiar Trophy
This weekend we were at a tournament at the first school I ever taught and coached at. Last year we took 1st place rather easily defeating the three other schools in the round robin tournament by double digits. This year looked to be slightly different as the host school boasted a 6'5ish" center. (I remember when he was in the 4th grade and was as tall as some of our 8th graders!) All week long we were working on specific defensive strategies to prepare for our game with him on the floor.
I have recently been disappointed with the way our guys respond to teams that we are clearly better than. We seem to think we are better than we are and tend - at this point in the season - to play down to the level of our opponents. Two of the three teams at the tournament this weekend come from small schools that traditionally had small teams and we figured that we would beat them rather easily. I was really hoping the host school would give us a good run and possibly even beat us, just to cut the guys down a level or two in their attitudes.
When we got to the tournament the first game was already going on as we walked to our room for the weekend. As we passed by the door to the gym we all noticed to absence of a player anywhere near 6' tall, let alone 6'5". We changed for our game and went back to the gym. While we were waiting outside the gym, our first opponent's coach walked up to say hi and ask me- with a grin, "How many guys do you have this year with mustaches?" He told me how last year when we played them, his point guard came to the bench at the first time out and told his coach we had guys on our team with mustaches. He then told us that we were going to kill his guys. I never really know what to say in situations like that so I just smiled and said, "We'll try not to."
We did what we could to keep my frail promise, but the match-up was just too unequal to avoid the predicted slaughter. We won the first quarter 22-0 and - with our second five in for the whole second quarter - lead 28-4. The starters got two more minutes in the third and then sat for the rest of the game as we ended up winning 42-8. There was not much to take from the game except for the great efforts we went to to get our back-up, back-up point guard some points. Alas, he did not score.
Before our next game there was a 3-point contest with each team entering 2 players. Last year we easily won this contest and there was no doubt we had the two best 3-point shooters there. Our best shooter - who was part of the winning combo last year - totally choked and we took second place. No mini-plaque this year.
Our second game of the night we matched up with a team that was much closer to us athletically, but not in discipline or ability. They ran an interesting trapping zone defense that featured two guys meeting the ball at half court- but after the initial trap they did not cover guys well and we easily broke it for lay-ups. Heading the other direction, they were the first team this year to by-pass our 3/4 court press by passing over the first two guys with passes that went to the other end's three point line. But we had our center playing safety and their guys wanted nothing to do with him. Even with their ability to get past our press, we did enough right to lead 17-8 at the end of the 1Q and 23-16 at half time.
During our break, we adjusted our press from a 2-2-1 to a 1-2-2. This left us with 2 guys back to defend their over-the-top passes. It worked better than we could have imagined, as we broke again broke a game open in the 3Q outscoring our opponent 18-4 to take a 41-20 lead into the last quarter. From there we played our bench and ended up winning 50-30.
The highlight of this game was that it was my 100th victory as a middle school boys' coach. My wife made cupcakes for all of the boys that had "100" written on them. I think our team was more excited about the cupcakes than the "monumental" occasion they represented. =)
Our final game was Saturday morning with my former school. Ever since last year's tournament - when we both featured 6'+ seventh grade centers - our boys have been looking forward to this tournament and this game, especially when we learned how big their center had grown to. We found out after our first game Friday night that their center had broken his hand Thursday night in a conference game. Without him our opponent had next to nothing to compete with us. We were slow in the first quarter - mostly due to our starters not feeling challenged (my interpretation) - and lead only 15-7. In the second quarter we broke out and went into halftime leading 33-13. The third quarter was more of the same, even with our bench in and we lead 42-15 after three quarters and ended up winning 46-24.
So, we are the reigning back-to-back champions of this tournament and we put three players on the all-tournament team. Being my first school, we love going back to see families we are very close with as well as getting an overnight, out-of-town tournament in. But all this tournament really did for us was give our bench some of their biggest minutes. We experimented one game with our starting line-up but did not face any competition. This coming week we have a conference game and then a local holiday tournament featuring the best team we played last year.
I have recently been disappointed with the way our guys respond to teams that we are clearly better than. We seem to think we are better than we are and tend - at this point in the season - to play down to the level of our opponents. Two of the three teams at the tournament this weekend come from small schools that traditionally had small teams and we figured that we would beat them rather easily. I was really hoping the host school would give us a good run and possibly even beat us, just to cut the guys down a level or two in their attitudes.
When we got to the tournament the first game was already going on as we walked to our room for the weekend. As we passed by the door to the gym we all noticed to absence of a player anywhere near 6' tall, let alone 6'5". We changed for our game and went back to the gym. While we were waiting outside the gym, our first opponent's coach walked up to say hi and ask me- with a grin, "How many guys do you have this year with mustaches?" He told me how last year when we played them, his point guard came to the bench at the first time out and told his coach we had guys on our team with mustaches. He then told us that we were going to kill his guys. I never really know what to say in situations like that so I just smiled and said, "We'll try not to."
We did what we could to keep my frail promise, but the match-up was just too unequal to avoid the predicted slaughter. We won the first quarter 22-0 and - with our second five in for the whole second quarter - lead 28-4. The starters got two more minutes in the third and then sat for the rest of the game as we ended up winning 42-8. There was not much to take from the game except for the great efforts we went to to get our back-up, back-up point guard some points. Alas, he did not score.
Before our next game there was a 3-point contest with each team entering 2 players. Last year we easily won this contest and there was no doubt we had the two best 3-point shooters there. Our best shooter - who was part of the winning combo last year - totally choked and we took second place. No mini-plaque this year.
Our second game of the night we matched up with a team that was much closer to us athletically, but not in discipline or ability. They ran an interesting trapping zone defense that featured two guys meeting the ball at half court- but after the initial trap they did not cover guys well and we easily broke it for lay-ups. Heading the other direction, they were the first team this year to by-pass our 3/4 court press by passing over the first two guys with passes that went to the other end's three point line. But we had our center playing safety and their guys wanted nothing to do with him. Even with their ability to get past our press, we did enough right to lead 17-8 at the end of the 1Q and 23-16 at half time.
During our break, we adjusted our press from a 2-2-1 to a 1-2-2. This left us with 2 guys back to defend their over-the-top passes. It worked better than we could have imagined, as we broke again broke a game open in the 3Q outscoring our opponent 18-4 to take a 41-20 lead into the last quarter. From there we played our bench and ended up winning 50-30.
The highlight of this game was that it was my 100th victory as a middle school boys' coach. My wife made cupcakes for all of the boys that had "100" written on them. I think our team was more excited about the cupcakes than the "monumental" occasion they represented. =)
Our final game was Saturday morning with my former school. Ever since last year's tournament - when we both featured 6'+ seventh grade centers - our boys have been looking forward to this tournament and this game, especially when we learned how big their center had grown to. We found out after our first game Friday night that their center had broken his hand Thursday night in a conference game. Without him our opponent had next to nothing to compete with us. We were slow in the first quarter - mostly due to our starters not feeling challenged (my interpretation) - and lead only 15-7. In the second quarter we broke out and went into halftime leading 33-13. The third quarter was more of the same, even with our bench in and we lead 42-15 after three quarters and ended up winning 46-24.
So, we are the reigning back-to-back champions of this tournament and we put three players on the all-tournament team. Being my first school, we love going back to see families we are very close with as well as getting an overnight, out-of-town tournament in. But all this tournament really did for us was give our bench some of their biggest minutes. We experimented one game with our starting line-up but did not face any competition. This coming week we have a conference game and then a local holiday tournament featuring the best team we played last year.
Friday, December 5, 2008
5-1
Last night while our team was dressing after our game, I noticed that one of our boys was wearing a t-shirt that read, "Genius by birth, slacker by choice." I made everyone stop dressing to look at the shirt. That shirt defines who our team is as of right now.
Our opponent last night was a school that is literally around the block from our school (My four year-old son attends kindergarten there). Last year they were one of our better games and this year they returned their best player and are always well coached. In our conference, this school and one other will pose the biggest obstacles to our winning the conference championship.
To start the game we had one starter who was absent from school (and practice) the previous day, so he did not get to start. This did not turn out to be that big of a deal as we were able to get some good defensive stops and transition baskets as we rolled to a 16-8 lead at the end of one quarter.
About 30-ish seconds into the 2nd quarter our point guard/forward/center picked up his second foul. His first foul (in the first quarter) was foolish and his second was an additional dumb foul. He sat the rest of the quarter. A couple minutes later our center picked up his second foul after again attempting to block shots in a manner we have been coaching him not to for 6 weeks now.
With our point and center on the bench we were forced to use a line-up that we have yet to use in a game or practice much with and our opponent capitalized on this to win the second quarter 12-5 closing our lead to just 21-20 at half time.
Our halftime meeting consisted solely of my pleading with our guys to do the things we work on day in and day out in practice. At this point in the season we have gotten by on our athleticism and our two best players scoring a lot, so we have gotten pretty lazy at times and unconvinced that we need to work and improve. Mucho frustrating.
We started the second half as we have many times this year already- in our 3/4 court trap and running off a ton of points. Within two minutes we found ourselves up double digits and firmly in control. Their floor is smaller than regulation which works to our advantage with our press, so we were able to frustrate their guards enough that we got several steals that lead to lay-ups, although not all of our lay-ups went in. We steamrolled them in the third quarter (21-7) on our way to a 42-27 lead heading into the fourth.
Just for good measure we scored the first 5 points of the fourth and were up 47-27 with almost five minutes left. Then we collectively fell asleep or quit caring or some other ridiculous thing middle school boys do when they think they are awesome and their family and friends are cheering loudly for them. It is still hard today to figure out how we allowed our opponent back in the game, but they gave us quite a scare as they slowly made bucket after bucket and we slowly stopped playing our offense and our defense and looked like we were playing a lunch recess game instead of an actual game.
Our lead dwindled to 7 when their best player hit a 3 point with 40 some seconds left. We were able to break their press with ease but immediately turned the ball over when we got to their side. The next possession we found a way to stop them, then throw it away, then give up a basket and then dribble out the clock to hold on to a 49-44 win.
In the locker room, there was not much to say other than to challenge our boys as to whether they wanted to be a good team that beats the teams they are supposed to beat and allows less talented teams to play with us or do they want to be a great team that puts away the lesser teams and competes with and beats the other great teams. We have the talent, the speed and the size (plus a three man coaching staff) to be a great team this year. We need to figure out a way to drive our boys to want to be great.
Our opponent last night was a school that is literally around the block from our school (My four year-old son attends kindergarten there). Last year they were one of our better games and this year they returned their best player and are always well coached. In our conference, this school and one other will pose the biggest obstacles to our winning the conference championship.
To start the game we had one starter who was absent from school (and practice) the previous day, so he did not get to start. This did not turn out to be that big of a deal as we were able to get some good defensive stops and transition baskets as we rolled to a 16-8 lead at the end of one quarter.
About 30-ish seconds into the 2nd quarter our point guard/forward/center picked up his second foul. His first foul (in the first quarter) was foolish and his second was an additional dumb foul. He sat the rest of the quarter. A couple minutes later our center picked up his second foul after again attempting to block shots in a manner we have been coaching him not to for 6 weeks now.
With our point and center on the bench we were forced to use a line-up that we have yet to use in a game or practice much with and our opponent capitalized on this to win the second quarter 12-5 closing our lead to just 21-20 at half time.
Our halftime meeting consisted solely of my pleading with our guys to do the things we work on day in and day out in practice. At this point in the season we have gotten by on our athleticism and our two best players scoring a lot, so we have gotten pretty lazy at times and unconvinced that we need to work and improve. Mucho frustrating.
We started the second half as we have many times this year already- in our 3/4 court trap and running off a ton of points. Within two minutes we found ourselves up double digits and firmly in control. Their floor is smaller than regulation which works to our advantage with our press, so we were able to frustrate their guards enough that we got several steals that lead to lay-ups, although not all of our lay-ups went in. We steamrolled them in the third quarter (21-7) on our way to a 42-27 lead heading into the fourth.
Just for good measure we scored the first 5 points of the fourth and were up 47-27 with almost five minutes left. Then we collectively fell asleep or quit caring or some other ridiculous thing middle school boys do when they think they are awesome and their family and friends are cheering loudly for them. It is still hard today to figure out how we allowed our opponent back in the game, but they gave us quite a scare as they slowly made bucket after bucket and we slowly stopped playing our offense and our defense and looked like we were playing a lunch recess game instead of an actual game.
Our lead dwindled to 7 when their best player hit a 3 point with 40 some seconds left. We were able to break their press with ease but immediately turned the ball over when we got to their side. The next possession we found a way to stop them, then throw it away, then give up a basket and then dribble out the clock to hold on to a 49-44 win.
In the locker room, there was not much to say other than to challenge our boys as to whether they wanted to be a good team that beats the teams they are supposed to beat and allows less talented teams to play with us or do they want to be a great team that puts away the lesser teams and competes with and beats the other great teams. We have the talent, the speed and the size (plus a three man coaching staff) to be a great team this year. We need to figure out a way to drive our boys to want to be great.
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