Our team last year was all eighth graders except for two seventh graders. We were pretty good and finished 8-4. This year, I was worried with only two returning players. We had some practices in October and November and I was somewhat optimistic. We were a deeper team than last year. The end of our bench is better than it was last year. The problem is that our best players aren't nearly as good as they were last year. We have two players that are about six feet tall. So far we've played two teams with kids that were at least five inches taller than anybody we have (and they could play). We have no chance against teams like that. We played one team that we were very evenly matched with in December. We had a shot at the buzzer that would have won the game, but it didn't go in and we lost by one. One mistake I made was sticking with a zone press too long. It worked fairly well at first, but then they started to break it and get some easy baskets. I called it off for the fourth quarter, but I shouldn't have waited that long.
Another problem has been that we didn't practice for the entire month of December. Between games and the gym not being available for other reasons, we played some games, but we couldn't practice. That came into play last week. We were hanging in there in a road game. We got off to a slow start, but got it down to two by the end of the third quarter. Between quarters, I told the team to press after we scored our first basket in the fourth quarter. It worked, but it was still a mistake. We scored, got a turnover off the press, and scored again to take the lead. But once the other team scored, they pressed us for the first time. I had spent some time way back in November working on a zone press break and they were pretty good at it, but we hadn't practiced a man to man press break. We couldn't handle the press and we lost. Maybe they would have pressed us anyway, but I feel like my decision to press is what led the other team to press. In fact, in the game before, I purposely didn't press the other team because I didn't want them to press us. It kind of worked in that game. We scored our most points of the season and we only lost by six, even though the other team had the three best players. The other team could have beaten us by a lot, but I think they held back a little because I wasn't overaggressive. I should have kept that in mind.
I knew today was an opportunity to win. We were playing the other winless team. We have played well against lesser talent when our opponents take out their starters. We've outscored the other team in the second half of two of our games. Unfortunately, they always outscored us by a lot more in the first half than we outscored them by in the second half. Today, we got off to a slow start. The other team got out to a 7-2 lead. We cut it to 7-6 by the end of the first quarter. We led by one at halftime and two at the end of the third quarter. We dominated the fourth quarter and ended up winning 42-28. I had one regret. I pulled all my best players in the last minute, but I should have done it a little earlier. I took out my two big guys about halfway through the quarter, but then the other team went on a little run and I put them back in. I probably should have gotten everybody out with about two minutes left. We scored a couple of late baskets off turnovers that we didn't need to score.
We have eight more games. Obviously, we won't have a very good record this year, but I'm enjoying it. Hopefully I'll learn from my mistakes. Three of our top six players are in sixth or seventh grade. The problem is that all of our height is in eighth grade. Maybe some of the other players will grow a lot. The one sixth grader I have on my team is going to be really good when he gets older. His older brother was our best player last year and he definitely will be by the time he's in eighth grade (he might even be next year). To make a cross-sport comparison, he's like Clayton Kershaw in 2008 or 2009. He's young and he has flashes of brilliance, but he's not quite there yet. I am completely confident that he will get there. Also like Kershaw, he's left-handed. And like Kershaw is my favorite baseball player, he's one of my favorite students ever (I had him in class last year). It will be a fun team to coach in two years if I can find some other players to put around him.
So I kind of had two wins as coach of the legendary Swamp Donkeys back in the day (although I actually dressed for both of those games because we were missing a couple of players). But today I got my first real win as a coach. The next step is to take Butler to two consecutive National Championship Games and then become the head coach of the Boston Celtics.
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| I love this guy. I can't wait until Danny Ainge gets him some good players with all those draft picks. Go Celtics! |
Actually, I'm just kidding. I like coaching, but I wouldn't make it a career. But if I did, what would be my ideal job if I could have any basketball coaching job? Obviously, it would be between Notre Dame and the Celtics. You might find this surprising, but I actually care about the Celtics more than the Notre Dame basketball team (whereas the Jets don't come anywhere close to the Notre Dame football team for me). But if I was qualified and had my choice of jobs, it would be the Notre Dame job. It would be so much less stressful and I'd have to work much less.
Quick tangent to finish up. The benefits of moderate alcohol consumption are well documented. I would say I have a beer four or five nights a week usually. Either Friday or Saturday night, I'll often drink a little bit more. With my 20s coming to an end, my alcohol consumption would be described as more than moderate for the last couple of weeks. I went out this past Friday and stayed out until about 3:00 in the morning. Since then I haven't had a drink (like I said, I don't usually drink a lot, but five straight days without a single drink is a long time for me). Until tonight. I'm definitely enjoying a victory Sam Adams tonight.
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