I know I'm a little late, as we're almost a whole week overdue, but better late than never. The team made some serious strides in the right direction since the Garden State Slamfest II tournament which was evident on the court more than in the final score.
Game 1 - Wolfpack vs. King Street Kings (4/30/11)
Perhaps an error on my part, but I waited until the day of to check the rules of the tournament. I figured at the age group I have, the only differences between tournaments would be the number and duration of time outs and the game clock. This tournament taught me to get the rules ASAP, because you might have to prepare. So along with another early morning game, I had the pleasure of telling my boys that we were using a girls ball in the tournament unless the other coach agreed to use a regulation ball. The Kings' coach did not agree, and the one inch difference really hurt us. During the break between tournaments, we worked on moving without the ball, catch and shoot, and other things that smaller teams tend to do to combat their lack of size on the inside. I guess I did a good job of drilling that into their heads, because it was torture trying to tell them to pass on the open looks and drive until they got the feel of the ball. We chucked up air ball after air ball, and when we hit the rim, we couldn't seem to get the friendly bounce. But the guys played hard and fought from beginning to end, so losing 49-23 wasn't so bad. After the game, the coach came up to me and said he was impressed with how well the guys looked moving without the ball and the heart they showed. The best compliment any coach, young or old, can receive is, "You've got a well-coached team with a lot of heart." That completely made my day.
Game 2 - Wolpack vs. Crusaders (4/30/11)
Since I knew it was going to be a rough weekend fighting the small ball size, I immediately went looking for the Crusaders' coach to see if he'd agree to use the regulation ball. He did, but the refs overruled us because they wanted to go by the book. Too bad I didn't print the rules... The refs only had the first page, and the clause allowing the coaches to overrule the ball size was on the second page. So, I spoke to the opposing coach and convinced him to lend me a couple of the smaller balls to warm-up with. I also noticed that his starting point guard was my starting point guard in the fall. I immediately made the focus of the game to force him into traps because he's going to look to drive and he's pretty selfish with the ball. I also told them not to bother stealing the ball and to commit all their energy to just keeping up with him. For the first time, a team actually listened to my strategy! Again, the ball killed our shooting, but the focus on defense allowed us to get some easy fast break layups. We ended up losing 49-42, but I was just happy to see them adjust and start playing better defense.
Game 3 - Wolfpack vs. Hoop Heaven Rams (5/1/11)
I was finally able to win the ball battle, and with the help of my printed copy of the rules we played the final game of the tournament with a regulation ball. Oh, what a difference an inch makes. We were hitting our shots at a pretty good percentage. The guys were still playing hard, moving without the ball, everything good teams should. Unfortunately the Rams had us beat by about 5 inches at every position, and used the height to their advantage. They out-rebounded us, clogged passing lanes, and would pass over most of my team, making defense nearly impossible to play. But again, we played hard, from start to finish and lost 61-38. And again, the opposing coach came up to me and commented on our heart and energy, and said that if his boys weren't so tall the score could have easily been flipped because we played so well.
The team showed a lot of heart at the tournament, so I'm still pretty confident that we're heading in the right direction and that elusive first win is right around the corner. I had a couple of parents to step up and volunteer, and after just two practices I can see continued improvement. We have this upcoming weekend off (Happy Mother's Day, moms!) and then it's back to back tournaments the next two weekends. No surprises this time, and the opposing teams better watch out.
