Undefeated!

Sorry this is late - I had every intention to post yesterday after work.  I promise!  I got home, walked the dog, fed him, booted up the computer, and made myself some dinner.  Next thing I know, food is all over my floor and it's 9:57 pm.  Apparently, I fell asleep while eating.  Fortunately, not while chewing - the last time was kinda scary and my 9 pound min pin is not about to save my life if I do end up choking next time.  So rather than risk falling asleep in a chair mid post, I opted to go to bed and post today.

Good news - I'm pretty close to making a decision on which team I want to coach in the winter.  Not quite 100 percent decided, but a solid 90 for now.  I'm also pretty sold on my coaching philosophy.  So hopefully, I will be back in a championship game or two and actually win.   Looking forward to that.

In other good news, I was able to coach a couple of the games for the Freshman squad - and we won both!!  So I guess technically I'm undefeated in high school.  Granted, I'll admit that the competition in the first game was a little suspect, but the most recent one I'd call decent.  It was a team from Maryland, who I'd seen play a little in a game earlier in the day that was decent.  And with only 5 guys for the whole game in a hot gym that could make a sauna feel like an ice box (okay so maybe that was an exaggeration, but it was pretty hot) you can't really afford too many mistakes.    I even had some parents wondering how we would manage in the heat with five aggressive players without our head coach.   Surprisingly, I wasn't nervous.  I almost had to coach the 7th grade team for a game and it made me really nervous.  But I went in, the guys asked me how we were going to play this.  No fear, no stutter, no uncertainty.

Before I answer that, lets get all the sentimental mumbo jumbo out of the way.  I appreciate you guys coming back.  Some of your teammates didn't feel the same way and aren't here.  Because of tournament rules and a ref with a short fuse, Coach Kevin couldn't be here either.  But you are, and I thank you.  Now that that's out of the way - we're going to play our game, our way.  Yes, we only have 5 guys and most coaches would look to zone up to protect you.  Screw that.  We are going to play the normal man-to-man like always.  Only thing I'm going to ask you to do is be smart.  Don't tone down the physicality or the aggression.  Tone down the gambling.  No crazy reaching in, no showtime blocks.  If you have a good look at forcing a turnover, go.  If you have to think more than a second, just play him even.  Let's go get this W.

We came out and just took our time.  Zone defense from the opposition, no problem.  Pass, pass, drive, pass, open 3-pointer, swish.  Man to man?  Even better.  Blow by, pull up jumper. Find a mismatch, entry pass, low post move, swish.  The opposition tried to make a run, but I called timeout.  Just said, "Ok sit, drink, and back to work.  I know you are tired and I know that's where the mistakes are happening."  Half time rolls around and we just relax a little, talk about some minor adjustments and emphasize closing out strong.  Second half was more of the same.  I almost felt bad for the other team, but such is life in the game of basketball.  I will say, that the boys pretty much handled the game on their own, but I did throw out some things that instantly turned into points or a forced turnover, so I can take a little credit.  The referee who had seen our games from the day before even said he felt like the guys played better.  Not sure how much of that was really my doing, but it was nice to hear.  Parents that doubted us, came and admitted that they were wrong.  Also good to hear.  It's kinda cool being 2-0 in high school.

I will say though, that tournament was so poorly run.  The 15U pool started with 6 teams on day 1 of the tournament.  Cool - that's two pools of 3.  Winner of each pool goes to the championship game.  Great.  Only problem is that in the second pool, only one team showed up.  Rather than do the obvious and redo the set up and qualifying conditions, the director gave that team an automatic slot in the championship game.   Needless to say the one game they did play, they lost by 25+.  And you let them play in a championship?  Every other team played 3 games, they played one and got to go to the championship.  Talk about undeserving!!  Maybe I'm just mad because had the pools been adjusted as logic would dictate, we should have been in the championship game and maybe more of the players would have shown up for the second day of the tournament.  And it's not like this was a new tournament making rookie mistakes.  It's been going on for years, and from the sound of it, it has been trash for years.  Hanging out in Atlantic City for the weekend was cool, but not to play in a crap tournament.

Oh well - I got my second win in high school games, and I feel super excited about the upcoming Fall season.  Not to mention the trip to Orlando in a few weeks to participate in the AAU National Tournament.  Let's go!!!