Season Reflection #5 - Level 2 vs Level 3

So we just got a butt whooppin handed to us yesterday.

These things happen when you take a border line AA playoff team to a gym with your family's name on it, to play the best AAA team in the province. It also happens worse when your best player stays home like a baby because he'd rather claim the sniffles then suck it up after you chewed him out last practice and sent him home. Then your next leading scorer sprains his ankle on the jump ball, and they aren't even jumping.

Needless to say it was a struggle being out athleted, minus our two kids who could score at this level and not being able to be deeper then a team we were playing for the first time all year.

As my valiant little guys kept getting blocked over and over again as they caught the ball on their basket cut into the CIS sized men waiting at the rim. All I could think of was a Dave Smart video where he is discussing screen situations. He talks about the basic theory of slipping or pinning your player after the screen and the level 2 by the book that makes sense. The difference between level 2 and level 3 is your 5'7 kid recognizing he's trying to pin or slip into the middle of 6'10's and needing to make a better read.

Today I saw how limited we are not only do we not understand the next level of read and react stuff, not only can't we scan to see the 2nd layer of d before making a decision, even if we could I'm not sure how we would adjust and still score.  I guess step back and shoot longer shots we probably can't make. I hate zone. We might be the only team on the planet that you zone to get a 20 point lead and then go m2m to make it competitive for us.

Season Reflection #4 - Close

So two road losses to the top  two teams in our division by a total of 5 points. So between last season and this that is the last 5 in conference road losses all by less than 6 points. Obviously my first reaction is always what can I do?

The reality is that we win and lose games over 40 minutes. We play up and down getting everyone in and out regularly. Though we play this way to promote depth there are regularly players in the game who are best streaky and and worst routinely weak. As a result our positive streaks do not outweigh our negative moments over the course of the game.

I would still trust my 8-12 more then all of our opponents 8 -12. Unfortunately we seem to never be able to take advantage of their 8-12 with our top kids they way their top kids take advantage of ours. We continue to play team ball to score, when their best player or two we'll smell blood in the water and go for a quick 4-6 points exploiting that. Our best kid will be a layup then pass the rest of the shift. We get more greedy when we miss shots then after we make them.

The short term solutions are paying closer attention to matchups or shortening the bench. The long term are to make the bottom 6 players closer in skills to the top 6 so their is no noticeable drop off when they go in the game.

This feels like the conversation I keep running in circles with in regards to how we play zone. We get all sorts of open shots that we can't make. I don't think we need a new zone offense, we need to be able to shoot the ball better. That can't happen over the course of a week, but I'm not willing sacrifice long term player development to beat some 15 year olds that want to stand in the key learning nothing about how to defend. Oh, except that we can't shoot and that may beat us.

Season Reflection #3 - Song Time

We've instituted a pregame ritual this year. Before we leave for the floor we sing a doctored Version of Lukey's boat. Fundy's boat is not intended as a rallying cry but more as a commitment too each other. I figure if teenage guys will sing a silly song in front of each other then being comfortable communicating on the court shouldn't be a big deal?

Though what do you do if superstar won't sing along?

Fundy's boat is painted blue - Ha me boys!
Fundy's boat is painted blue, she's the prettiest boat I ever knew.
A ha me boys - a riddle I eh,

Fundy's boat's got a fine fore cuddy - ha me boys!
Fundy's boat's got a fine fore cuddy, and every inch is chinked with putty.
A ha me boys  - a riddle I eh,

Fundy's boat has high top sails - ha me boys.
Fundy's boat has high top sails, the sheets are planted with copper nails.
A ha me boys - a riddle I eh.

Fundy's boat is painted blue - Ha me boys!

Fundy's boat is painted blue, she's the prettiest boat I ever knew.

A ha me boys - a riddle I eh,