 COACH LEAVITT’S POST GAME PERSPECTIVE
Saturday January 9, 2010 - 4 PM - Wow! That sure was a lot of fun. All of the practices since November really paid off. To say that we jumped on the other team right off the bat would be an understatement.
At the end of the first quarter it was 16 to 2. I pulled the team together and praised them while reminding them to not get too upset if the other team started to score points. Brady Stoker looked up at me and said “So you want us to go easy on them Coach?” “No way,” I said. “ I just want you guys to be careful with their feelings because we want them to have a good time too. So when they start scoring, don’t get too upset. You guys are playing really well. So play hard and run hard.”
PLAYING LINE-UP - In order to comply with the rules of the league that requires each player to play half the game, I tried to effectively come up with a fair, equitable, and exciting way to make the line-up. I took all four quarters and divided them in halves. Then I made two teams out of our ten players for each quarter. I repeated this for all 4 quarters with 8 completely separate teams. The goal was to get each of our players playing with everybody else on the team. I took our two big men (Brayden and Andrew) and tried to keep them on separate teams most of the time. Then I made sure that we had people who could dribble and shoot on each team. Some of the line-ups worked, and others not so much.
Making the eight teams eliminated many of the laborious chores of coaching this age group of boys.The players knew I had a game plan and knew that they did not have to try to stand near me trying to capture my attention to get into the game. It also allowed them to just go and play without worrying that they were going to be pulled out of the game because they made a mistake. At this point they all make mistakes, but we made a lot less mistakes than the other team. Everybody got their fair share of time today and I think they all had a great experience.
TALENT - It is very evident which boys have played before and which are new to the game. It is my hope that every player will improve throughout the season. I want every boy to be able to dribble better, make better passes, shoot more accurately, and hustle all the time on the court. This will require that they practice on their own time at home and with their friends. By the end of the short season I hope that each will love the game and want to continue playing for years to come.
I was really impressed with the boys who have been practicing. At the same time I felt bad today for our newest player Nick Wang. Nick has been unable to attend our practices and he has never played organized basketball before. He thought he was coming to a training today, yet we handed him his jersey and before he knew it he was out on the court playing in his first real organized basketball game. You have to give a lot of credit to Joseph, Andrew, Tyson, and Brady because they were out on the court with Nick in the second half of the first quarter trying to teach him where to go and what to do. While our first team was out on the court to start the game these four boys were trying to explain to Nick before he got out there what he should do. 5 minutes later he was on the court. That takes a lot of innocent confidence and I was proud of him for giving it his best effort.
I am not one for trying to yell out coaching commands at players from the sidelines during the game. I feel that the real learning takes place at practice and that the game is meant for the players to do what we have practiced. Therefore, I was unable to offer Nick a lot of help. With each passing quarter Nick did more and more and he even came up with a great steal in the fourth quarter and dribbled the ball out of the crowded key and passed it to he teammate. At-A-Boy Nick!!!
SWIRLING CONFUSION - Two practices ago our players came up with a great unexpected offensive strategy. Since we are forced to play zone defense in this league, Joseph and Nathan started running around in big circles all over the court when their team had the ball. This caused confusion for the guys guarding them to the point that the other three players on their team could easily get to the basket and score. I watched this in practice and told them that there were certain times in the season where they may want to do that during the real games. Today, they pulled Nick aside at half time and told him that he ought to try it out. I was unaware of their coaching him on this point and in the third quarter I started watching Nick running in big circles all over the court while on offense. I immediately picked up on what he was doing and all I could do was smile. I think that Brady and Joseph deserve great kudos for this great player to player coaching. By the end of the game Nick was having a great time on the court.
MAKE BASKETS - The glory seems to always be directed to those that make the baskets, yet I want to remind everybody that it takes a team to make a basket. And even if you did not score while on the court, you did some things to help the ball go in the basket. You may have made the great pass.You may have set a great pick.You may have made the rebound, Or better yet, you may have gotten your defender out of the way allowing an easy path for another player to get to the basket. Our goal is not to get any particular person to make a basket. Instead, our goal is to get the ball in the hoop every time we run down the court. We achieved that goal today much of the time. And even when we didn’t score, our players were in the right position to make good shots. We could have easily scored 10 to 20 more points if some of the close shots had fallen, but it is hard to be frustrated when you outscore your opponents in each quarter We have so much to be proud of in today’s game.We did so many good things on the court. |
