Mandatory Basketball Rant - Week 3

Oh good God, it's Hell Week, at least for Dads.

It was the final week of overlapping schedules between Fall Basketball and the Winter League.   That also means it's playoff time at one location and opening day for the other.

Did I mention we also had minor-league hockey tickets Saturday night?  It was a long weekend.  

Our weekly practice went much smoother than the previous.  Of course, our newest player was late and most of my early warm-up drills were designed with her in mind.  Regardless, we ran lots of passing drills, lots of 4-on-4 drills, and lots of forcing the girls to actually look up at the dagnab basket when they got the ball.  It was a personal crusade of one of Maja's travel team coaches last year to keep the girls from grabbing a pass and dribbling away from a good play without physically looking at the basket before going on their merry way.  It's a crusade I'll gladly take up for Millie's team.

The girls didn't have a game until after lunch, but by 8:00am I was at the closest elementary school, making sure everything was up and running.  

And in a major sigh of relief, it was running like clockwork.  Outside of realizing we needed a laminated copy of the update league rules at the scorer's tables, and some coaches hadn't printed out "official" roster sheets for fouls, the games themselves were things of beauty.  The 5th and 6th grade boys playing early in the morning were well-behaved, played aggressively but not too carelessly, the coaches coached at a low roar, and the referees were great at addressing rule differences between the PIAA rules largely use for games and the NBA they watched at home. 

I haven't mentioned the Fall league yet because it's a rant I didn't really want to go down.   One of the other basketball parents discovered an 8-week Fall league for grades 3-5.  I personally protested (a little) because (a) it was a 25-minute highway drive to get there and (b) weeknight practice times turned that into a much longer commute, but my wife was willing to do so, so we signed up with the caveat the Millie and Maja stay together. 

After the first game problem (c) came up:  Out of the 30 girls in the league, those two were Top 4 players, and those Top 4 players were vastly superior to the rest. 

The blowout wins, with Maja scoring 20 and Millie 10 were enjoyable for at least two parents in the stands, but things have not improved team-wise.  Their entire division had a problem where this much be the second or third option for kids and they simply don't show up for games, so much so that 4-on-4 matches with no substitutions were not unusual, but even if the kids show up, Maja and Millie's passes are "too hard."  Blame good ol' Dad for teaching them in Kindergarten that soft, floating passes are bad and that each of them should know how to take a full-speed pass from Dad.  With this issue, to concept of getting every teammate a chance to score becomes difficult when they can't handle full-speed passes and everything slower will be picked off.... 

But we finally got to the last week, Saturday play-in games for the championship on Sunday.  And it was Maja and Millie against the world.

30-4, Maja with 18 points, Millie with 10, one of the other girls with a nice lay-up for the other.  

Fun embarrassing fact for Maja, she got turned around and made a shot in the opponent's basket.  With the other team only making two foul shots from two different players, Maja was their leading scorer.

My wife enjoys the girls dominating, but it's not fun for the team losing.  Even the parents on our team got ornery,  but as I said before, if the kids can't get open or take a pass, eventually the girl's coach just tells them to stop trying and not let up on their own game.

If there is a positive with signing up to this league, it was getting introduced to their coach, Mia.   Mia was a local talent who continued to play not only college but professionally in Europe.  A long-term rehab of an injury brought her back to the area and were lucky enough to have her as a coach, and, until she goes back in February, some 2-on-1 coaching (tutoring? mentoring?) on Tuesday nights.  She's going over stuff well above me helping the girls in the driveway, and it's boosted each of their games tremendously.

We finally got back home for the local community league opening games for the girls, and although I missed a portion of Maja's opening, due to coach's duties and board duties, I can safely say she's happy playing with the Bucks of the 5th and 6th grade Division.  She's playing against older competition, but she doesn't feel like she needs to carry the team on her shoulders.  Heck, she didn't even start, and didn't get her points until the second half.   She's been playing with (and against) friends, and coming out of the game with a different type of style.

And then there was Millie's team.

The Spurs opened season with the same team that blew them out 26-4.  I intentionally told the girls that I didn't expect them to beat the Sixes, but I sure as heck wanted them punch back this time...  harder passes, more forceful rebounds, and most importantly, stop the Sixers finely tuned fast break play.  

We also had a secret weapon.  Coach Jeanie, our third coach, fighting scheduling conflicts and in the midst of a pregnancy, finally made it to a game/practice, and not a moment too soon. 

The girls battled, they played lights out defense, stopped most of the fast breaks, and the didn't back down from the Sixers phenomenal center.  Coach Jeanie would break things down into even smaller, quicker points for the girls and they adjusted like champs.  

Millie played her best game ever, and I'm not even sure she score a point, beyond her two foul shots she made, She was fearless at driving to the basket and did a great job trying to orchestrate the rest of the team, while playing point guard.  I even let her do two-three point attempts while time was running out.  Her range is inside the arc, but we'll get there.  

We lost 20-14.

It's exactly what I expected, a loss, but a major confidence boost the entire team.  There are a ton of things to continue to work on: developing confident guards, basic dribbling, and general movement around the court.  We didn't back down, we pushed back when we got pushed

The one thing I'm happy to say:  We have a chance to win every game this season.  All we need is a chance.

Now I just have to worry about a scheduling debacle in the Middle School Division, but that rant is for after the holidays.

EDIT:  Of course, as I typed this up, I completely forgot about "Championship Sunday" for the Fall League.

It made sense that ,for the finals, Maja and Millie faced the only team that beat them all season.  It was a tough go at first, but they prevailed 14-10 with Millie with 7, Maja only 5, and the one girl 2.