Mandatory Basketball Rant - Week 9

The weekly grown-up grumblings were limited this week.  Coaches took whatever available practice times were available.  My Thursday 5pm open court might be filled forever with the pairing of a 5/6 girls team with the existing 5/6 boys team scheduled there.  The girls ran circles around the boys (not bad for no practice for a month), but both coaches agreed that it made more sense to run full court scrimmages with like age groups.

For the Spurs, I taught them the concept of "getting the lead out" with repeated sprints and quick drills to shake off the holiday malaise.

Saturday was Millie's birthday, so we had a jam-packed day.  And the Birthday Girl was prepared for anything:

She did not wear the tiara in the game.  

First off, we completely bailed on ordering school pictures this year, but that's okay because the basketball pics are in.

Choose from local rec league team jersey or Department of Transportation safety orange travel team.

Maja's game started the day with their first crack at the Warriors all season.  The Warriors' coach won last year's 3/4 Girls title, and he managed to keep a few familiar pieces together in the draft and some to boot.  Maja's Bucks were confident they would win but lack of focus had them down by ten at halftime.  A few corrections were made (and heads removed from posteriors), and they got as close as down by 4 at the end. The coach was not happy (and he's almost always positive) and with good reason.  With three teams in the division with one loss, it's anyone's title for the taking.  And with a completely random structure for the playoff seeding, it's the luck of the draw.

Still, Maja had a decent game stat-wise, but was more essentially with her ball handling and movement around the court helped keep the point bleeding to as bad as it was.   I constantly tell my 3/4 team to keep their heads, and it seems it's not much better in the next division.  Maja would make a great cut and not only lose her defender, but her teammate too, as the ball was passed a full 180 away from her into the seats.

After the game we drove up to Misercordia University to watch their women's team take on Lebanon Valley.   We left with four minutes remaining and the Cougars victory well in hand and stopped for bagels before I dropped off all the women in the household for a private lesson with their coach, Mia, while I ran errands.

In the middle of errands, I got hit with a series of text pointing out a 3/4 boys coach's social media rant about children fouling out in that age group (they've done so for years... we just usually have more players per team to soak it up... because the coaches all agreed to 7 player teams this year.  Figuring my previous conflict finally resolved this week, I called the other parent who coaches alongside the poster, got a relatively balanced take of the situation (there's some poor sportsmanship on both sides and the ref forgot to go over in-game with the player why repetitive calls were being made.  At the end of the day, no injuries, but no coaching on fouls, and no reading of the rules is not cool when the other kids are playing their hearts out without a break for the entire game.

After practice, we raced to Buffalo Wild Wings for take out to make it to Millie's game on time.

Thanks to the joint practices, the comfort level between the Spurs and Bulls is noticeable.  It also allowed me a chance to start the smallest version of the line-up, with Millie playing the opening jump ball (her biggest birthday wish).  Despite an inability to hit the broad side of a barn if their heads were stapled to it, the Spurs ran up a ten-point lead and slowly gave up uncontested shots until it was 15-13.  With the full "big team" playing the last four minutes, we made some tremendous plays on defense, two big time shots, and a great rebound and basket to pull to 3-3 for the season with a 21-15 win.  Lots to work on, but the girls looked better in the second half.  Unfortunately the Bulls' effort needed the help of a pick-up player as their center went down with an ankle injury in recess earlier in the week.  Here's hoping she's back for the playoffs.

The last act of the night was hockey with Millie's other coach, Haley.  Fights, chants, and Italian ice made it a great night.

Sunday was my day off from everything.  I took the Christmas tree down, while my wife drove the Mia, Haley, and the girls to the Syracuse-Notre Dame Women's game in Syracuse.  A great time was had by all, and while our courtside seat for Division-III Misericordia were better, their seats for a D-I game weren't too shabby.

Thank God we did cake and presents late Saturday night!

Maja missed her travel team game, due to the Syracuse trip, but they won against a heated rival.... and now were in crisis mode because the one school has a sudden after-school closure and we're already past the available extra practice slots to adjust.

Just once, I'd like a full week of regular practices for all the teams.