Mandatory Basketball Rant - Winter 2022-23 - Week 13

 Again, the regular season is over for both kids, as well as my time for the rec league.  Nothing but some tournament news and early AAU tidbits.  Of course, nothing is drama free. 

This weekend was the Back Mountain Shootout, a tournament for boys and girls grades 3-9, hosted on the campuses of Lake Lehman High School and Penn State - Wilkes-Barre.  Both facilities are less than five minutes apart door-to-door, so it's a perfect arrangement, despite it's semi-remote location.

It also allows the part of me that still loves scheduling and puzzles to discern this:

Millie:  Millie's school team decided not to defend last year's championship (and one for their Christmas tourney).  The original excuse was the lack of competition, as all the teams that signed up they had beaten by 20+ points just a month prior.  

But the drama came, from an initially innocent source.  Some of her teammates also play for the local catholic church league (completely legit, per the rules), and in a simple post praising their undefeated season in the Catholic League, the tournament organizer asked if they were available for one 6th grade spot that was surprisingly open.  Long story short, they added one other girl the secular team, and they ended up running the table, although it more like a gauntlet at times.   Identical teams that the secular team beat 36-2 at Christmastime?  The Catholic team pulled away with a 6-point win in the last two minutes.   Our rivalry with Dallas that sort of vanished with a few routs of them since Christmas?  It's now alive and well, as they eeked out a 4-point win to reach the championship.  

The championship was never in doubt, as no one in Pool B had a chance of winning a game in Pool A.  The game was a shutout until the 3rd quarter, and they came home with a handy win. 

The secular team's last tournament is this week, and Millie is just about done with most of the parents and about half of the girls.  Despite playing with a few the Catholic League girls over the past two years, she's not too thrilled with them either, given in a recent scrimmage, she put up 28 points in a 35-10 rout of them.  This is the same Millie who's averaged 2 points a game all winter.  She's so ready for AAU and a summer school league where parental influence is kept out of practices.

The Local Rec League:   We sponsored no teams for tournament play, but there were a bunch of league coaches who assembled teams. In fact, we had two teams of 3rd/4th grade boys!   The one team used the boys Catholic League to their advantage to garner practice time.  That, and the superior talent of the boys on that team led them to run the table, defeat the other local team to boot, to net the championship.  The second team was a direct response by the same parents of the girls 6th grade team when their kids weren't invited to the Top team.  Funny thing is, they cherry-picked and recruited the remaining kids, leaving out other kids who were interested, the parents were willing to pay their fair share out of pocket, AND THERE WERE OPEN ROSTER SPOTS.  For all the trouble I had with coaches and parents this year, I tried not to burn any bridges with anyone (even I wish I could).  

Which brings up the 3/4 girls team that got to the semi-finals at their first tournament a week ago, and have the top two coaches I knocked heads with all season.  They went 1-2 in pool play, and considering their two losses were the teams in the championship, I think the future is bright for those girls, and it motivates to get the league-sponsored teams together for 2023-24.  

Maja:  Maja got invited for one last hurrah as an 8th grader before she makes the jump to at least JV for the summer.  Maja's Freshmen coach resigned at the end of the season, allowing him to submit the 8th grade "Core Six' plus a 7th grader, into the tournament as a 9th grade team (School District policy forbids coaches doing extra-circular events like tourneys and AAU without school district sanction, to avoid conflicts of interests and other stuff).  

The schedule looked great, with two games late on Saturday and two games on Sunday, getting out the door by 2pm.  The team were all northern Lackawanna County teams they would never see normally.  Every pool game start ultra-competitive, with the girls thankfully making some early shots.  By the end of the second half, the wheels came off for the other teams and Maja's team cruised, outscoring the opponents 110-32 in pool play, and ignominiously sending two of the opposing girls to urgent care for simple basketball plays.    It was learned during the tournament that some of these schools didn't have a true Freshman team, so they brought down their Freshmen starters from JV.  Perfectly allowable under the rules, but I do question how they survived the scholastic season against older and even more physical competition. 

Speaking of getting beaten up, Maja and her whole team played well, but she earned every second on the court with multiple blocks, guarding a true six-foot center for a good chunk of Sunday, and just perfecting taking a charge.  Heck she only had two fouls!  

Sunday afternoon was a rematch of the morning game they won 30-5, shutting the team out in the second half.   The Mountain Top high tide raised the boat for Honesdale, and they played much better, but by the 4th quarter all mercy rules were in effect and the girl's won 46-24.

To sound a bit hypocritical, the coach could have added a player or two, but I understand.  Six of the girls have been working on the same defensive scheme for the last two years, and our new 7th grader was the only other member of the team to not only grasp it, but execute defensively and offensively.  It's very akin to system their arch-rivals Hazleton, has used, developing the same crop of girls for the last four years.

Speaking of which, those Lady Cougars happened to sign up for the 8th grade bracket, and tried in vain to move up when they discovered there a 9th grade division, albeit full.    They made short work of their Sunday games, winning by a combined 97-15.  There was rumors of a match-up between the champions at a nearby park, but that was all in jest. 

AAU:  The first post for the Spring 2023 season will be near the end of April, but one important tidbit came out yesterday.  Maja's Freshman coach will be coaching the 8th grade AAU team as well!  Considering five of the ten players come from the same school, and he already knows everyone else on the team, I'm hoping for a more positive experience for Maja.  He replaces the previous coach, who took his daughter to more elite program up in Scranton, although rumors have it she's not getting any playing time and they're trying to get back into the program.  There's always some sort of drama.