Dissappointing day in Cary

Hi Girls,


Things did not add up for this to be a real good day for us today @ Cary Christian. If you wonder why, think about it. We basically have not had a practice as a team since maybe last Thursday.(maybe my fault and I should have practiced Sunday night during the Super Bowl, but one I did not want to make you miss the game and two the beta club girls I thought might need to rest since they were going to have a long day Monday and Tuesday). The Jr. Beta club trip took half our team for the practice the day before this game(I said before that The Jr. Beta Girls deserved to go and I still think that, I just wish that date could be moved back two weeks after basketball is over or at least before a easy game or a non conference game). We were late getting to the game because of car trouble( I hope there is not much wrong with Nancy's Van). Once we got there we had limited time to warm up because they had a middle school game going on and it ran late(We didn't even have a locker room to go use until I complained). Then to top off the day we lucked up and got two more basically worthless officials that may as well have worn a CCS Jersey. Then about the fourth quarter when we had worked our way back into position to maybe win the game late Lindsey was called for her 5th foul that she did not make. Basically all this doesn't add up to a good day.

All that said the lesson here is sometimes we have to make your own luck. We only lost by 9 pts, and if we don't foul trying to catch up at the end we only lose by 4 or 5. We just were not very sharp, something you will see when you see the shooting stats. Plus #25 lit us up for 16 points. We just have not done a very good job on her either time we played against them. BTW, if you didn't know it the reason we did not play against her last year is she has been on the Varsity and was moved back down for her 10 grade year to work on her game. (Coach spin for it was our best way to have a winner JV Girls Team, or we were so good on the Varsity we did not need her there)

Stats:

Scoring: Lindy 7 pts, Jamie 4 pts, Jesse 4 pts, Lindsey 2.

FG %: Team 5/26 19.2%; Lindsey 1/3*, Lindy 2/6*, Jesse 2/6*, Mer 0/1, Caroline 0/1, Emily 0/2, Alex 0/2, Jamie 0/5. Hard to win shooting this bad. 33.3% is sort of the minimum.

FT %: Team 7/19 36.7%; Lindy 3/8, Jamie 4/10, Emily 0/1. Hard to win and not shoot 50% or at least close to that from the line.

Rebs: Team 19D/12 off; Lindy 7-5/2, Emily 7-4/3, Jamie 5, 2/3, Alex 4- 2/2 ,Jesse 3D, Mer 3-2/1, Caroline 3-2/1, Lindsey 1D. Offensive rebounds does show we were hustling.

Assists: Team 3; Lindsey 2, Jamie 1. This number is way to low. We should get this many on inbounds plays.

Steals: Team 12; Jesse 4**, Jamie 3**, Lindsey 2*, Caroline 2*, Lindy 1. Not a bad total but we got called for 19 personal fouls getting them.

Blocks/Deflections: Jamie 0/3D, Lindsey 1B, Emily 1B, Lindsey 1D. The Blocks were good, the number of deflections means we did not do as good as we need to in playing the passing lanes aggressively. Remember for pressure defense to work real good it is force a dribble pick up and play the passing lanes in deny. Make the other girl make a difficult pass over everyone's head with a defensive player all in her face. I think we sometimes forget what gives us our best chance to win. We will work on it Wednesday in practice in prep for APA.

Turnovers: Team 12; Jesse 4, Jamie 3, Lindsey 2, Caroline 2, Lindy 1.

Final Thoughts: I still think we are the best team in this league, we did not play like the best team today but as you can tell from the opening statement things were not going exactly our way. We still have a shot at being the 2nd place team and earning a bye in the conference tournament. Basically we need to beat APA. Next week the tournament starts and I think we have a very good chance to win the championship if we play good and have a fairly officiated game. BTW, the same sorry officials called the JV Boys game and Drew told me after the game if I was going to pursue sanctions against the two officials(called both games) he would like to file a complaint also.

Basically we have to win either 3 games or 4 games to be the conference champions depending on how we do vs APA. I know we can do it if we play like we can. Its there for the taking, lets get ready.

Grades: Play Hard 100%, Play Smart(Execution & Thinking) 80%, Playing Together 70%.

Number 3 on this list we need to talk about at practice. I do not think it is a big deal but I will just say that it cannot happen and still play winning basketball and it needs to not happen again. I am the only one I want to hear being critical of our play on the court period, thats the coaches job not a teammates job. With teammates if it is not something positive or instructive/helpful it needs to be left alone. You can always talk to me with your thoughts and if I think it needs to be talked about I will do it. Coaching is the coach's job and if you are being critical of your teammates play you are getting into coaching plus you are probably hurting your teams chances and your teammates feelings. We just don't need it.

*Basically I think this issue is no longer an issue for this team since our last practice.

Coach May