Something to be Learned

Hi Girls,

A couple of thoughts about todays scrimmage with the JV Boys.

1- We will probably not play a JV Girls team all year that has their quickness and size or talent.

2- Our team lacked judgement and patience. Poor judgement on trying to make too many home run type passes thru closely guarded players with quick hands. And secondly, the lack of patience to move the ball around and give their defense a chance to get out of position or for one of our players to break free for a real good pass and shot opportunity.

3- We gambled way to much on defense. We were running 22. That means sprint back, make sure the basket is covered first, once the dribbler is under control build back out to our man. If we can force the dribbler to pick up his dribble we would seriously overplay the passing lanes looking for the steal. If we overplay to much against a team with good talent they are going to make us pay, this is especially true about trying to pressure a good dribbler out front who is capable to taking it to the basket off the dribble. We have to be smart enough to pick our spots for hard pressure and make sure we make the opposition work for what they get. If we want to turn up the heat we will play 24 or 24 lockdown.

4- Friday we are going to scrimmage some with the Varsity Girls. We need to play a more passive 22 defense against them because we do not want Hayley blowing thru the middle for a layup all night. ( Read item 3 above.) On offense we need to have the good judgement to make the easy pass and the simple pass instead of trying to wish it somewhere that is closely guarded. Roy Williams says that basically it always comes down to the Quality of our shots against the Quality of theirs. We want to make sure they are shooting long shots. In our case we would like lay ups but we have to also be willing and able to make some wide open 15 foot shots.

5- We need to make certain that we do not play out of control. We have the ability to play fast but we are not going to get a layup on the first two passes every time down the court, especially against a set defense. Value each possession, be strong catching the ball and going up for close in shots. Don't make weak passes or passes that are just a prayer because your teammate waves for you to pass it to her. Pass it to her when you know it is a pass that can get to her. Play Smart.

6- I like games like today and probably tomorrow. It is a chance to compete. We just need to realize that a victory against either of these two teams in a real game would be a close game and the team that makes the least mistakes both on offense and defense is going to have the best chance in the end. Think about it as a warm up for the conference championship game, it could be that type of game. If we can make it a game with our Varsity Girls we can play with anyone on our schedule. Take it as a challenge to get better.

We can be a very good team but it is going to take both physical and mental efforts from every player to get there. No real good team is going to give us anything easy. Lets build on what we can become and what we need to do to be the best we can be.


Play Hard, Play Smart, Play Together.

Thought: For a learning experiece to really be of any value you need to make sure you learn something from it.

Coach May

PS- we will try the boys again during the year. I was impressed with them but we still should have made it more of a game and I think we can down the road. Hopefully, it was a good learning experience.(ie:meaning we learned something from it)