Tears of ...

I had very mixed emotions as I walked back to the locker room after our final game.  It was hard to know what to say, do, or expect.  AS the door opened, I we (Head coach and I) were met with an eerie silence, then various sounds of sobbing.  For some the sobbing was for the lose that just ended our season, for some the emotion of  leaving it all on the floor, for some the sadness that the season was just over, and maybe even for some the joy of what they had accomplished.  No matter the reason the tears still came.  some loudly, some softer and some even unnoticed.

As coach began to speak her voice cracked.  She was visibly emotional.  I too became choked up and tears began to roll down my cheeks.  As I sat down and witnessed the scene in front of me, through my tears of sorrow I sensed joy and pride (the good kind).  Coach couldn't speak, the emotion clearly overtaking her.  I wasn't sure I could either.  Finally midst the cries comes a voice.  "Coach can I say something?"  I looked to see our lone senior rising to her feet among her teammates.  She had been crying but now seemed super calm and collected.  Coach told her to go ahead.  The senior began to tell her teammates how proud she was of what they had just accomplished.  She told them they had played their hardest and that they had proved to everyone that they belonged.  She continued about how far they had come since the beginning of the season and how much better they would be in the seasons to come.  She finished by saying how proud she was to be apart of this team and she felt good about what they had done together and how they needed to continue right where they are now for next year.

The cries seemed to go away instantly.  They were replaced by pride.  Pride in what they had accomplished.  Pride in what they had done.  Pride in who they were.  What brought this all on?  Let's look back.

We lost our last 2 regular season games, on the road to the top 2 teams in our conference and we finished 5th in our conference.  By the way the standings worked out, we would play what had become our arch rival in the first round of the conference tourney.  All 3 games with them up to this point had been battles.  The first was a 1 point OT lose, 2nd a 2 point last few seconds lose and the 3rd a 3 point come from 23 points behind victory on their home court.  Friday's tourney game proved to be no different as we got the 2 point win in an epic battle in which we held them from a last second shot to try for the win/tie.    That put us in the semifinals the next day against the #1 seed and undefeated in conference team.

Although we had lost to them all the times.  We knew we had a chance to bet them.  We were the team that came the closet all year.  We matched up with them really well.  We had the heart and drive to do it.  It was definitely the battle of all battles.  It was back and fourth all game.  With just under a minute to play and down by 2, our senior point guard shot a beautiful 3.  Everyone in the gym watched it sail gracefully to the basketball, drop halfway down and then rattle right out.  Our only hope was to foul and hope they missed.  But it was not to be.  In the end we lost by 6.  We had come so close but it just didn't happen.  That's how we got to the locker room scene above.  That's how the season finished.  That's what brought us all to tears, tears of...

Move Your .....

As a coach I wish I had a penny for every time I said it.  If so, me, my entire extended family and all my friends could have retired to our own private islands by now, with plenty of money left over.  Its that all important phrase uttered at least 50-75 times or more a game and about triple that at practice.  Most players have probably heard it so much that they don't even hear it anymore, and that truly showed at our games this weekend.

If you haven't figured it out by now that all important phrase is :  MOVE YOUR FEET!
I have told every player I've ever coached in Junior high, high school and now college that in order to play good defense you've got to stay on the balls of your feet and move those feet.  I tell them that the best way to play defense is with your FEET NOT your hands.  But yet, they still get those silly fouls called by holding, grabbing, pushing and hacking.  99% of all fouls have one thing in common: HANDS.  If this is the case, all or at least most could be stopped by the simple defensive philosophy of - MOVE YOUR FEET!

If moving your feet is the #1 rule in defense, then #2 would be a tie between EYES and MIND.  In order to move your feet "correctly" one has to see what the offense is doing and where its going and also think about what the offense want to do.  If FEET, EYES, MIND can all work in tandem, then you will be in the right place at the right time.  Your defense will be a shut down force. 

You've heard the saying, "offense wins games but defense wins championships."  I think this is mostly true.  Why?  Think about it.  If you score 100 points on a team but they score 101 against you, what have you accomplished?  If a team makes 100% of their filed goals but still loses, have they done anything?  ABSOLUTELY NOT!  But if your team only scores one basket and holds the opponent to 0, guess what?  YOU WIN.  So you see, it isn't how many or how few points you score - if you can't stop your opponent , you lose every time.

So to all the basketball players out there, make Coach happy and simply -- 

 

Valuable Lesson

Well The last post talked about how basketball was not life.  I still hold true to that but basketball and life are very similar sometimes.  Both have their ins and outs, ups and downs.  Being a player or coach, at any sport, can really teach you so much about life in general.  I have always believed this.  Some of the greatest life lessons can be taught through sports.

In basketball, just like in life, things seems to be going so well.  Everything is coming together and you just seem like you are on top of the world, only to soon fall into a hole.  That has been the experience this past week or so.  We went to Colorado and pulled off an amazing game.  We have 5 players in double digits scoring, shot 33/34 from free throw line and finally pulled in out in OT.  It was a great win.  The girls (and the coaches) were pumped.  It was great to go that far and play in that atmosphere and pull it out.  Otherwise it would have been a very loooooong plane ride home.  The down side to that is that we lost one of our best outside shooters in the first half to a sprained ankle.  Everyone was disappointed but that all pulled together as any good family should, stuck in out and made it happen.

Then we turn to our Wednesday game.  It was a close to a must win game as we could get.  It could basically seal our faint for the playoff picture and would give us a 3 game win streak.  It wasn't that offense this time as in Colorado but rather our lights out defense that would eventually win this one.  We were able to hold them to an amazing 16 points and 25% shooting in the first half and our revamped defensive strategy was obviously giving them fits.  With the defense rooted in, our offense picked it up just a notch in the second half to ensure the victory.  It was beautiful to watch.  That was probably the best overall team ball I have seen them play since California, if not the entire season. It was nice just sitting there watching the beautiful basketball symphony play out before us.  I left there thinking we were finally hitting our stride for the season and at the right time too.  We were to play the same team again on Saturday and everyone was looking forward to it.

Saturday everyone was decked out in their pink as it was our Play 4 Kay breast cancer awareness game.  This seemed to make the atmosphere a little more jacked up and the crowd was a little bigger and louder than usual.  I had a good feeling as our girls took the floor.  I just knew that after the last game tonight was bound to be something special to watch.  I was wrong.  If Wednesday had been a beautiful symphony, than this was a heavy metal night mare.  Despite our starting point guard scoring a game high 34 points and really putting on a clinic, we could do nothing right.  Our defense was almost none existent most of the game.  There were a few moments of brilliance and comebacks.  With about 4 minutes to go we were down by about 15 and came back to tie it.   Then it went back and both for awhile and we made a bit of a run and I thought we might just pull it out.  With the extra loud crowd rooting hard the girls made a valiant  effort but in the end just didn't have enough as our defensive legs gave out and and the opposition made one final push to take the victory

Through it all I think or at least hope the girls learned a very valuable lesson for both basketball and life -- No matter how well things may go when faced with a certain opposition, the next time you face that same opposition, it is not a given that things will go the same way.  You have to continue to be at your best all the time in order to insure you get the same or better results. 

Basketball is Life ?

Well, its been a long week.  Things outside of basketball seemed to creep up but thankfully, God is in control and all is working its way out.  The stress was tough but God is TOUGHER.

  As for basketball, well that's been tough as well.  Last weekend we played the top two teams in the conference.  We played decent on Saturday and stayed with them for awhile but wasn't able to finish, which seems to be our problem quite often.  Sunday we played... well we won't talk about that one.    We also had a rare mid-week game on Tuesday evening.  It was against a lesser opponent and one that we needed to gain so momentum.  We were able to win fairly easily but did not play all that well.  However, we were able to get some really good game minutes in for our bench and hopefully that will help us in the long run.  They played really well considering some don't play that much.  Now its off the Colorado this weekend and hope to pick up a very important win.  We have split so far with them and this is our chance to really make a statement.  Playing in the altitude will be tough on our players but I know they can do it.  They just have to play like I know they are capable of and not just like what they think they can.  There is a huge difference there sometimes.  As a coach it is out job to remind them and help them focus and what we know they are capable of and not just what they think they can do. 

With that said, this week reminded me that basketball can skew our thinking sometimes.  Sometimes we get caught up in the "basketball world" and forget about the real world.  As a coach this is very easy to do.  You focus on basketball and your team and its almost like you allow that to take over everything and we forget about life outside of basketball.  This week reminded me that even though I might want to think differently, there is life outside of basketball and it continues on whether I want tit to or not.  Luckily, as I said at the beginning, God is in control and not I.  If I were, from October to March would be strange for everyone else.  I am thankful that God has blessed me with the opportunity to do what I love, coach.  I am most thankful that He continues to keep control over all even when my focus turns elsewhere.  Despite what I may sometimes think, basketball is NOT life!