The first of the summer basketball camps started this week; it’s the biggie of the bunch, the Michigan State Basketball Camp. The kids get to meet the current and former players, and Tom Izzo is there in the morning and at the afternoon to address the kids/parents/etc.
Cpher: As seems to be the norm for camps when you are assigned to random teams, Christopher is on the short end of the stick. He’s easily the best kid on his team, and that’s a problem, because that means there’s nobody who’s really good with the ball, either dribbling or shooting.
Today was the day that Cpher’s team was able to play a game on the main court at the Breslin Center. His team seemed to remember that they had this big kid in the middle during the first half and passed the ball inside often. They were winning 16-10 at the half, Cpher had 6 points.
Like always, Cpher is very good at what he’s good at. Lots of rebounds, very accurate from down low even with all kinds of kids mobbing him.
His team forgot about Cpher in the 2nd half. He sat in the third quarter (his team still leading 18-15 at the end of that) and when he came back on for the fourth quarter he never saw the ball down low as his teammates kept throwing up bombs from outside. And they lost, 21-18. Cpher’s team has played three games and lost them all (Suzanne saw another game yesterday….much of the same, when they remembered Cpher the scoring came easier, but, if he wasn’t on the court, there were no rebounds and scoring was an issue.) The picture above is a rare event; Christopher dribbling in the open floor. He’s doing it left-handed too….
If you click on the photo above you’ll get the video highlights from the game
Matthew: His team seems a little more balanced; at least three or four players who can dribble and go to the basket and shoot.
The quarter that Cpher didn’t play gave me a chance to hop over to the Auxiliary gym to catch some of Matthew’s game. It worked out well, right as I got there they were starting the fourth quarter and Matthew was on the floor. His team was winning 23-12.
After wondering for a few weeks where my aggressive youngest child has gone, I guess it only took a switch back to basketball to remind him that hey, I need to be everywhere. The first play I see he’s on one side of the court and sees the pass is going to the other side; he runs over and picks it off and heads up court. The second play is that first photo; he has the ball and is about to drive by his friend Henry (they play soccer together) to the net. The second picture is Matthew again driving in. He stops here and takes the shot, and makes it. He tells me that he had 8 points in the game
I think in the six minutes I saw him he took three or four shots, I know he picked off at least two balls (one is pretty sweet, he misses it, the play goes by him, he runs back in and picks off the next pass the other team makes). His team is now 2-1…I think they have enough talent to always have a scorer or two on the floor.
Again, clicking on the last photo will take you to the video.
