Missed posting about last weekend; they won a game and lost a game. Will discuss why they win and why they lose more below. Pictures are from the second game of this weekend…..
(during warmups)
Got home early from New Jersey (March 1st) so I got to see the games last weekend. They rallied from behind to beat a team they should have beaten easily, 43-42 and then were just hammered by East Lansing in the second game….
(he won the tip-off)
Cpher certainly didn’t have the scoring day last weekend like he did in that first game….I think a lot of this is that his teammates seem to have Michael Jordan or Lebron James syndrome…..yes, I can beat four kids one-on-one all the time. And when they do that, there isn’t any passing and our big kids just kind of fade into the background…..
(getting the rebound and getting ready to go up with the shot)
So the season is a ying-yang kind of a deal….if our guards can penetrate and beat kids on fast breaks, we do ok. But if we play teams that play a zone defense against us, forget it, the guards will never penetrate and don’t seem to be disciplined enough to realize that pass-pass-pass-pass and inside is the way to go. And we lose. Big.
This weekend’s first game was against one of those zone defense teams….so, of course, we’re losing big and it’s a running clock by halftime. I know the coaches are telling these kids not to be so selfish….don’t understand why they don’t change their ways…
(gets the ball, squares up, takes the shot, gets fouled, makes 1 of 2 at the line)
Dewitt (the opponent for the second game) plays man-to-man. So it seems like our guards remember they have these big kids in the middle….and Cpher has a little more success other than being a rebounding machine.
(doing what Cpher does)
(doing what Cpher does part 2….I am always amazed by the number of shots he changes as people try coming to the basket)
(get the rebound, get control, go up with the shot…this wasn’t a good shot though)
The talent level in our league varies quite a bit; two of the teams (the two that have blasted us, ELansing and OvidElsie) are basically the ‘A’ teams from the winter…we aren’t going to have much of a chance against them. And both of them have decided to play zone defense 90% of the time….which is good for defense but not-so-good for player development.
There are 9 teams….I think we are either 3rd or 4th best after three weekends. I’m sure we can beat or at least hang with the other 6 teams…..
(again, get the ball, square up, take the shot. Fouled pretty badly here but they didn’t call it, instead, he stumbles because of the foul and gets called for travelling)
He’ll miss next weekend as we head south for soccer and then we finish up with the season ending tournament before we leave for spring break.
