Ok down to business ... Monday we did not have a practice as it was varsity orientation ... That means the coaches had the night off for some much needed R&R ... I should have stopped by the college and checked up on these kids ... that's right I called them kids and here is why ...
I arrived to Tuesday's practice a bit early as I wanted to grab some food and get changed before we hit the court ... I get there and Coach M is sitting in the room shaking his head as he had just heard the news ... I walk into the room and the college coordinator for the men's basketball team starts telling me about the orientation night ... apparently our guys behaved like they were in grade school ... not participating in the activities ... running to the front of the line when the food began to be served ... yeah running and not walking and lining up in an orderly fashion ... and to top it off leaving a mess in the corner of the gym that included their garbage and food they didn't eat ...
This is just unacceptable! they are men and should act like that at all times ... not only did they make themselves look like immature children they also made the program look bad, our coordinator look bad and us coaches look bad ... instead of the school looking at our program as responsible guys they would want to support they will now see the group of kids that caused trouble and made a mess ... which team would you rather support during the year?? I am going with the responsible ones that represent the school with class and dignity ... So to redeem themselves the boys will be volunteering at the soccer nationals in November ... everyone had to sign up for at least one hour of volunteer time during the national tournament ... I am sure we will think of more for them to do to redeem the name they took for granted ... education ...
Ok onto practice ... Coach D was finally back in the gym and wanted to see how these guys were doing ... so we started the day off with a chat regarding the above and quickly moved into our shooting drills that work into our offense ... we worked on these drills for about 25 minutes ... repetitive stuff so hopefully it will get stuck in their minds ...
From there we split them into groups ... we took our top 7 players and made them into a group and we took the rest top make the second group ... from there we worked on our offense and defense ... Offensively our second group has a better understanding of what is going on in the offense and it is starting to look a lot smoother ... Our 'top players' group seems to be struggling with it a bit ... well more our posts then our guards but things just are not as smooth with them ... I think more time to gel and they should be fine ... Coach D also put in a quick press break in ... we didn't go over it much as well it's a simple break and everyone seemed to understand it well ...
defense looks like it is coming along ... today we mainly worked on the concepts and a full court press ... the full court press looks like it is coming along .. again some time working on it and I am sure they will really get the hang of it and get some easy baskets off turnovers ...
The last 20 or so minutes of the practice we scrimmaged ... Coach D wanted to see how the guys could handle themselves in a live game ... again a work in progress but I do like how the offense is coming along ... they are starting to understand what to do and see the floor much much better ... defensively I also like they are starting to understand the rotations .... timing will improve and I am sure we can get a couple of wins early in the season as we begin to gel more ... once they get it it will be nice to see and I think teams will under estimate us ...
One last practice Thursday at 7:30pm ... then it's game time Friday @ Seneca 8pm ... come one come all it should be an entertaining tournament!
Coach Hopps
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