Ok onto last nights tryouts ... it started out with some rough news ... the trainer comes up to me and says that one of the guys (Curtis) can not practice until he gets his foot looked at .. he explains that the testing that they did shows that there is a possibility that he has a hairline fracture in his foot and he needs to go to the Dr. to get it checked ... So I turn to Curtis and say I don't need to see you here tonight ... go get it checked out and I will see you tomorrow after the results ... Curtis being Curtis tries to convince me after the trainer is gone to let him practice and he will get it checked out tomorrow ... not a chance! I explained it to him like this "would you rather be out 4 weeks or 1 year?" ... "4 Weeks Coach" ... "well please get it checked out and I will see you back on the court when the trainer clears you to play" ... "Ok Coach I'ma go right now" ... and he leaves the gym ... I hope it is just a sprain and he can still play after a weeks rest but if not we loose him for 4 weeks ... much better then 8 months ...
We did things a bit different today then the past couple of tryouts ... as we knew it was getting closer we wanted to see what they can do in a scrimmage .. so we broke them into two teams ... Myself and Coach D took one group and Coach Sharif and Coach Stevie took the other ... we worked on their defense and their offense ... I am not sure how the other group did as I was working with coach D and he was looking after the D ... so he begins to talk about the D and the way he would like it run this year ... after explaining it we went into a quick little live drill to see if they listened and understood the rotations ... let's just say a 5 minute drill turned into a 25 minute drill and Coach D almost losing his voice! ... needless to say he stepped out and I took over with the offense ... we ran through it ... not to bad but a lot of work a head of us before our first game ... it is amazing how much they forget after a day off ... luckily we still have some cuts and then I can really get after these guys ...
The scrimmage ... we explained to them that this is still a tryout and that we are looking for guys who are doing the things we say and showing that they also know how to play basketball ... So we started the guys in 5 on 5 half court ... teams play defense for 5 possessions (defensive stops) and then we flip ... we started on D and 5 possessions later we are on O ... now its my turn to see what they have learned ... they remember some of the plays but not all of them so it didn't look to bad ... after discussing with them a bit more we go to 5 on 5 full court ...
we have a bit to work on both defensively and offensively ... we couldn't apply pressure outside the 3 point line for some reason ... our guys kept guarding guys they should not be guarding ... but worst of all no hustle, desire or heart on D they just kinda went through the motions ... at one point as my team was pushing the ball towards the offensive end one of our returning players just jotted up the sidelines without a care in the world ... Needless to say he was subbed and Coach D took it to him ... as a leader he needs to understand that when he is slacking everyone else thinks it is ok to slack as well and the intensity of the practice goes down ... when he went back on he was a different guy played hard on both ends of the floor ... slowly everyone else elevated their game ...
At the end of the practice we made a couple more cuts and a couple of them were players returning from last year ... bubble players at a position that we have a lot of people trying out for ... so as a staff we chose to go with the younger guys that have more eligibility left to play for us ... nothing personal just part of the game and I hope that those guys don't take it personal and keep working hard ...
Well today (Friday) is the last tryout for the guys .. we have 12 or 13 that are on the team it is just down to the last couple of guys ... decisions decisions decisions ... I'll let you know how it goes ...
Until then ...
Coach Hopps
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