Coaches Note –
Well, well, well, that
wasn’t exactly the start to the season we were working for. On the down side,
we saw our team lose two games that we could have won. On the up side, we
witnessed our team improve in many areas and looked competitive on Friday.
What your son and our
team have been working on:
Our team has a lot of diverse players that will ultimately make this a very
good team. It is our focus to figure out who works best and creates the
most productive group. We have shot poorly in both games so shooting is
of course a focus, but more importantly, the focus has been on being
disciplined in the offense to get great shots versus good ones and on limiting
turnovers. We have also been talking a lot about toughness.
· Offensive Execution – We were pleased with the improvement
from Tuesday to Friday regarding our half-court offense. Because of proper
spacing, player movement and passes, we were able to get much better shots
(open) than the previous game. When we look at the shots taken in games,
we are evaluating them on the following scale:
o The best shooter should have the most shots and our worst
shooter should have our best FG%(only takes lay-ups, wide open shots).
o Cougar Rating System *adapted from Coach Don Meyer(We want most of our shots to be 3s or 4s.)
§ 4 = Wide Open Lay-Up
§ 3 = Wide open shot by good shooter
§ 2 = Contested shot by good shooter
or open shot taken by a poor shooter.
§ 1 = Terrible shot(contested shot
taken by poor shooter)
§ 0 = Turnover (Poor decision,
contested, little chance of success).
· Reducing Turnovers – We had 31 turnovers on Tuesday (sorry
to those who witnessed that!). The good news is that we reduced that
number to 22 on Friday. There are many reasons for turnovers and reducing
them in a contest is a real challenge. To improve, we need to make sure
we understand how to play basketball with each other. We must know that
given a certain action that our teammates will most certainly perform a reaction
that makes sense. The other component of poor passing is speed. We
are asking our kids to go faster than they have in the past. This will
cause more turnovers for us in the beginning of the season. We will
gradually see that number improve. We should be able to get our turnovers
to 12 – 15 per game maximum, by the end of the season.
· Toughness – Toughness in sport has many
components. Athletes need to be physically tough, going after loose
balls, boxing out to get the rebound, sprinting the floor when their legs tell
them “no”, etc. They also need to be mentally tough. Being able to
listen to teammates and coaches in the heat of the battle and convert that
information into something useful is challenging. Athletes also need to be
emotionally tough. They need to be able to handle a bad call, a teammate
criticizing them, a mistake made in front of their friends and families, or a
coach correcting them. We witnessed some real growth in the emotional
part of our game from the first half of Tuesday’s game to the end of the Friday
game. We will continue to emphasize the importance of not reacting
negatively to officiating or a teammate’s bad play. Please help us with
this part by applauding their emotional toughness when you see it.
Upcoming: Second week of play is about to begin. We play Jackson Lumen Christi at home on Tuesday following the 9th grade and JV games. On Friday we host league opponent Eaton Rapids at 6pm.
Other: We have shot a combined 26 free throws
vs our opponents who have shot a combined 61. We need to find ways to
limit our opponent’s opportunities and increase ours from the free throw line.
There is more discussion to come on this topic next week.
Thank You and God
Bless!
Coach Brian Dartt
Assistant Basketball
Coach - Lansing Catholic High School
Teacher - Olivet High
School
Twitter: @coach_dartt
coachd33@gmail.com
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