This was a close game.
We did some things really well.
We still need work on some others.
I firmly believe we need to shoot the ball more. Why are we so afraid to do it? You can’t win a game if you don’t shoot. As I’ve said before, 30% is a VERY HIGH shooting percentage. That means we’ll probably shoot 20%, OK? That means ONE in every FIVE of our baskets, roughly, will go in.
They got sixteen points today. We got 12. Could we have won?
Absolutely — as I said, you guys played really well. All we had to do was take 50 shots. Thats about 14 shots a quarter. And guess what? I’ll bet you a tic tac apiece that we only took about 30 shots. And 1/5 (or 20%) of 30 shots is six baskets, which gave us exactly what we ended up with: 12 points.
I begged and pleaded for you guys to take more shots. But that doesn’t get them taken. Apparently, I need to come up with a new strategy.
On the plus side I will mention a few stand-outs — Katherine had some fabulous Crazy Monkey defense on the low post — popping out fantastically to challenge anyone foolish enough to drive baseline! Well DONE! Just like we did in practice!!
Savannah and Heidi – great hustle. You pulled down a lot of rebounds and played REALLY tough in the paint!!! And there wasn’t even ONE three-second call made on either of you all game!! Fabulous! Yes, you both truly performed like the Queens of the Paint you are! You pulled down some great rebounds. Now we just have to condition ourselves to go after the balls that are on the floor, too, instead of letting someone else pick them up!
Sarah and Kelly W. and Julia and Alyssa. You guys were passing the ball famously! Really nice ball movement! I think we pass the ball better than most teams in our league, and that’s due in large part to you four! Now what will it take to get you to hock up a few more shots? If each of you could just put up 2 more shots a quarter that would be THIRTY TWO EXTRA SHOTS PER GAME!!!!! That would have doubled our score, in theory! The only one of my guards who (finally) listened to my incessant rantings and started shooting was Danielle! I should also point out that all five of the people in this paragraph played some pretty good D, too. Danielle, you seemed to stand out, for some reason, as playing really hard D — but I have to reserve formal judgment until I review the tape.
Kelly B, you’re shot is looking better and better all the time — now stop being afraid to use it! Plus, you’re getting better at grabbing the ball. We just have to work on getting rid of it a tad quicker — either with a shot, or a pass back to the guard you got it from.
Overall: I think you guys are improving your skills every week, and those skills are shining in the games. What we’re not showing so much right now is confidence in our shots. We just look afraid out there. Let’s get tough and UNafraid. Specifically, let’s get unafraid of taking shots. Unafraid of boxing out, and unafraid of grabbing our ball anytime it comes into our bubble!
Once we get unafraid like that, guess what? The other teams will need to be very afraid…of us!
Thanks team!
-Coach Jim.
