Coach’s Journal: State Tournament.
The time has finally arrived. The State Tournament; what we’ve all been working towards. We are very fortunate and privileged to be able to participate in this tournament. It certainly is not guaranteed and you really never know when this opportunity will come about.
All of the people involved in putting on the ASAA state tournament do such a wonderful job. It is really a unique experience for the teams. The Alaska Airlines center is one of the nicest facilities in the entire country, and it’s an amazing opportunity for the kids to be able to participate in games on that stage. Another thing I love about this – all the great basketball minds in one place. Seeing how the great 3a and 4a teams (and coaches) prepare on a stage like this is something to behold.
We are really excited to be here. And the main thing I always like to tell the guys when we ARE fortunate enough to make it, is this – enjoy it. Make sure we all understand the moment and the memories with the team, because, again, this is never guaranteed. Be sponges. Learn everything you can – and just enjoy every second of it.
Round one: Barrow.
We had been preparing for this matchup for the past couple weeks. And I think everyone was feeling pretty good about our chances. We played them at team camp this past summer, and watched a lot of game film leading up to the tournament, so we had a good idea what to expect.
Barrow’s rosters is full of some big guys. It seemed like most of their players were over about 6’2” and they had the muscle to go with that as well. They use that size down low to generate a lot of post scoring, and they shoot a lot of 3pt shots, but their real strength is in their rebounding.
Missed shot opportunities cleaned up from their big post players turn into second chance points. If you read one of my earlier coach’s journals, I talked about points per possession averages, and how that number nearly doubles on offensive rebounds/2nd chance opportunities. Once those big guys grab an offensive rebound off of a missed shot, they convert those putbacks at a very high rate.
It’s a tough task to ask the guys to out-rebound a team like Barrow, but our message to them was this: Match their energy on the boards, and just keep going. No matter what’s happening – keep going. If we go up by 5, down by 5, make a shot, miss a shot: just keep going. Keep fighting.
This game was an absolute slugfest. The entire game, neither team had more than a, maybe 3 point lead. Barrow’s crowd dominated the atmosphere of the gym. Lots of hard fouls and bodies flying everywhere.
Offensively we were slowing the game down, running our half court sets and being very patient with the ball. We generated so many great, almost wide open layups and 3pts and failed to convert MANY of them. We shot 1/14 from 3pt range. 25% overall from the floor. (Those numbers are not good).
Our offense was working great, doing exactly what we wanted it to be doing, we just could not convert at a high rate.
Defensively we were firing on all cylinders. Our rotations were spot on. Our Bigs were doing a tremendous job denying the post entry passes and our wings were containing the ball. We were diving on every loose ball and most importantly we were rebounding like our lives depended on it.
The guys did a great job limiting Barrow to one shot attempt per possession.
So, as I mentioned this game was a battle all the way through. Valdez maintained either a tie or a 1-3 point lead for most of the game. I think the largest scoring “run” was maybe a 4 point swing in one direction.
Neither team scored more than 9 points in any of the first three quarters. It was really a crazy game.
Barrow took a small lead midway through the 3rd quarter, to which we responded and regained the lead for ourselves.
In the end, we made it to “clock management” time, where Barrow was more or less forced to foul us to extend the game, and we made just enough of our free throws to hold the lead. Barrow missed a game tying 3 at the buzzer, and we advanced to the 2nd round winning 34-31.
The things that really helped us win: That energy rebounding, only two turnovers the entire game (!!!!!!!) and really just the mental toughness from everyone. All the guys that played, as well as the bench mob, did a tremendous job. Like I said our message was “just keep going” and we did. No matter what happened in the game – good or bad – we kept going.
This was a huge win for us. It was really our first win against a great playoff-caliber team all season. To win such an absolute slugfest where we shot so poorly and mentally persevere for the upset (we were the 5 seed to Barrow’s 4) was big for us.
The excitement in the locker room after that game will be a memory.
Round Two: Mt. Edgecumb.
This game was set up to be tough from the start. Edgecumb was set to have a storybook season: Their coach was to retire after this year (he has been coaching since before I was even in high school), they were the #1 seed and had been undefeated all year.
We were feeling pretty optimistic after our round one win, but early in this game the Braves really just took it to us. They hit another gear that some teams can hit and took a pretty early commanding lead.
We were able to keep it within 10 or 12 at halftime but just seemed to be outmatched physically by such a great team.
There aren’t really a whole lot of positives to point out from this game for us, but our guys certainly never stopped fighting, down to the last second, and at the end that’s really all we can ask of our guys.
Mt Edgecumb advanced to the finals where they would lose to the Nome Nanooks, and Valdez’ championship aspirations were gone, but we still had a chance to fight for 3rd place Saturday against the Grace Grizzlies.
Round 3: Grace.
Another tough matchup for us. Grace has always been good. Similar to Monroe, they always have a great disciplined team, even in their “off” years.
These games can be really challenging for teams. Everyone is exhausted mentally and physically, and the area of the bracket we were in – meant that both teams had just failed in their pursuit of a state title. So you might understand there can be some mental struggles in consolation games such as this. The past few years our guys have responded well and finished out the seasons on a win in these tough games.
Grace is also going to be moving to 4A next season, so we had a little bit of extra motivation to give them a real “farewell” to 3A basketball. And Likewise, Grace i’m sure was really wanting to end their season on a positive note.
This game was a great one from start to finish. It was close all the way through with a number of lead changes and scoring runs.
Another game where we shot very poorly from 3pt range (1/8). We are really at our best when we are patient in our half court sets and get the ball inside. We shot 60% from the field inside the three-point line and 85% from the free throw line.
Even when we are having a not-so-great shooting night from beyond the arc, it is very important to keep that spacing and continue shooting with confidence. It keeps the defense honest and forces them to stretch out – which creates gaps and driving lanes for our guys to attack on those quick ball reversals.
Grace made a few good runs to either cut into our lead, or take the lead for themselves by a shot or two, but we responded every time and regained or extended our lead. Tino had a crazy chase-down block on one of Grace’s fast break attempts towards the end. Nick had a couple great hustle plays and and-1’s to help save our lead. In the end Grace was forced to foul to extend the game and sent Jarrett to the free throw line where he was a perfect 8/8 to seal the win 52-47.
Valdez ended up taking 3rd place in the state tournament, and Jarrett was named to the all tournament team.
With the season concluded, we just want to say thank you to everyone that supports the boys all season long: all the parents, families, fans, faculty, staff, other schools and places we stay and everyone that helps and supports the teams wherever we go!
On top of that – to the guys: All of us coaches are proud of you and the young men you are becoming! We hope you take these lessons and memories and make the most of them in a positive way. It’s a really unique experience to be a part of a team in general, but especially in such a storied place as Valdez and with a great leader and mentor in Coach Cronk. These guys are really lucky and privileged to have such a great school, community and basketball culture to grow up in.
These times fly by so fast and it’s really important that we all slow down once in a while and really just enjoy the moment: the ups, the downs, the challenges, the failures and the victories. Every day is a new day to grow and learn and get better.
So with that, we sign off on the 2024 Valdez Basketball season. Thank you everyone, and go Bucs!