Coach’s Journal – Delta, Courtesy of VHS Boys Basketball Coach
Greetings Buccaneer family! This weekend we had our first conference games against Delta, with a short pit stop to play Glennallen along the way. We’ve had some wild, crazy, and at times scary, travel so far over the past 4 weeks. Lots of great stories to tell on that front, but I’ll save that for now as it would add too many words to the too many words I already write each week. Suffice to say, we were thrilled to have an uneventful drive to Glennallen Thursday and onward to Delta the following morning.
Glennallen:
Glennallen is a team going through a real growing period. I think we kind of expected that this game could get a little ugly quickly, but it’s really important for us to keep our focus and prepare for every game the same way.
One of our team standards is “respect” for everyone…. ourselves, our opponent, each other and the game itself. One reason why respecting our opponent is so important (no matter who it is) comes back to our ‘ultimate goal’ that we focus on: getting better every day. We respect each opponent we face because they’re helping us on this journey to get better.
This game did get ugly pretty quickly. Our starters jumped out to a huge double-digit lead within the first couple minutes of the game, and the rest of the way we kept advancing that lead until we hit the 40-point mercy rule and ran away with the win.
It was a nice change of pace for many of the guys who haven’t seen as much meaningful game time action as they might be hoping. We talk a lot about roles, and how everyone is doing their part to impact winning, whether they’re in the game or not. In regards to roles on the team, we tell the guys this: Your role doesn’t define you as a player, nor is it what you’re capable of. Your role is what our team needs you to do for us to win. Not everyone on the team is guaranteed to average 15+ shot attempts per game. If your role only sees you taking two or three attempts per game, then what else are you doing to impact winning? Everyone plays a part and the two biggest things the guys can do are play great defense, and rebound.
This was a great game for the guys to buy into that, and work on things in a real game scenario.
Offensively our guys did a great job finding open shots, moving the ball and attacking. Kian and Logan each hit two 3pt shots for us in the first half. Brody did a nice job as acting point guard and had a couple nifty assists in the lane to find Connor and Zach for some shots under the hoop too. In the 2nd half, CJ had a fastbreak layup as well as a 3 pointer. David had a sequence where he picked off like 3 or 4 passes in a row and had fastbreak layups off each one.
The leading scorers for the game were Connor and David with 12 and 10.
Defensively we weren’t as great. We had some trouble being in the right help positions, as people were kind of just chasing their person around the court instead of jumping to the paint to help guard the ball. Our rebounds were not up to our standard either. The guys did a really good job being in the right spot where they should have been for a rebound, but we didn’t actually box them out and push them out of the way to claim space. This led to a few Glennallen offensive rebounds that they never should have gotten.
Another thing that we can get better at is our defensive adjustments. With the middle school guys, we try to teach them to “be problem solvers.” Another little defensive rule that we talk about sometimes is “don’t get beat the same way three times.” Glennallen ran some curling actions off of screen-aways and they scored a number of times on it. They ran the same little set the entire game and it worked very well for them! Those are the kinds of little things that I don’t think we necessarily need to call multiple timeouts to adjust to. If we get caught on a pin down screen or any kind of action like their “wheel” as they were calling it, we should be able to realize what is happening and adjust to it on the fly.
We ended up having to call a few different time outs to talk about that, and the adjustment to make before it stuck with the guys and we figured it out.
All in all, we did end up hitting that mercy-rule midway through the fourth quarter and cruised to the win 65-21.
Delta Game 1:
We were looking forward to our very first conference game of the year. We expect Delta to be our biggest challenge going into regionals, and they always show up ready to play against us. Keeping tabs on them and watching what game film is available; they have had some great games against high level programs like Monroe, North Pole and Bethel, and then some clunkers against teams that are not as well off as them. Delta has always shown up ready to play us with some vengeance, so despite what their record was, we knew it would be a tough battle regardless.
For the first three or four minutes it seemed like this game was going to be a slugfest. The officials were letting the guys play very physical. Very early in the game Jarrett drove to the hoop and got absolutely mauled with no call, and that lead to coach getting his first technical foul of the year. I think that sent a HUGE wave of energy into the guys. After that, for the rest of the first quarter and the entire second quarter, we held Delta almost scoreless. The only points they scored for the rest of the half were on a single miscue on a boxout with about 5 seconds left in the half. In an awesome display, Jarrett nailed a huge 3pt shot from half court to send us into the half up 37-11.
Our defense in the first half was awesome. We started out in our halfcourt press defense and the guys were firing on all cylinders: trapping corners, rotating on ball swings, getting deflections and limiting Delta to a single shot per possession.
Offensively, as has been our calling card so far this year, everyone was feeding off of Jarrett and Tino’s relentless attacking. Connor has been developing some nice synergy with those two, finding himself in open spots to get scoring opportunities off of their attacks. Jace also chipped in a couple buckets in the first half run.
In the second half, Delta made some adjustments and managed to put some points on the board, but after that first half we had, there wasn’t really much of a chance for a comeback. We wound up with a huge win 64-33. The leading scorers for the game were Jarrett, Tino and Connor with 16, 14 and 13 each.
Part of the fun of these conference games is sending a message to everyone that we’ll see at regionals. We’ve kind of been the team to beat for the past few years, and that puts a target on our back. When we come out in these games it’s important to have that dawg mentality that the conference runs through us and we are indeed the “team to beat.”
We never want to give another team any kind of psychological advantage or mental edge. Even in a blowout win like this, in the second half if Delta found some things that they could have some success with against us, it’s something they could work on and use in the future when we see them again at regionals. It is very important that the guys constantly keep their foot on the gas and drive in the win to squash that mentality that they have a chance against us.
Delta Game 2:
Our rematch Saturday morning was more of the type of game I was expecting us to play Friday. Delta came out hungry. For most of the first quarter we found ourselves in a scoring deficit. The level of physicality allowed was all over the place, and it was hard to gage how we were being allowed to play. Frustrations were boiling over at times. We were only able to convert on three field goals in the quarter and were outscored 10-8.
In the second quarter we continued to struggle to find a rhythm offensively. We battled foul trouble in the first half leading to a number of Delta free throws. Levi managed to get a little bit of offense going and had six points in the quarter which helped us even the score. We went into halftime tied 20-20.
It was really important for us to mentally adjust our focus. As I mentioned, the level of physicality allowed was kind of all over the place, and it really did lead to some frustrations. It is so important to have the mindfulness to focus on the things we can control.
In the third quarter, the guys did a really good job moving forward mentally, and we managed to get our scoring spark back. Jarrett went into halftime with 4 fouls and had to sit to start the 2nd half. Levi started in his place and did a great job giving us some offensive momentum. He had an eight-point scoring run in the quarter in Jarrett’s absence. It is going to be huge for us going forward if we can maintain or expand our offensive firepower when we start letting the starting 5 get some rest. Along with Levi’s scoring, Zach and Jace provided a couple field goals for us, and we managed to take a 6-point lead going into the final period.
In the fourth quarter, the guys locked in and ran away with the game. Tino and Connor lead the way scoring in the fourth, but the difference was really our defense. Our half-court trap defense generated a number of turnovers that led to fast break points, but most importantly we held Delta to their lowest scoring quarter of the game (5 points); that, paired with us having our highest scoring quarter, (25) lead us to win 65-38. The high scorers for the game were Tino with 15 and Levi with 14.
This was a really good win for us. It can be very difficult to go into a hostile environment and win two games on the road against anybody, let alone Delta; a great program on the rise. As our biggest conference rivals over the most recent few years, it was important for us to make a statement this weekend that will help us when we head into regionals in a few weeks.
Next week we head to Galena for another round of conference games. That will be the last time our Bucs travel for the season (barring a berth in the state tournament). After Galena, we have an open weekend due to the Eielson closure and then it’s time for our Home Elk’s Tournament over Valentine’s Day weekend. I think everyone is looking forward to having a long home stand to get some rest, and great practice time over the coming weeks! Go Bucs!!