Joe's Basketball blog

Well, this week has marked the serious start of Upward Basketball again.

I went to Memorial Baptist to do evaluations on Tuesday and Thursday nights of this past week. I saw several of my old players - Stephen, Matthew, Kellen, and John on Tuesday night, and Connor on Thursday night. I also got to say hello to all of their parents, and each of them seemed to be pleased that I was returning. I've also been told that Jake and Nathan are returning as well. Marcus and Bryce are moving over to CYBA. I haven't heard about Noah.

I didn't get to do evaluations of any of my old players except for Connor. And let me tell you, Connor looked good at everything except the free-throw line. Of course, Connor is still young, and they've moved them back to the real free-throw line at the real height for the goal, so give it time, and he's going to be tearing that up, too. Connor looked particularly good on the lay-ups, which pleased me, since moving to the new height could have caused him to be a little scatter-shotted. All in all, I expect Connor to be one of the strongest players in the league - even though he's moving up.

I also heard from a friend that Kellen did incredibly well on the evaluations. I think that's awesome. I hope someone told Kellen and his mom that. Kellen has the most wonderful skill set - he's got a pretty shot, a good dribble, a good passing eye, good defensive footwork - he's got the entire package. I'd just like to see him be a little more confident, because this guy is a real talent.

I joked around a bit with Stephen. He's got such a great personality. He'll probably be the top player in the 3rd/4th grade division this year. I told him I was going to run him to death this year.

Matthew and his mom hung around a little afterward, and Matthew's shot has really matured. He's going to have a great year.

I didn't get to talk to John very much. We were swamped with drills when he came through. I'm interested to see how John reacts to becoming one of the big men for the league.

As for the new kids coming through, I was surprised to see a lot of girls out there who could give a lot of the boys we evaluated a good game! Lots of the ladies actually impressed me, although there's still a noticeable exposure of the basketball on the dribble for a lot of them. One of these days, someone is going to have to explain to me why that is. Then again, these drills didn't measure anyone's ability to PROTECT the ball.

I think the young man who impressed me most was a small, young guy - oddly enough - named Connor. He had a beautiful shot, and great form, but it took him some time to set his shot up. Now, once he did, the kid was money. In all of the other drills, he did extremely well. I can see him having some trouble finding enough time to get the shot off, but outside of that, this kid could do some things.

Overall, I didn't see enough 3rd/4th graders to get a feel for what the league will be like. Perhaps a number of them went through evaluations on Monday. Perhaps we did so many evaluations of girls and younger/older kids that we just didn't get a good sample. And perhaps it's my own poor memory of names and faces.

But, if I'm honest with myself, I really miss the Spartans. My guys were AWESOME, both as players and as human beings. Actually, they give me a lot of hope for the younger generation. I hope they never change, and always stay the same kind of unselfish, hard-working guys that showed up for me last year.

Stephen, Matthew, Kellen, Nathan, and John will be in my division, and there's a very real chance that I may not get to coach any of them again. That makes me really sad, because give me those five, and I'm willing to take on any team in the league. Despite the fact that that would be a small team, I'd bet we'd trounce most opponents.

The other thing that makes me sad is that there were two pairs of guys who could have taken their on-court cohesiveness off the court and become great friends there, too - and neither pair will get the chance, since one of each pair will be in the 5th/6th grade division this year. The pairs are Stephen and Jake, and Connor and Nathan.

Stephen and Jake were the foundation of the Spartan's fast-breaking offense. Jake was usually ahead of the pack, and Stephen was usually throwing the ball ahead to him. And as the year went on, you could see Stephen scanning the floor - specifically looking for Jake, and you could see Jake looking for Stephen the same way when he was under pressure.

The other pair - Connor and Nathan - ought to be brothers. These guys are cut from the same cloth. They're both intense and competitive. They both enjoy winning, and celebrating the win. Connor, of course, would be the older brother - a little more secure, more of a "take-charge" kind of guy, a little more serious, and not quite as quick to celebrate. Nathan would be the younger brother - the one who is always willing to celebrate, a little more quiet, a little less of a "take-charge" guy, and maybe even just a hint of undeserved self-doubt. These guys anchored our defense, and if I had to name our top two defenders, these were the guys. I once compared them to Stockton and Malone because of a few pick-and-rolls that they did. Perhaps a better comparison would be Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar - although that's more personality than actual game. They even shared the team lead in blocked shots. Amazingly enough, I don't think they ever saw themselves as a pair to the extent that I did.

I sat down last night, and watched the video of the game against the Huskies. Of all the videos, that's the hardest one to watch. It was far and away our worst game. We came out flat offensively, and unalert defensively. Perhaps it was the emotional drain of our game against the Tarheels. Perhaps it was just one of those days. But that's a really tough video to watch, because I know that the guys are all so much better than they looked in that game. Well - I take that back. Noah actually looked quite impressive in that game. He scored, got some boards, and took pretty good care of the basketball. But Noah was the only guy who really had a good game.

Call me nostalgic, but the Spartans were awesome. We might have to do a team celebration of the year we had - a one-year get-together - at Chuck E. Cheese's or something. Just get the gang back together again.

I wonder if I'll feel as strongly about my next team. Admittedly, I've never felt this strongly about a group of guys I've coached before. Maybe it's just Upward, but in the back of my mind, I don't think so. I think that the Spartans were just a great group of guys who reallly got the message that basketball is about more than just how many points you score, or how many points you win by - but about how you deal with your teammates. They just plain got it - more than any group of players I've ever seen since my friends Jeff, Daren, Robby, and Chad were playing in 5th grade 23 years ago. Just amazing.

Well - if any of you old Spartans are reading this, just know that I'll be cheering you on - even if I'm coaching against you. Oh - and I've taken the time to update the web pages with some more photos and stats and such, so check them out.

With city league basketball coming up, I wanted to get out and do a bit of playing. I went out yesterday with Caleb, Shannon, Matt, Rob, and Boz, and we played some 2-on-2 and some 3-on-3.

My shot looked awful. Everything - EVERYTHING - I was taking from beyond lay-up range was short. I couldn't reliably hit an outside shot. What's worse, there were real problems in getting in sync with the offense. Caleb was really eyeing every pass I threw, and he picked off a ton of them. Now, it doesn't help that I had to show the pass in order to get the cuts that I wanted, especially from Matt, who prefers to work with the ball in his hands.

Defensively, I covered Caleb in the early going - which is a huge mismatch - and Shannon in the later games. I did what I could against Caleb. Against Shannon, I was really laying off of him - trying to get over and disrupt what the more key components of the offense were doing. And while I did my share of disrupting, there wasn't much I could do.

Probably the most irritating thing is that when I went to the elbow, guarded by Shannon, I couldn't get the ball. So I went down into the post. Then and only then was I considered part of the offense - with Shannon jumping out in front of the passes, picking them off. Apparently, it's a bad idea to give me the ball where I am more effective, but important to look for me when I'm in deep position and can do little damage.

You know, I really like Matt, but more and more, I'm becoming aware that his game and my game just don't mesh. He's not at all interested in defense or rebounding, his offense-to-defense transition is among the worst I've ever seen, he doesn't want to use a pick unless it's coming across the top of the lane, and his primary interest is in getting off his own shot. It generally works for him, because he's playing against guys who can't match his speed and won't challenge him on his long-range shot. And there's nothing that I can do to make him any better, because his moves are essentially one-on-one moves. The court-smarts just aren't there yet.

Caleb looked good - especially with his jump-hook. He's really grown attached to that shot in fairly short order. Now, I need to work with him on re-establishing his drop-step after he's shown the jump hook.

The confusion I've had about Caleb's game is starting to wear off. I'm finally seeing what Caleb is doing. When he learned the drop step, he used it repeatedly - abandoning the sweeping, weak, finesse moves to the goal that he used to do. I thought he had turned the corner. And then, he started working on fade-away jumpers, long, loping outside-to-inside moves (that often included a travel), and three-pointers. All I saw at that point in time was a player who had regressed badly, because he NEVER used his drop-step. My first thought was that he had turned into his cousin. Then, a few weeks ago, I taught him the jump-hook. Now, that's his primary weapon - and he has, for the most part, abandoned all the weak stuff to go back to a power game - which means that I think he's improved again. Yesterday, in watching him with his jump hook, it all came together as to what Caleb is doing. He's not playing basketball when we play - he's just PRACTICING. He's practicing the latest new move he's learned. And that's not a bad thing, unless you over-do it. He's simply assuming his drop-step will be there when he wants it, because he's practiced it, learned it, mastered it. Where he's falling down is that he's not going to it when he should, but more interested in continuing to work on the new move. He then gets frustrated when something that he thinks should be going doesn't go - and the reason it doesn't go is because he's not used it in a while, or because it's not a good choice in the first place (regarding some of the weak things). He's playing like he'll be pigeon-holed as a player if he can't do everything, so he works on the new things, which only works to pigeon-hole him as a player who just has the thing he's working on.

For Caleb to grow into the player he can be, he's got to start by defining the kind of player he wants to be on the court. I can understand why he doesn't want to do this; if he's true to what he does best, he'll be a big man, and as a big man, you're always vulnerable to the whims of the guards you play with. If the guards don't want to get you the ball, then you don't get the ball, and Caleb wants the ball, wants to contribute, wants to be acknowledged as a force for the team. So, to get the ball, he goes to the perimeter, because it's easier to get the ball that way than it is to demand the ball from the guards - especially for a "nice guy" like Caleb. And that explains a bit of why he seems to like playing with me - I'm primarily a passer, and I'm willing to dump the ball into him more than someone like Matt or Skander, for instance. Part of that is because I'm a point guard, and although Matt plays point a lot of the time, Matt and Skander play like 2-guards. And the other point guards Caleb really gets exposed to are more of combo guards.

Jeremy has spoken to me many times of how different I am as a point guard than most of the other "point guards" around; he refers to me as a "true point guard" and refers to many of the other guards as "not really a point guard." Truth is that I think Jeremy is right; I have more of the mentality of a point guard than most of the other guards we play with. Part of that is due to the limits of my skill; I'm simply not as athletic as most guards, I don't generate my own shot well, and I don't have many "on-the-move" shots. Therefore, I am more aware of the pass - making me "more of a point guard." And, of course, I can't see why anyone who had the abilities of Skander or Matt wouldn't choose to play point and adopt the mentality. As a point guard, you aren't the star, but you LEAD the team. Todd is a great case-in-point on that. His play for Boone County Lumber and the church league showed that Todd is the stabilizing force. And that's one of the reasons I've always been willing to play behind him; I recognize the leadership coming from the position.

Yesterday's games were a personal disappointment to me, but other than Rob dribbling a ball away from me when I was just going to grab it - which is the proper thing to do - there wasn't anything there that truly worried me. And the reason that worried me is because it shows what I've been worried about over the summer - my hand speed has deteriorated since jamming the fingers. It's just something that I've not been using a lot, and much like what I wrote about Caleb earlier, when you don't use something - even if it's traditionally one of your strengths - it's going to degrade. There's no way Rob - or anybody - should be able to dribble away a basketball that I'm grabbing. Tear it away? Sure. Tie it up? Fine. But *DRIBBLE* it away? No.

The next thing I wonder about is my conditioning. We'll see how it looks at the Tribune this afternoon. The goal for city league this year is to burn absolutely all the energy I have in a stretch of 5 minutes and be an absolute wrecking crew to the other team's offensive continuity, and then go back to the bench. Figure on 10 to 15 minutes a game, and I should be very effective in that role. So the real build-up needs to be for bursts of speed rather than length of play, and that's a change for me. We'll see how it works.

The City League starts tonight, and you know what that means.

It means I've sustained some sort of nagging minor injury, and I've gone completely scatter-shotted. That's what it has meant every other year. And...

...at the Tribune yesterday, I was guarding Matt in one of the early games, tried to poke the ball away from him, and instead, caught his arm - and my ring finger on my right hand gave way to the point that Matt actually stopped the game. Today, it's incredibly swollen and very, very sore.

The bad part about this is that when I'm playing against most players, I want to force them to their left, my right, and if they expose the ball, use my right hand to poke the ball away. But when you've got a jammed finger, like it or not, you're hesitant to use that hand to knock away passes or dribbles. What this means is that I'm now vulnerable on the side I want to force players to. That's not good.

And, across the past two days, most of my long-range attempts have been coming up VERY SHORT. While I'm looking good going into the lane, I really need my outside jumper, and it has really gone south. I don't know what I'm going to do if I don't fix this post-haste.

An interesting thing - in my last blog article, I was talking about how Matt and I don't seem to have complementary games. Yesterday, we played quite well together, with each of us screening for the other across the top of the key. Apparently, it's the unusually shaped court at the Tribune that aids us - without deep sides to work on, we're forced into a tighter area, and as a result, tend to be more aware of what each other is doing.

Today's gripe is about people who try to catch the ball in the post, but don't move to seal people who are trying to get their hand in. As a result, it makes it nearly impossible to feed them in the post. So, if any post players are listening...protect your passer, lest he decide it's too risky to feed you the ball. Shift your body to receive the pass. POSSESSION is more important than POSITION. Give position to maintain possession.

Tonight's City League game is against Mortgage Broker Baby. They're the defending champs. And they're not that good. We had their number last year, but let them get away the first time we played them - thanks to the incompetence of certain referees, who apparently don't know the rules of the league regarding when the clock runs and when it stops - and we still had a chance to beat them, with our best clutch shooter - Greg - with the ball, at the three-point line, with 7 seconds to go and Mortgage Broker Baby with a 2 point lead. But Greg spotted a WIDE OPEN Bobby in the post, fed him, and Bobby mishandled the ball. The second time we played them, we beat them. And Shelter had them in the championship game, until Mortgage Broker Baby started roughing them up, and Shelter started going too much to the outside shot. You beat Mortgage Broker Baby by tearing them up on the inside - they're a small team. Big Mike could eat two or three of them for lunch and still be hungry.

The real challenge is to be patient, control the pace of the game, and control the boards. We can't let them rough us up - which is their tactic against bigger teams. Also, we have to control the two guys who can shoot outside - number 1 and the guy with the weird number...27 or 29 or 47 or 49. I know what he looks like, so I'll be able to point him out. We also have to stay on the ground against "Dropping Dimes." The guy uses lots of up-fakes, but he can't shoot; he uses the up-fakes to get people off their feet so he can drive and dish.

We can beat these guys. They're not that good. Our problem is that we don't have Todd to guide the team this year, and that always translates poorly for us, plus, we have a tendency to stagnate on the offensive end of the court. We're going to need a big game from Bobby tonight, and this is the kind of team that Bobby can go either way against. If he takes care of the ball, goes to his power game early, and watches for the double-team, he'll beat them into submission. But if he is careless with the ball, doesn't catch his passes cleanly, tries to use a dribble in the lane, and tries to go through double-teams, we're in trouble.

Given that I'm now going to be less that what I wanted to be on the court - jammed finger and scatter-shotted - I'm going to make Bobby my personal project tonight. I'm going to keep after him to be careful with the ball, and play the power game with these guys. If I can't help with the skills I have, I'll settle for helping Bobby focus and beat the tar out of these guys.

And a final note: my goal was to be under 200 for the game. Today's official weight: 200.5. So I didn't quite make it, but I'm down from 245 in June to 200.5 for game day. 180 by the end of the season, baby!

Well, that was ugly.

Our offense in the early going was awful - the lethargic kind of basketball that we play any time that Todd doesn't start for us. We scored the first points, but after that, we just went into an awful funk.

Our defense was porous. The back line was nothing short of dreadful. At one point, when my cover went around me at the three point line and went to the lane, he went ALL THE WAY to the basket for a lay-up - and we were in a 2-3 zone at the time. Bobby especially kept coming out of the middle to apply pressure - which you can't do if you're in a 2-3 zone.

My line was okay - 1 for 2 from the field, both three-pointers, 1 rebound, 2 assists, 3 turnovers, 1 foul on a blatant check on the outside. I was tired of getting bodied bringing the ball up, and was determined to get the official to focus on it - so I was all-hands on the outside on the particular play. The bench was griping about the call, but I'm out there nodding, going, "Oh, yeah...I got him" with the kind of smile on my face that says, "And I *MEANT* to."

Both shots were in the second half - the first, an unusual shot for me, off the left side of the point, which I simply brought up at the middle, drifted left away from pressure, wasn't picked up, and took the shot. That's the one I made. And afterward, when I went to play at Shannon's place, I couldn't make that again to save my life - which is what you'd expect. The miss was from a little further around, off a cross-court pass, with me being wide open. I didn't get a good handle on the ball, and missed it short - WAY short. Normally, I wouldn't have mishandled the ball, and that's the shot I *WOULD* normally make.

The turnovers were on two entry passes to Bobby, and one inbounds play - also to Bobby. The assists were on two entry passes to Big Mike. I also got into the lane, and had a dish-off to Big Greg, but that didn't go.

I dealt pretty well with the pressure applied. I was pretty happy about that.

Bobby, despite the defensive lapses, ended up with a pretty good game, and true to what I had planned, I was all over him about him being aggressive with his strong moves. He had a pretty bad mishandle in the early going, but after that, he started doing some real damage inside - and Mortgage Broker Baby actually has enough size this year that he should have some trouble. I was also able to free Bobby on an interior pick - which is kind of rare for me.

Our team last night consisted of Big Mike, Big Greg, Bobby, Clint, Steve, me, a very quiet, small point guard that Bobby brought - who didn't really go out and play point, and a guy we picked up who DID go out and play point (despite telling me in pre-game that he wasn't a point guard) - but was more concerned with his own shot and the body-checking on the perimeter. This guy is the guy who started out at point. That has to stop if we're going to be competitive.

Ott Trucking added a new big guy, and he's skilled. They look like the team to beat to me. Dirty number 10 - their point guard - wasn't there. If our bigs handle the new guy and Dirty number 5, we'll be fine - and Skander should torch these guys.

After the game, I went and played over at Shannon Mruzik's place. I played three games of 21 with Tim Vargesko and Shannon - winning all three. Boz was also there on the last one. I pulled the last one out with a short pull-up between two guys. We then played two games of 2-on-2, to 30, by 2's and 3's, with alternating possessions. I did rather well.

Tim disappointed me greatly. He's not the most heady player, but by repeatedly shooting outside, fading away, etc., we blew an 8 point lead, and were staring at a 27-27 tie before I rebounded one of my own missed three-pointers, drove the lane, and fed Tim for a lay-up on the drive-and-draw.

After three days of games, my right knee is showing a lot of soreness, and the jammed right ring finger has swollen really badly. It'll be good to take a break.

Travis - I normally call you on your birthday, but I'm actually back home, and my cell phone is dead. But I want you to know that I'm always thinking about you whenever I think basketball. You're still the greatest defensive player I've ever played alongside of, and I still really want to see you out on the court with me. Happy Birthday, old friend. (Special emphasis on "old.")

After getting back from home, I found a call on my cell phone from Tim Vargesko. He wanted to play basketball, and, not being one to refuse a game, I headed over to Shannon's place to play.

My free-throw shooting still needs work. I hit 76 of 100 in warm-ups. I just can't seem to get over the hump and get to 80%.

Caleb showed up, and we played two games of 21 waiting for any of the other folks to show up. I finished with the low score in each game. With Caleb out there just waiting for the block, points are harder to come by. Caleb won both games - the last one being a big come-from-behind victory over Tim.

A friend of Tim's - Matt, I believe - arrived, and we started playing some 2-on-2. Of course, Matt's a big guy, so the free throws ended up teaming Matt and Caleb against Tim and me, not once, but twice. Obviously, the games were ugly. And worse, in the second game, the jammed finger got hit when I was trying to arm-bar Caleb, and he swept the arm to get clear. That *HURT*.

After a game of me and Matt against Tim and Shannon, which was closer than it should have been, and me sitting out a game of Tim and Caleb vs. Matt and Shannon (which was another blow-out), then came the game that pretty much defined why I'm starting to get negative about Caleb's game, despite the fact that he's developing more and more skills.

Caleb and me vs. Shannon and Tim. Obviously, this should be a blow-out - and it was. The problem is that I took a grand total of 2 shots in the game, and got a grand total of 4 touches. (The other 2 went as the only two assists in the game.) Caleb took the ball at the top of the key, and did nothing but gun from outside - successfully, mind you - or drive off of the inbounds. Normally, when playing 2-on-2, we allow the shot off of the inbounds; sometimes we allow the drive, and sometimes we don't. Caleb, of course, has an advantage in that when he drives off of the inbounds, he's essentially using one step to get around someone, which means he's going for a lay-up.

Caleb scored all of our 31 points in the game.

In the meantime, I'm posting up against Shannon, and he's bodying me, and even driving the knee into the leg to move me. But I'm not going to get a touch. Caleb shoots, or fakes, drives, and shoots. When he gets the rebound, he takes it outside himself, and then makes the play himself. Finally, it got so bad that I called Caleb on it. The next play, I got my second touch.

This is inexcusable, and it's becoming a bigger and bigger pattern with Caleb. In a lot of ways, it's similar to Rafael's development; once he had an array of moves, he saw little use for allowing teammates to work with him, since he felt he could do it all on his own. And against weaker competition, he could. But, in such a case, who really wants to play on his team? A person who wants a win, but doesn't want to pull their own weight to get one. That's not why I play the game. Basketball, at its purest, is a team sport. If you can't find a use for your teammates, then you're not a basketball player. If the game is about you doing what you want every play, teammates and their effort be damned, then you have lost all basketball perspective.

I do not need to practice posting a physical defender. I do it often. And I don't see a point trying to fight for position if I'm not going to see the ball but four times in a game. And, as a big guy, Caleb should understand that - in a normal, full-court, five-on-five game, he is dependent on people looking for him in order to get touches. He should understand the principle of not making a teammate work for post position when you've no intention of looking for him - at least let him know so he can work for rebounding position. At least involve him in a pick.

Caleb is far too talented of a player to lose to ego, but more and more, that's where I see his game headed. He already has a bad habit of taking on double-teams rather than looking for the open man; fortunately, that's mostly in the post, although he sometimes drives into double-teams without looking to do anything but shoot.

Now, in fairness, I could have simply been the one to take the ball out one of those times. Of course, most likely, the first thing I'd do is throw the ball to Caleb, but I could have just as easily gone out, taken the ball, and done something to get by my own defender, and gone into the same ball-hog mode Caleb was playing in. Instead I had hoped to make a point to him, get him to see what he was doing, but he was going along seemingly oblivious to the whole thing.

Apparently, I need to work with Caleb on understanding the flow of the game. Perhaps his physical skill development has just out-paced his mental skill development, because what he's really focused on in-game is his physical skills.

The final game was the first game that looked like a real game - Matt and Tim against Caleb and me. This was the first game where there was at least a somewhat fair match-up that I was involved in. There was a big difference, though; Caleb is a post player, and the Matt guy isn't, even though he's nearly Caleb's size. In this game, Caleb let me play a part; I found Caleb on several beautiful back-cuts. When Caleb is playing a game like this, he's a marvel; *THIS* is the kind of teammate that I can help go from good to great, or from great to elite - the kind of teammate you put on the court, and say to the other team, "I DARE you to stop him." This is the player I've always known that Caleb can be. This is the kind of guy who could replace all the things that Rafael - the team-oriented, young version - brought to a game, and more. This is the guy who could take the vacant title of "my favorite target." But this version of Caleb gets mixed up with the previous game's version of Caleb, and as a result, never gets the respect that folks like Dustin and Dan get from me - even though Caleb has more overall talent and skill.

It's like there's a bit of insecurity that Caleb is struggling through - some mistaken notion that he has to be the best player on the court all the time, and if he isn't, all that he's worked for will be taken away. In that regard, he's kind of like Skander.

And speaking of Skander, he's back! He'll be with us for Boone County Lumber vs. Boone Electric. This is a great opportunity for Skander to get his feet wet in the City League.

I said before the first game, I was glad that Skander wasn't going to be at the first game. I was wrong. If we're going to be stupid, and try to run and gun against a team of guards, then at least we should have a TALENTED player like Skander doing it rather than the guy we had. Todd or Greg would have been good guys to have in the backcourt, and I'm convinced they'd have had more of a postive impact that Skander on that particular game - assuming they were in the line-up instead of 3. Wow. I'm still aghast at the fact that Todd's number is being worn by that guy. It's just so wrong - going from the ultimate team-player and tempo-setter to the ultimate out-of-sync guy.

Against Boone Electric, Skander will get a dose of physical play from 0 and 2. And I've already set the tone with the referees on the perimeter by committing that early foul on defense. And 0, who is the X-factor for Boone Electric, is vulnerable to fast players. As long as Skander plays defense knowing that the guy is playing for drawing fouls, he should torch this team...just in time to get on the ground for Ott Trucking.

That one game we lost could be costly - but if we run the table, and get a little help from Ott Trucking or Shelter, we're still looking good.

Boone County Lumber lost its game by 3 points tonight.

What is the point of building up a game plan, if you're going to scrap it the moment you go on the court?

I had a bad game tonight. The only redeeming feature about it is that everyone else had a bad game, too. 0-4, 0-3, 1 assist, 2 rebounds, 2 steals, an attempt at a game-saving foul when the other team was running out the clock (I got the foul - it just didn't save the game), four turnovers that I remember (three to Bobby). And that might not be the worst game.

Skander, despite my urging for him to come out aggressive, came out passive. I'm looking for instant offense from him, and he didn't get started until 5 or 6 minutes in; he didn't bring the ball up the court until the second half, with the exception of one play where he didn't watch for the wolf on the inbound. Skander, going at full speed, aggressive, from minute one, puts up a MINIMUM of 16 points against that team. Skander, coming out passive, not taking and commanding the ball - trying to be "Skander, the role player" - goes scoreless at something like 0-6. He drew two fouls that I remember, and it seemed like another two as well...that's what Skander can do against these teams. Do that against Boone Electric, and they fold like a cheap tent. We got #10 to foul out - and almost came back on them because of it. 5 more minutes...5 more minutes, and they're ours.

I just don't get it. We talked before the game about how important it was for him to come out aggressive. We talked about how dreadful it is to have 3 handling the ball. But instead of calling 3 off the ball, instead of taking command, he decided to wait until someone gave him the ball.

I hate it. And the reason I hate it is because THAT'S NOT SKANDER. That's not the guy I respect and admire on the court. When Larry Bird referred to playing like women, that's the guy he was talking about. The Skander that *I* know - *MY* Skander - has too much pride to let teammates punk him out of the action the way that one did. He OWNS players like # 3; he doesn't defer to them.

He tells me that he doesn't know the guys. Well, DUH - I don't either. I know two players - Bobby and Skander. Skander knows two players - Bobby and me. Bobby knows two players - Skander and me. That has to stop being an excuse. Bobby and I have played *1* *GAME* with #3. (And I hate him. Just so that that's clear.) Skander is 50 times the player that that guy is, and yet Skander is deferring to him - like #3's opinion means *ANYTHING*. It's such undeniable garbage. The guy is an idiot, and Skander is thinking that he has to impress the guy. The heck with that. Bobby has played on Boone Lumber the last two years now, and me, the last three. Impress *US* - not some guy we picked up just so we'd have a substitute.

As for Bobby, I'm going to put glue on Bobby's hands. Of course, I full well expect him to drop the glue. Probably out-of-bounds.

And Skander *DID* draw a third foul that I remember - on a guy coming through his screen.

What upsets me the most is that because of this game, it's likely that that's the last of the court time Skander and I will see together. The team is being taken over by outsiders, and they're going to demand more and more time together, and Skander and I will both end up sacrificing our minutes - minutes that SHOULD BE productive minutes together on the court.

We lost a game we shouldn't have lost, and set ourselves up for a losing season based on the fact that we're NOT going to have cohesive teams on the court, because we're letting outsiders with no intention of playing team basketball take over.

And we get Ott Trucking next week.

It's the Carfax team all over again.

Where are you when we need you, Todd - and Greg - and John?