It's not about rushing. It's not about panicking. It's about playing with a passionate, positive intensity and unyielding conviction of belief from start to finish. By no coincidence, we won games when we played with those elements.
In the last few minutes of yesterday's game, we finally saw that happen on the court with all five players. Maybe it had to do with being down 10, 12 points. Maybe it was more about the clock ticking down to 4 minutes, 3 minutes, 2 minutes ...
But what we lacked in the first 28 minutes, we seemed to gain in those final 4 minutes. A win is always, always indicative of how a team plays together. Players win games.
A loss is always, always about coaching. It's about strategy and management, timing and motivation. It seems obvious to me that I haven't found a way to properly motivate our entire team. That hurt us yesterday and the result was our first loss.
Is one game that much different from any other? In the long run, not really. Five wins in six games is pretty nice. We have a lot of positives with us. But the lack of turnout to practice in the past 2-3 weeks is disturbing, and it finally resulted in a defeat. The onus is on the coach to motivate all players to be at practice.
The guys who have been consistently at practice and the guys who come when they aren't busy with varsity and JV practices deserved a better fate yesterday. Things may change a bit in the coming week. I learned after our game yesterday that it is NOT mandatory to play anybody who has missed most or all practices for no sensible reason. If I'd known this earlier, yesterday's substitution pattern would have been much, much different.
I don't know if it would've turned our game around, but at least we would've had players on the floor who are in shape and know how to play together.
I hope everyone makes it to practice this week. Chemistry is a very delicate thing. From this point on, with the information I have from KAC's director, I will not play anyone who misses all or almost all practices during the week without a valid reason. It's just not effective to success. It's just not fair to everybody else who has been dedicated.
I don't expect everyone to be at every practice. I do expect everyone to work on their skills when we do our drills (ballhandling, shooting, etc.) and I do expect everyone to come when possible and build better chemistry with his teammates. If you love this game and care about your team, you understand what I'm saying. In the three games we have left, we have only this to prove: Are we really a team that truly wants to get better every day?
The only people we can or need to prove this to is ourselves. If we improve daily, wins will come.
Ask yourself this: Are you a pretender or a believer? If you believe, come to practice ready to work with diligence and positive support for your teammates. If you plan to be a pretender, don't bother coming, at least for the sake of your teammates.
Next, practice this afternoon.
The only people we can or need to prove this to is ourselves. If we improve daily, wins will come.
Ask yourself this: Are you a pretender or a believer? If you believe, come to practice ready to work with diligence and positive support for your teammates. If you plan to be a pretender, don't bother coming, at least for the sake of your teammates.
Next, practice this afternoon.
This week's schedule
Monday, practice, 4:30 p.m., Kahala Park
Tuesday, practice, 4:30 p.m., Kahala Park
Wednesday, pick-up games, 5:30 p.m., Boys & Girls Club
Thursday, practice, 4:30 p.m., Kahala Park
Friday, practice, 4:30 p.m., Kapaolono Park
Saturday, practice, 4:30 p.m., Kahala Park
Sunday, pre-game 3 p.m., game 4 p.m., Kalani High SchoolDream BIG.
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