I knew this from the beginning, back in 1982 or '81 when I was a junior in high school. My brother, 4 1/2 years younger, was playing at Boys Club of Honolulu like I had, and the director asked me to coach my brother's team. I wasn't interested, but the director insisted and we had a lot of fun, a bunch of kids being coached by a kid and doing well.
But here I am 30 years later, still questioning my decisions. We had a 15-14 halftime lead on Lanakila. We were playing fairly well for a tired team. We had a deep bench today: eight subs. So, instead of letting our tiring starters continue what they started, I had us pull the ball out, hoping to get Lanakila into man defense. In that scenario, I envisioned a lot of drives and layups. Open space. Open lanes.
Well ... it didn't turn out that way, did it? We scored maybe four points in the first 10 minutes of the second half. It wasn't our first extremely slow start to a second half, but this one hurt more than usual since it was a semifinal in the Aiea Tournament. Like us, Lanakila has a lot of new players trying to mesh in.
But I know we have shooters on the court, on the bench (Alec, Cody and more), so why didn't I just leave it be and let Lanakila stay in that 2-3 zone? I don't know exactly, except that I was trying to play to our strength since our 3-point shots weren't falling much in the first half.
Bottom line is, when teams lose, usually it's because a coach didn't make the right adjustment. When a team wins, it's because the players truly performed more than any coaching strategy. In that sense, I feel like I let you guys down. We could have or should have been in the tourney final (against Aiea Blazers). So, it's my responsibility to get all of us prepared for fullcourt presses, but without practicing a pressbreaker at full speed, 5 on 5, it's difficult to teach.
More games in the morning and afternoon. I hope everyone gets a lot of rest and finishes the week of nonstop basketball with strength.
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