Our Hustle Meter was pushing close to 100 all night, I'd say. That made up for so-so shooting, and we had a couple of turnover flurries. But it never got out of hand, and the way we challenged almost every one of Makakilo's shots made it almost completely our advantage on the boards. We didn't give up many second shots, and we took care of the ball down the stretch with good clock management. In fact, our pressbreaker was fairly consistent. Working on our flaws — splitting wide on the break, passing the ball from the middle to our sideline streakers (instead of trying to dribble through congestion) — and it paid off tonight.
It wasn't easy. Makakilo's tall center was a big challenge, and we didn't get a lot of easy looks from 3-point range. Then Chris got into foul trouble (three in the first half) and Sifo was almost exhausted by halftime. (He's been practicing at Maryknoll every day.)
Our transition, with Jared, Kyle, Sifo and Tanielu, was unmatched. Kodee and Chris played stellar defense on the press, too, and Micah, Paul and Mackie were solid with ballhandling. Jared? He has been so consistent in our past several games, making smart decisions with the ball, hustling for loose balls in traffic and getting the ball out safely ... pushing the fastbreak with Kyle and Sifo, playing excellent on-ball defense.
There's so much to say about every single one of our 13U players, but I'll save that for the next get-together. Some things are better said in person than in print. Thanking each of our players and parents, that deserves full appreciation. For now, I just know this was one of my favorite teams of all time to coach going back to when I started 30 years ago. A team of good listeners (most of the time), good learners (most of the time) and so unselfish. I didn't teach you guys to pass the ball THAT WELL against the press. That came from each of you working and trusting each other no matter how much pressure teams brought against us.
I have had very few teams that was this eager to come to practice and work hard every single day, even if it meant catching the bus from Kalihi.
It's not quite over, of course. 13U plays Hawaii Kai on Friday night (tomorrow) in a 7:10 pm game, so be there for warmups by 6:10. I'll be at Makiki Park at 3:00 pm, then leave for Kilauea at 5:00. It's an exhibition game, more or less, since Hawaii Kai played in the Gold Division. But I like the challenge, any challenge. We'll be short players — Kodee has a softball tournament and Mackie has 808 practice, and Jenna probably (not sure) will have to go to 808 practice, too. But this is a chance to see where we stack up against the higher division.
We're still (probably) the youngest team of all the 13U, Gold or Silver Division. Only one 13-year-old (Sifo). But we played like true champions tonight. Hopefully, we'll bring that same championship play tomorrow.
It's not too early to look ahead. The CAL 13U Fall League begins on August 10. We'll lose Sifo (he'll be 14 in early September), but the rest of the team will be intact, I hope. Football will hurt us some; Tanielu and Sifo will be busy. But I think we can still hold down the fort.
One last game tomorrow for a special team. Enjoy it, enjoy it to the max, everyone!
Update Friday 2:55 pm: Adds video. See Part 2 as a link. It will be viewable by 4:00 pm.
Highlights (Part 1)
Part 2 video here (4:00 pm Friday)
No comments:
Post a Comment