Basketball Jones

Since high school, my interest in basketball has increased rather than gradually fading away as is common with maturing young adults. I confess that I have watched the film from my younger brother's games (some of it twice), and have lots of ideas. It makes me wonder if I should consider coaching at some level after college. Next week, there will be an all day camp for the team, and I will be present. Unfortunately, I doubt that the guys I played with a scant year and a half ago will respect me enough to listen to me, although I do feel that I have some insight into their situation. Anyway, since they may never get the dubious benefits of my analysis, I thought I could write some of it down.

As with any team, this one has strengths and weaknesses. Sadly, the biggest weakness, namely, the inability to practice more than once per week, will probably not be addressed. Fortunately, there is a glaring weakness that could be aleviated. In the six games that I saw, the team shot 32 percent cumulatively. Of course, there are teams that simply cannot shoot well, and must make up for this deficiency in other areas, but such is not the case with this team. The three players with the most shot attempts are all adept shooters. The beauty of it is, thanks to the plodding pace that characterized them all year, the team was committing relatively few turnovers by the end of the season. In the first game, there were 36 turnovers. In the final game, against a full court press, this team coughed up the ball only 13 times. What never changed the entire year was depressingly bad shot selection. Only four players took a significant number of shots, and they were all guilty of taking wild lay-ups and contested jumpers, when they could have passed the ball or even shake and baked their way into better position. Taking good shots is, perhaps, the most basic common sense advice a coach can give his players, but when the greatest NBA stars take shots that cause any coach to nash his teeth in frustration, who listens? In two games against the same team, our starting shooting guard took fourty shots, and made ten of them. Both these games were decided by a few points.

Getting a good shot is actually not as difficult as it may appear when confronted by a swarming zone defense. In fact, even if none of the players change their ways, I think this year will see an improvement in field goal percentage. This will come partly because the same four players are all significantly better and know each other. Just as importantly, the point guard will probably be able to dribble-penetrate defenses--creating more open shots.

I have not said a great deal about defense for a reason. This team was fairly effective defensively last year and will improve correspondingly this coming season. In many ways I wish that I could have played with these guys. Despite their problems they have the most balanced team in the history of the organization, with a tall, athletic, and high-scoring front court, a multi-talented point guard, and a gifted shooting guard.

Bachmann

image: www,home.2onnet.nl/hdehoop/cartoonsx.htm