No matter how much you work on anything when that game comes around it gets simplified greatly. You hope that the shellshock of playing in front of 2400 people doesn't rear its ugly head and you hope you can get something going on offense other than one or two guys doing most of the movement (the noise level is so loud that they often can't hear me, but they need to be able to do things on their own, it comes just rarely after 13 practices). Last night was no different.
Probably the hardest thing as a coach (and trust me...there are many) is that many people don't understand what's happening sometimes, mostly because they are not at practice. They very well could have great basketball knowledge, but if they don't know what the staff is trying to get accomplished, they can be confused. I have had a couple of people through the years come to practice and have a different appreciation for what we try to do after actually being at a practice (we have one open practice per year). Believe it or not what happens on the court is not always what the coaches want done, but that is expected from kids, it is something I have come to accept as a coach.
I can handle the criticisms, as I have gotten older and more experienced, it bothers me less (it would be like me showing up to a job and critiquing without really knowing what was going on, I have critisized basketball coaches in the past until I fully understand what they are trying to do) The problem is that criticisms get generated at kids sometimes intentionally, often not. What we have to deal with as coaches is many things. We have to get 7-9 guys to buy into what we are doing reinforcing that about two hours a day. Meanwhile they are attending school, going home, and spending time on social network sites/message boards and we can only hope that positive reinforcment is going on there too (anonymous message boards are horrible at least with facebook the opinion is associated with a name).
Last night I was concerned about a few things. Our free throw shooting. We were 17-31, we hit more at key times and the game is closer. We have worked on free throws many times and we even do a drill that I call "competitive FTs". Players pair up and both "teams" shoot 20 free throws. The other team tries to get into their heads by talking to them, waving their hands, etc. This allows for our guys to shoot with pressure individually, but also by being part of a "team". Our shot selection. Not only some of the shots we took (I am going to let our best players shoot hopefully fewer and fewer bad shots as the year goes on, but they have to feel comfortable shooting, call that wrong, I am ok with it), but our not being able to get some flow on offense, again 13 practices, but I really thought any of our guards could drive their guards at any time and that allowed for more one on one action from all of our guards. Our shot selection part 2. Not getting the ball to open guys when they were open and not working smarter to get open all things we will emphasize in the next few practices.
Things I saw positive were many. We competed. We didn't turn the ball over many times against full court man to man. We got to the free throw line 31 times. We rebounded well (lost some key defensive rebounds though...has to be all the time), and we had a group of guys, at least superficially who were cheering and supporting each other. Hopefully that stays the same as we get positively reinforced.
We have worked on these things many times in the previous 13 practices and will continue to do so. At some point what we are trying to convey has got to get through to the players. We look at stats and watch tape so they can see what we are talking about and have a better appreciation for what we are doing. I don't get too worked up by what happens or doesn't happen after Game #1 because we find out a lot more to work on from that game than we do any given day of practice.
