12/17/ 07 #34

This post should actually come before the Princeton game. Our practice went well and we pretty much know everything that they will do. We try to set a pattern on practices before game days so the girl's will get more comfortable about the game. Changed the lineup to go smaller but also get a little quicker. went over 2 guard offense, inbounds and presses. I think we're ready.

Princeton 78 - Beckley 76 L

Started off slow and was down 21-9 at the end of the 1st qtr. Down 11 at the half. No defense, and they shot the lights out. Best Princeton has ever played against us. 39-28 half time-Princeton. No post game to speak of. Started out better in the 2nd half and scored 29 points in the 3rd qtr. 2 turnovers and 2 missed free throws in the last 30 seconds sealed the win for them. JV got crushed. 2 slow starts result in 2 losses.
Sorry for the late post. I'll try to keep them updated after the 1st of the year. From now on, if there are any newspaper articles about the games, I'll cut and paste them into the blog.

12/15/07 Practice #33?

As we didn't get back until around 1 am, we didn't practice until 10 am and then only for 1.5 hours. Had to get JV straightened out about noise on the bus. Worked on press and specifically on Princeton's offense and defense. Good effort considering everybody was still tired from the "Bus Ride From Hell". Split practice on Monday means that both JV and Varsity will get a lot of work in.

012/14/07 Lincoln County 58-53, W

Sat in the gym for 2 hours waiting on the bus, bus ride was 2hours and 20 minutes to get there. JV lost their game with 5+ turnovers in the last minute and 20 seconds. They played hard and some 9th graders are really improving. Most of the 10th graders aren't. Still early though so nothing to worry about yet.
Lincoln County was a hard nut to crack down there. Presses worked very good at times and kept us ahead . Made and missed shot plays were better than with South. Half court offense was better. 2 guard not so good. Our delay game was very good. Post player was nothing to write home about as defense is still very suspect. But she did have 4 blocks though and made some timely plays. Shooting was poor by everyone, rebounding not much better. Officiating was very poor, but is to be expected. We are in decent shape and did not make as many mental mistakes as last game. SG had very low percentage of shots made and PG still weak defensively. Princeton at Princeton will be very tough game.

12/13/07 Practice #32

Practiced both teams and no problems. JV coming along really well. We're looking forward to their first game this Friday. Had CA come in and we watched the press video together. She applied what she saw during practice and the results were good enough so that we can use the press Friday. I think both teams are ready for Lincoln County. If we get to go.
The Transportation Department in this county has major problems that I'm not sure can be fixed. Nobody wants to drive a school bus. There are no available substitute bus drivers so we might be able to leave at 4pm for a 5:30 game. Only problem is that it takes 2 + hours to get there. If this happens, the JV game won't start until 7pm, the Varsity at close to 9pm, and we won't get home until after 1am. Thank God it's on a Friday night.

12/12/07 Practice #31

Pretty good practice. We practiced separately again and got a lot done. I wasn't as clear as I should have been with our new press so it was a little confusing at times. Everything else was good-concentration, effort it was all there.
My assistants went to watch Princeton play at East. We have to beat either to get to the state tournament so it's important to scout them.They came back very pleased with what they saw. That is all I can say for now.
I stayed and practiced the JV and was pleasantly surprised with how far they had progressed. They will be all right. I enjoyed the time with them very much!

12/11/07 Practice #30

After getting back to the school after midnight we had a very good practice. Some of the bench players stepped it up and gave the starters as good as they got. Everyone was very intense and the first 30 minutes of practice we did a lot of drills that involved game speed running. Concentration was much improved also. Seems like last night's loss has helped us to focus but a win would have been better still. Next up, Lincoln County- a 2 hour trip-if we can get a bus. And that's not for certain.

12/10/07 Parkersburg South 62 - Beckley 58

Our first game wasn't as bad as it first looked. When we got down there the word on the court was that P. South was the early favorite to win the State's this year. We were completely out of the picture since the loss of our "stud"- as 1 coach put it. The 1st half was as bad as it looked as at one point we were down 13 points. With our starting post player playing in her first scrimmage and our starting PG having to sit out all summer due to knee problems they had an understandingly rough time. Still as bad as our rebounding was, we were only down 10 at the half.
Some adjustments to our defense got us back in the game and within tying the game but the my SG and SF got their fourth fouls. With them siiting out, that allowed P. South to get up to 8 and we cut it to 4 at the buzzer.
Strengths - Shooting was good, zone defenses and presses were good. Some players were asked to play out of position due to fouls and did a great job. Everybody got in the game and they all left us with good impressions about some aspect of their game.
Weaknesses - man defense was terrible, too many turnovers, NO rebounding.
Overall - Good possibility that this will be the worst game we will play. We left out of there as legitimate contenders for the state championship and with a lot more respect for us and among ourselves.

12/8/07 #29

Great Saturday practice. Everyone seems ready for Monday's game. We've got everything in, gave the uniforms out and went over the schedule for Monday. Now all we have to do is sit around and wait.

12/7/07 #28

Fantastic practice today. Everyone was focused, everything we did looked good. With only 2 scrimmages since 11/5 we were probably getting stale or whatever. Anyway it was a real pleasure to work with the girls today.

12/6/07 # 27

Strange practice from my perspective. A couple of girls came in with attitudes which is somewhat unusual for us. Another girl got in trouble with a teacher today. People were coming in to talk to me and I had to leave early. Although the girls seemed unaffected by the distractions I couldn't shake the feeling that something just wasn't right. The JV was with us today but I couldn't blame it on them either. It was like a big cloud of "blah" was surrounding us. Even if this is the worst practice so far, it still wasn't too bad. Or it could have been me. Oh well, tha next to practices will be just us so we will be able to get a lot of things done.

12/5/2007 #26

Got my assistant back today but as the weather was extremely bad-several inches of snow- my other assistant couldn't make it. Combined practice for today. As hard as the JV tries they still are capable of making my head hurt. Of course now it's a big joke-except they really do make my head hurt. But they are improving every day. Had to discipline 2 girls today for making poor decisions in the classroom. Press breaker is looking pretty good and overall we feel like we're on schedule. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday will be very important practice days. The key to our first game will be how well our post players can rebound and defend against the #4 team in the state.
To the reader that posted about 1 of our post players stats during a scrimmage- I agree that those were very good stats but they mean nothing if they are not sustainable. I'll take those stats every night if I can get them.

12/4/07 #25 Pre-season Poll

Pre-season poll came out today and we're ranked #3 in the sportswriters poll. Obviously the news about our PG hasn't gotten round the state yet. So much for our esteemed sportswriters and their nose for news. Parkersburg South is #4 and we open up with them this coming Monday. Otherwise another good practice. Introduced a new defense and as usual I tried to solicit comments from our leaders- what do they think, who would play best where, when would be best to use it etc. We feel that the more they buy into it, the harder they'll work. And some of them have excellent suggestions. They love to comment on offense as well. Usually in the way of them shooting more. Parents, even though never asked, will sometimes comment to other players about where certain aspects of the offense should go - namely to their kids. Overall, we've been blessed to have really good parents who do everything to support their girls.

12/3/07 #24

Defense is starting to look OK. Worked a lot on a press-breaker for the Parkersburg South game. With only 10 players, anytime anybody is absent it presents match-up problems for practice. There is nobody on the JV that is good enough to practice with us if we need them to. Since our PG went down a week ago, I have lost 5 pounds. Apparently stress is an excellent way to lose weight. That leaves me 2 pounds over my coaching weight from last year.

12/1/07 #23

Another practice without the JV. We are progressing with our defenses. Offense shouldn't be a problem. If anyone is actually reading this I apologize for the mix up in the dates. Although the JV benefits from working with the varsity we sometimes lose reps from spending time with them. However, they are our future and they need instructed. They also are getting better.

11/29/07 #22

Not a bad practice for the day after a scrimmage. A lot of times there's a let down but with learning new things daily we seem to be moving along fairly well. We are not getting as much done as I want but what we are doing we seem to be doing them reasonably well. This was our first practice without the JV. At least I didn't get a headache.