The Screaming Viking

Cross post from Hillbilly Coach

It looks like I’ll be able to get on with the 5&6th and 7&8th boys basketball for the upcoming year.  I’m not sure if that will allow me to do the girl’s 5th&6th at the end of the year, but we’ll see how the dates work out.  I would like to coach the 6th grade girls.  I worked with them a little bit last year and there is quite a bit of potential there.  I think some more work this year and they could be pretty productive.

I was able to work with some of the boys in the above groups during basketball camp this past summer.  There is quite a bit of potential there but I’ll need to battle the NBA mentality that was there for some reason.  I’m not sure if the guys I played with had the same mentality at these ages, but anytime I’ve been involved with these age groups it seems to be getting more and more prevalent.  Hopefully we can shelve some of that mentality and build a solid foundation for the kids to build on at the higher levels.

The mav’s managed to best the heat last night in convincing fashion.  Both teams had a few runs, but the mav’s were just too hot to handle.  Dirk went 1-12 in the first half, but Dallas still has a 2 point lead going in to the half.  All series long the talking heads have said that dirk needs some help and last night he got it.  I’ve been on wax a couple of times saying that I think the officiating is bias…last night I think it was pretty bad as well.  The heat had 15 more free throws than the mavs…which is quite a difference in the NBA.

Obviously my opinion means nothing, but I like the way things turned out.  I like to see guys that have worked hard for many years finally earn themselves a title (Dirk, Kidd, Terry…).  Those guys have been in the league quite a while, been to the finals at least once each and finally earned themselves a title.  I like seeing Mark Cuban win a championship as well.  He’s been outspoken and can be an ass but whenever he talks about his teams you get the sense that he is as much a fan as anyone.  He wants his team to succeed both on the court and financially, he pushes for that and seems to have passion.  I like the feeling I get from an owner who seems invested in winning year in and year out.

I also like that James didn’t win a title his first year.  I’m sure his will come, but I just don’t like his public persona.  The move from Cleveland to Miami put a very bad taste in my mouth.  I have never had a problem with a guy moving teams, I just didn’t like the way he did it.  Call your former boss, tell him your moving on…call your new boss, tell him you accept…hold a press conference.  Some heads have said that they do not like the way he kept Cleveland in limbo for a few years during his last contract with them.  He seemed to act like they owed it to him to get him a title instead of him earning one.  I realize the decision earned 2mil for charity and that’s cool, but I think he should have at least notified his former boss before he went on the air.  Even if it was a phone call a couple min before he announced…it could have been handled better.  I also don’t like the “Chosen 1″ tattoo on his back…it seems awfully arrogant.  If he’d have brought multiple titles to Cleveland..then by all means, ink it up.  But to do it before you have won anything is a bit ridiculous.

LeBron also seemed to shrink from the spot light.  An average of 2.5pts or something in the 4th quarter of the finals?  In a press conference he tried to point to the “other things” he does in the 4th…but the bottom line is when the game is on the line the ball should be in his hands and he should be taking the shots.  Maybe he’ll mature in to his role but it would be a shame if he continued this mediocre performance in the finals and was able to win a championship on the back of someone else.

I’ve setup a new blog website to post some of my coaching experiences.  I’ll cross post for a little bit, but eventually I want to leave my coaching experiences there and keep this as my personal general commentary on life.  Hillbilly Coach

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Every year the girl’s head coach here runs a basketball camp…he has since I’ve been in grade school.  This year I signed my kid up for camp.  I thought this would be a good opportunity for her to get to know some of the people she will be in class with and also, she could use the work on her game.  I’m a big fan of these camps.  I think they give the players a bit more instruction than you can provide during an organized practice and playing with new people makes them really focus on the simple aspects of the game.  When you play in the school program some coaches have a propensity to push the players to run the ‘set offense’ all the time.  This prevents them from free forming and discovering how to play the game a little more organically and with flow.  Learning the importance of the pick and roll as well as cutting to the basket is key at this young age.  In these camps you have to go back to those basics and work on those areas of the games.  Plus the players get quite a bit of floor time as well as several games a day.

Camp started on Tuesday.  I came in to the gym on and off to see how things were going.  Mostly because I like watching and I’m hoping for opportunities to work with various age groups next year.  I wanted to see what kind of talent there is in those various groups.  Bottineau made it to the state tournament for baseball, and the baseball coach is the head boys coach whom is also running the boys basketball camp.  They left on Wednesday for practice before they start the tournament so the camp was short staffed.  The girls coach asked me if I would be interested in helping out, naturally I was.  I saw this as a good opportunity to get more involved with the program and pass along some of my knowledge and techniques to the players.

Overall the camp went well.  There were not near as many players there as I remember when I used to go…but there were still enough to do the planned activities.  Maybe the attendance is a product of the time of year the camp takes place.  They run it right after school is out…and this could be either good or bad.  Some might be looking for a break right away, other’s might take off right after school, given the memorial day weekend, for a vacation and it might work out well for others who have plans for later in the summer.  This guy has been doing this for awhile so I assume this is what works for him.

I worked with both the boys and the girls in a few different areas, shooting and ball handling mainly.  I ran them through the basic drills, which I think are important at virtually all age groups.  After the drill stations we ran individual competitions.  The coach’s main functions during these events are to keep time and record stats.  After that we play the team games.  Here we coach both sides up a bit and act as the official.

It seemed like most everyone had fun, I can’t think of someone who looked like they didn’t have a good time.  Over all, in that short week I noticed improvements in the mechanics of several of the players.  Some of the girls especially need to work on their shooting form.  They are going from the little girl that had to heave the ball from their waists to get it to the rim…to having more strength and being able to shoot with a “proper” technique and be far more accurate.  Hopefully they will keep working over the summer and come winter Bottineau will have a pretty decent team at that age level. (5-8).

I sat down and watched most of the bulls heat game last night…I’m not a fan of the heat, but the bulls didn’t deserve to win that game.  I’m not a fan of the heat because of LeBron James.  I watched the guy when he played for the cavs, pulled for him and all that…but after he went to miami the way he did I would love to see him never win a title.  This year though it seems fairly inevitable that he’s going to win.  I don’t have a whole lot of faith in the Mav’s when it gets to the title game.

The bulls and the thunder seem to be suffering from the same problems.  They have a relative lack of playoff experience as a team.  All kinds of talent and hustle, but they just can’t seem to come together collectively during some stretches of these playoff games.  There was one point when rose was on a break, bosh with 5 fouls was trailing…rose went for the shot, bosh went for the block and rose avoided him for the 2 points.  At that stage of this close game it would have been more valuable to get bosh fouled out and go to the line for 2 shots.  There was quite a bit of miscommunication on passes and cuts, turnovers that were unforced (ball dribbled off of another players foot as they were coming up the court…no pressure).  It’s those little mistakes that need to be cut out for them to be a successful playoff team.  There is value in players getting to the playoffs multiple times and learning how to function in that environment.

As much as I don’t like James, he sure turned on the D against rose in the 4th.  I think they put him on Rose around the 7min mark?  He shut him down…it was pretty dominate.  Rose settled for 2 jump shots at the end that I was pretty disappointed with.  I would have liked to see him put the ball on the floor and take his chances.  Maybe if it wasn’t a tie he would have.  Down 1 point I bet he drives to the hol

Watching the NBA usually sucks IMO.  I was a big basketball fan back in the day, but after I grew up a little bit I realized how subjective the officiating is, how lopsided it can be and how the flow of the game is interrupted constantly with the whistles and the time outs.  I always complained about the officiating, but I never put thought in to it beyond “it sucks” until lately.  On Lex & Terry they have interviewed Tim Donaghy a few times and he tells them how he would go about adjusting the outcome of various games.  After hearing that, it’s interesting to watch games with that information and notice the stuff that he is talking about.  Maybe they can’t play as physical on one end, maybe call is made that will shave a few points here and there…it’s pretty interesting.  I think in the NBA the officials are more able to keep the spread what they want it than any other game.  You can make adjustments in other sports, but it’s easy to add the “and one!” in the NBA…call a foul here, don’t call one there…etc.  They can’t put the ball in the hole but they can give them every opportunity.