MVRC Jazz: 1-1

We got our first win!!! We're only allowed to have one practice per week for one hour, so yesterday was the first time we got everyone on the court together. In fact, one player joined the team yesterday! I put a couple of plays into our offense - one to use against man to man and one to use against the zone defenses. Also, we worked on spotting the open man and getting him the ball quickly. Then, we made sure that each person knew for certain what positions he is supposed to play when he's on the court, depending on who else is on the court with him. But the best thing about practice was the intensity that the guys played with. It made me very confident about today's game. The last thing I said in practice was "Tomorrow, we get our first win of the season. But it's not really about winning or losing, it's about having fun... but winning is REALLY fun!!!" Well, it is.

Game day. A few players show up early and we're working on running the plays that we put in yesterday. Not too hard. It's pregame warm up, not practice. And I don't want us to over exert ourselves right before a game. Everyone seems to be feeling very confident with themselves because last week, though we lost by 15 points, we did much better in the second half than the first and we didn't have an offensive identity yet. Now, we know who we are on offense. We know what we're doing and how to do it.

When the game starts, we jump out to a very quick 10-2 score on the strength of 3 layups and a couple of offensive rebounds, as well as some very inspired defense on the other teams best player, a sweet-shooting, ball handling small forward who can only really go right, but last week scored 10 points in about a minute of game time. We were very worried about him. After the first half, we were up by 17 points. But I reminded the guys what happened last week. The suns had beaten us down in the first half and we shaved 10 points off of their lead in the first 15 minutes of the game. If the refs didn't institute a running clock, we probably could have won the game. We just ran out of time. Plus, one of their players scored 10 points in a minute, so they're capable of coming back. Everyone was happy with themselves, but intense and focused on the task at hand. We ended up winning by about 22 points and, oh yeah, our starting point guard wasn't there due to a prior engagement (Club Soccer in the valley, good luck Daniel).

Then we all went out for pizza where the boys got a chance to mingle as a team, away from a basketball setting and really start to get to know each other. Their parents came too, of course which was even more important, because now we have someone in charge of bringing water for the games and snacks for afterwards.

All in all, it was a good day :). I can't wait till next week.

As always, you'll know more as I do,