HOLIDAY SEASON: LOOKING BACK at 1&3

As much as I enjoy coaching, the game of basketball has a much less compelling hue, as my good friend Merlin Dewing passed away two weeks ago the day after tomorrow. Being asked to give his eulogy for a man who was the finest leader and finest person of integrity I have ever known was an honor and I am just grateful it turned out to be the best speech I have ever given among the thousands I have given over the years...as a coach...as a motivational speaker, consultant, radio and television talk show host, student body president, political campaign manager, etc.

As for the basketball team, we enter the holiday break with a record of 1 win and 3 losses, and time will tell if the first game, that history making win, was lightning caught in a bottle. Or if the players just found themselves with lost focus after coming back from Thxgiving break knowing they were about to enter exam period.

Our games against Mercer County and then Harcum were embarassing, although against Mercer we were just 6 down with 12 seconds to play, with the ball in our possession and called for one shot. Poor execution led to a terrible shot, quick up and down the court by Mercer, a basket, a steal, another basket and we went into half time 10 behind...Within a couple of minutes of the beginning of the second half, we were down by close to 20 and we eventually lost by close to 40. Against Harcum I could tell on the bus the girls lacked focus in this their first away game. We arrived at the wrong gym, found ourselves walking to the gym we were to play in, and within minutes of warm up one of the players complined she had problems with the gym lighting...and that was the best of the game for us! We lost by close to 80 points, literally gave away (I mean GAVE AWAY points with passes that were more like football handoffs)...It was so bad one of the refs came by, saw that I had a wry smile on my face, and commented "Coach..love to see coaches smiling no matter how bad..."

It was an experience that convinced me the players need to decide whether or not they really want to play next semester when we have 14 more games...so I put it out there for them after the game. They said yes...but we will wait and see...

Two mornings later on Saturday morning (when I was at the funeral in Minneapolis) we lost 64-41 against Luzerne County CC which came with only 5 players! One bright spot apparently was point guard Ariel Coreth who scored 22 points...In any event I'll know more after I get a full debriefing...

With so many games in Jan and Feb there will have limited practice time, so we will have to use it effectively...and use the game experiences as teaching tools...If someone had told me we'd be 1 and 3 at the beginning of this initiative, I would have said "NEVER" and I would have taken it and been happy...but now that we actually won I know the girls IF focused and playing at the top of their game can compete better than we have over the past three games...and being focused and playing at the top our game will be the underlying theme going forward....The holiday break will afford the coaching staff time to review what we can do better, who to play more, etc.