Day: January 9, 2024

The Irish were back on the court for two games last week. It ended up being a pretty frustrating stretch for L.

Thursday the teams took a bus to Louisville to face Assumption. About all we knew about them was that they are a national volleyball power. They’ve won at least six national championships, if you can believe the banners in their gym.[1] They even honored their volleyball team for their latest state title at halftime of the varsity game.

Our JV girls played like they had been on a bus for two hours. AHS jumped out to a 10–1 lead to open the game. The Irish cut it to five at halftime, but L sat out the third quarter and we trailed by nine going into the final period. She had four points and an assist in the fourth to help key a rally that got us as close as two, but couldn’t get over the hump and lost by three.

For the game she scored seven points on 3–8 shooting (0–3 from 3), 1–2 from the line. Her shooting form continues to be a mess. We’ve talked about it a few times but I think it is something that will both require outside help and attention in the off-season. I told her to keep shooting when she’s open, because she’s not taking bad shots and no one else really looks to shoot (Foreshadowing!).

It was a little strange that in Kentucky JV games play six minute quarters compared to seven in Indiana. That game flew by.

The varsity game was really good. Again we trailed early, by as many as nine. We kept rallying then giving up runs. Each time we pulled within a point, Assumption would answer with a run of 7–0 or more. We finally took the lead late in the third quarter, stretched it out to eight, then held them off late for a controversial four-point win. I say controversial because the refs counted an AHS basket that clearly came after the final buzzer. Not sure what the Vegas line was but hope that made-up basket didn’t cost anyone some money.

L did not play in the varsity game as we were finally back to full strength. She was a little annoyed by that, thinking she could have played the third quarter of the JV game and then maybe we win. Oh well. I thought to myself if she hadn’t air-balled a 3 with under a minute left we might have won, too.

Saturday we were back home to play Noblesville, a very good Hamilton County program. One of L’s travel teammates, E, plays for them, and two more of their buddies came to watch. Before the game E’s dad told us they had the worst JV program in the state. Naturally they played really well and beat us by six? Seven? I lost my little stat sheet so I’m not sure what the final was.

L had a crazy game. She definitely listened to me about continuing to shoot. She took a career-high sixteen shots. SIXTEEN! She couldn’t buy a make, though, and only hit three of them to finish with six points. She was making good decisions and getting to the hoop but could not finish. We watched her get progressively more pissed as she continued to miss. Her coach talked to her during a couple dead balls trying to get her some confidence. When she finally hit a shot after 11 straight misses, she threw up her hands as if thankful for a miracle. She played all but 15 seconds of the game and notched a rebound, two assists, and managed not to turn the ball over until the final possession of the day.

I didn’t get to talk to her after the game as she dressed for varsity and had to change and get in the layup line. On our ride home I told her I knew she was pissed, but I thought she played great. She was aggressive without being a selfish. She played within the offense and was smart. She took care of the ball. Sixteen shots was a lot but I didn’t think her coaches would be upset about any of them. She just had a bad/unlucky day and couldn’t get anything to drop. You have to focus on process not results on days like this. She should feel good that she got a ton of good looks. Take that confidence to the next game and knock a few more down.

Varsity was never close. NHS has a guard who is going to Iowa State last year. She’s probably the least immediately impressive D1 player we’ve seen this year, mostly because she’s a 5’8” guard. But she’s a really good athlete and is always going 100%. She didn’t do much until the fourth quarter, when she scored seven-straight points to finish with 15. They are just a good team that plays really well together. Each player’s movement was coordinated with a teammate’s so they got lots of free cuts to the basket or open shooters off of screens. The Irish lost by 29.

One of the travel teammates who came was our buddy from Chatard with the name very similar to L’s. We noticed that L’s name had been added to the varsity side of the roster, which we were all excited about.

Then we noticed her last name was spelled wrong; it was spelled like her Chatard buddy’s name. I shook my head in mock disgust as I showed it to K’s mom, “I guess you guys are on the hook for our tuition now.” She thought that was pretty funny. The typo, not my suggestion they take responsibility for L’s financials.

Seriously. It’s one thing to pronounce our last name wrong. I don’t get it, but it’s been happening my whole life and there’s nothing I can do about it. It’s another for L’s own school, where we spend a lot of money, to spell it wrong by changing it to the name of a girl at a rival school.

Not an ounce of respect.

This week is the Indianapolis City Tournament. The varsity teams are seeded based on the Sagarin ratings, then the JV tournament is set to match the varsity bracket. That works out well for us as we get the #1 seed and there are really only three good teams in the City right now.[2]

Tonight varsity plays a 3A school that is 13–4 but rated 335 in the computer rankings. Then the semifinal would be against either a team ranked in the 250s or one in the 370s. Wild guess that all their JV teams are trash. We watched a couple games in the JV tournament last year and aside from the top three schools, none of the others would have beat L’s St. P’s team.

Hopefully I didn’t just jinx us.

Quarterfinals are tonight, semis Thursday, finals Friday, all at Cathedral.