Tag: basketball (Page 4 of 55)

High School Hoops Chronicles, S1V12: Finale

February 1, 2024 / DB

Wednesday’s sectional quarterfinal went pretty much as expected. Lawrence North jumped on Cathedral early and never let up. It took four possessions for CHS to even get the ball into the paint on offense, and that resulted in an immediate turnover. Our first shot was a hurried airball. LN hit their first four 3s and 6 of 8 for the half. Meanwhile our only 3-point attempt that even hit the rim came on the last play of the first half when we banked in a half-court shot to cut the LN lead to 34. The Wildcats cruised through a running clock second half to win by 32. They are a damn good team. They advance to play their arch rivals, #1 Lawrence Central, who won their quarterfinal by 55.

L never played, which she was fine with. She had no interest in measuring her progress this season against some grown-ass women.

I give L a solid B/B+ for her first season of high school ball. She started and was team captain for all 23 JV games. By the seventh game she was dressing for varsity. She got on the court nine times with the varsity girls and was officially double-rostered by Christmas.

She averaged 5.6 points per JV game, with a high of 15. If you factor in the quarters she missed because the coaches were saving her for varsity minutes, she jumps up to 6.8 ppg.[1] That’s decent. Her assist numbers weren’t great, but it’s hard to get assists in JV. If you have a reliable scorer you can pass to, she’s probably playing varsity. Turnovers are another area where she can make a big improvement. Her defense definitely got better from having to guard our best varsity perimeter player in practice.

Most of all, she was the rock for the team. I don’t know what our scoring totals were, but I’m guessing two of her teammates scored more total points that L did. But those girls constantly got subbed out because they ran plays wrong, got lost on defense, didn’t rebound, or got into foul trouble. L never left the court unless she was dying for a break, got injured, or was needed for the varsity game.[2] She stayed on the court because even when she wasn’t scoring, she made the team better. She was the one person who could settle the offense down, who could get her teammates into the right spots. That’s why she often sat for a minute or less of game time when she did get a break, since things went sideways quickly when she wasn’t on the court.

It’s been interesting to gauge her freshman year against those of her travel teammates. One of them goes to a 2A school and was the best player on their varsity team, which seems wild to us. She was not our best travel player but I guess against a weak high school schedule she tore it up. Props to her! Several go to big, suburban schools and spent all year on their freshman teams, playing in roughly 15 games. A couple other girls floated between their freshman and JV teams. Meanwhile L played in 32 combined games. I don’t know that there’s a right answer for what the best experience is. I’m hopeful L benefitted from playing so much with such a big role.

Looking ahead, CHS loses two seniors, the only two girls in the program that are six feet tall. They are going to be huge losses, literally and figuratively. One of our junior starters is a D1 soccer player and there’s always a chance she won’t play as a senior. At a private school, you never know what new players might show up or which expected returnees enroll somewhere else next fall.

All that means there is a big opportunity for L to be a varsity player next year. She needs to work hard over the next nine months to earn that spot. Her jump shot is the most obvious area that needs improvement. Without size, CHS is going to have to adjust their offensive philosophy and look to shoot from outside more. None of the returning girls are great shooters. If L can fix her mechanics, that can earn her playing time. She needs to continue to get stronger so she can compete with varsity level players. Her ball handling also needs to take a step up if she’s going to consistently play against 17–18–19 year olds.

The other big thing for next year is that Indiana is set to do a major reclassification of high school sports. We still aren’t sure of all the details, but based on what has been reported so far, there is a very good chance that CHS will move down to 3A. That will be huge for the girls basketball program. It will likely put us in the same sectional as Chatard and at least one other Catholic school rather than in one of the toughest 4A sectionals in the state. Chatard is going to be very good the next couple years, so winning a sectional will still be a tough task. It isn’t out of the question, though. I would hope that moving down means that the regular season schedule will change, too, and we will drop a lot of the high-level 4A schools we currently play every year. CHS loves to play insanely tough regular season schedules in every sport to prep for the playoffs. Given who is expected back in the program, though, it will be a good year to play an easier schedule.

On our way home Wednesday L asked me how long she should take off before she starts training. I like that she’s planning ahead, but told her to relax and not even think about basketball for a few days before we come up with an idea for what’s next.

I talked with her AAU coach this week about his plan for the spring. He’s still getting a feel for that, but it sounds like high school teams do most of their practicing on weekends when they are not in tournaments. Our program really pushes signing up for the group training they run on weeknights. It seems like several of L’s teammates are going to do that, so I expect that’s the path we’ll take. All that begins in March.

It would also be nice if she could squeeze another inch or two of growing out of her body along the way, but I’m afraid she might be stuck at 5’6”.

That wraps up her first year of high school ball. I hope you’ve enjoyed following her as much as I’ve enjoyed sharing.

I know that’s not a real stat. Using it as my own semi-advanced stat, like how college players are rated per 40 minutes or possessions or whatever. ↩
The one notable exception when she got into foul trouble in the JV City championship game. ↩

High School Hoops Chronicles, S1V11

January 31, 2024 / DB

After 23 games over three months, Cathedral’s regular season is complete. Sectionals officially started Tuesday with CHS set to play their opening game tonight. I’ll wrap up the regular season in this post and save whatever happens in the playoffs for a separate entry(-ies).

The Irish opened their final week of the schedule traveling to neighboring Carmel. That 20 minute bus ride must have really gotten to the JV girls because they played like crap. We trailed 11–2 after the first quarter and 30–5 at halftime. Yeesh. Obviously not much went right for our girls in that first half. L scored all five of our points but she balanced that with three turnovers, two of them just brutal throw it to no one passes against the press.[1]

The Greyhounds looked like a team that actually practices offense as a JV team. Their girls cut and screened with purpose while our girls just kind of meandered around.

The second half was a little better. We out-scored the other CHS 21–18. I can’t say we did anything super great. Well, one thing went well: L got pissed off and decided to drive the ball. She was nearly perfect shooting in the second half, connecting on four of five shots and making two free throws. She finished with 15 points – a new career high – playing all 28 minutes, going 6–9 from the field and a perfect 3–3 from the line, adding a rebound, a steal, and five total turnovers. Carmel has a scoreboard that shows the points and fouls for every player on the court. It was pretty cool to see her with the game’s highest scoring total. Since I’m an idiot I didn’t get a picture of it before they wiped it out for the varsity game.

Her two long jumpers – both in the first half – were bad misses so I wouldn’t say she’s suddenly fixed her shot, but it was great to see her cleanly swish all three free throws.

Our good friends Mr. and Mrs. Coach H came to watch L play, which was nice of them and fun to briefly catch up.

The loss snapped a five-game winning streak for the JV Irish.

The varsity game was strange. Both teams were patient on offense creating lots of long, slow possessions. The game was tied 4-all after the first quarter, the Greyhounds up 15–11 at the half, then by ten at the end of the third quarter. It was old school, deliberate basketball. The lead was still ten as we moved into the final minute when our 6’1” senior center hit her first 3 of the year. Moments later she hit another one. Those two 3s and an exchange of free throws cut the final margin to a much more respectable four points. We never had the ball with a chance to tie or go ahead, but it was nice to see the girls keep playing until the final whistle on a frustrating night.

Thursday night we closed out the regular season against Columbus East. We had heard both their JV and varsity teams were bad, so settled in for what we hoped were two easy wins.

Jinx!

We jumped out 8–2 in the JV game. L was giving their guards fits, grabbing two steals and forcing three other turnovers in the first seven minutes.

Then CE switched to a zone and proceeded to ruin the game. Our girls had no idea what to do. The game was tied at 11 at halftime, we trailed by three going into the fourth quarter, and fell behind by seven a few minutes later. The dads that sit together were grumbling about playing zone in a JV game, but the biggest factor was CE kept hitting timely 3s where our girls weren’t even looking to take open shots.[2]

Something flipped, though, and we hit a couple threes, and closed the quarter on a big run to force overtime.

Great, overtime in a JV game, just what everyone in the gym wanted. Especially on senior night when the varsity game will already be delayed for festivities celebrating the seniors.

We got the lead early in OT and hung on despite missing about 100 free throws to win 39–37. Aside from that defensive flurry early, L didn’t do much. She shot just 1–4 from the field and 1–3 from the line to finish with three points, an assist, two steals, and two turnovers. A bit of a bummer end to her season after playing so well against Carmel. The JV team finished the season 11–12.

On to varsity, where we were missing a starter due to illness. With the JV game being so close and their starters having to play the entire game – L subbed out briefly once – that meant each of the dual-rostered players only had one quarter left to play. Fortunately the varsity six held their own and we only had to sub in girls for brief spells. L gave the starting point guard two different one-minute breaks but didn’t tick any scorebook boxes. Varsity won 40–26 to finish the year at 12–11. Oh, the CE varsity played zone just a handful of possessions, which annoyed our dad group even more.

The lead-up to sectionals has been dicey. The girl who was sick last week remained sick into this week, although she was back at practice Tuesday. Our best inside player got the flu and missed Monday’s practice. Who knows if either/both of them will be at full strength tonight. We’ll need them.

The first opponent is #9 Lawrence North. They are 17–5 on the season against the toughest schedule in the state. They’ve lost to the #1 team twice by a combined five points. Last year they fell to the eventual state champions in the semi-state championship game.

In the local paper’s breakdown of our sectional, the writer just assumed that LN will win and pushed them into the semis against that #1 squad without even mentioning they had to play CHS first. Our coach did not like that and let our girls know about it. I would love if that lit a fire under them and they came out and played the games of their lives to pull the upset. I’m not saying it’s not possible, but I’m not going to spend much energy considering it. I’ve watched them play 23 times and they’ve yet to stay close to a good team. Who knows, maybe LN is dealing with illness and that levels the playing field a little. We are the sectional hosts; perhaps home court will mean something.

I’ll let you know what happens tomorrow.

In her defense I think she expected teammates to cut to those spots, but she made bad passes regardless. ↩
Unwritten rule of high school basketball: you should never play zone in JV unless your varsity plays it often. And, yes, I know, unwritten rules are dumb. But so are zone defenses. ↩

Belated Weekend Notes

January 30, 2024 / DB

I’m still battling a cold. It’s one of those shitty ones that isn’t crazy bad during the day, more annoying than debilitating. But at night between the coughing and sneezing and body aches manages to keep me from sleeping. Each of the last two nights I’ve given up and gone into M’s room to toss and turn so I don’t keep S awake with my nonsense. She did the same thing last week when she had the same cold. Remind me to wash M’s sheets before her next visit home so she doesn’t have to sleep in her parents’ dried snot.

Jayhawk Talk

Another week, another road loss. And another one that KU had every opportunity to win. Other than Johnny Furphy, they shot poorly from outside. They missed some layups and blew some opportunities on the break. They had some huge turnovers in important spots. Yet they scored 75 points on 45% shooting on the road against a top five defense, so I’m not sure you can criticize the offense too much.

Once again a team shot out of their minds against the Kansas defense. Iowa State hit their most 3 pointers in a Big 12 game in five years. Coincidentally it was the most 3 pointers KU has given up in a conference game in five years.

Is that flukey/unsustainable or a flaw in the system? After the game Bill Self said they wanted to sag off certain shooters, specifically Tre King who had only hit three 3s all year. Naturally he went 4–7.

I put this loss directly on Self, and not just because of his defensive choices. He decided to go for a 2-for–1 opportunity late in the first half when KU led by one. KU’s offense had been struggling so I don’t know why you decide to suddenly speed things up to force a shot, just so you can maybe get two shots. Dajuan Harris went entirely too fast, turned the ball over, which became a run-out for Iowa State and resulted in a flagrant foul on Parker Braun after a review. For some reason Self decided to argue the point and got hit with a technical. Fortunately ISU only hit 2–4 free throws, but then hit a 3 to end the half and went into the locker room up four. It felt like that 3 opened up the floodgates for the Cyclones in the second half, when they countered every KU run with a big 3. The 3 wasn’t Self’s fault, but getting the T in that moment was dumb (mostly because the flagrant foul call was 100% correct) and he was lucky the deficit wasn’t six. Coaches preach knowing time and score to their players. It felt like Self needed to look at the scoreboard before he got that T.

While the details kind of hid it, I think this game clearly showed how it is the defensive side that is holding the Jayhawks back. Self’s system has always been to take away drives rather than 3s. He’s had to lean on that more this year partially because of Hunter Dickinson’s immobility inside. I also think KU’s three best defenders – Kevin McCullar, Dajuan Harris, and KJ Adams – all play solid D, but they don’t make the other team feel them. Watch KU’s defense then watch a Houston game and you’ll see a dramatic difference. KU gets to spots and tries to force passes. All five Houston players get in their man’s jersey and don’t stop until there’s a whistle. It is a grinding, exhausting experience to play against Houston. Against KU I think teams always know if they move the ball enough, there will be a lapse that leads to an open shot. Because of that, they play with confidence rather than fear.

I think some of that is related to KU’s short bench. The five starters can’t play at 100% intensity on defense because they rarely come out of the game and need to save something for the other end.

With Furphy’s rapid ascension into the team’s best shooter, that fixes some of the offensive issues this team has. Elmarko Jackson, Nic Timberlake, and Braun might better serve the team by figuring out how to guard people than score the ball. Jackson specifically had a rough time Saturday, getting lost on that ISU 3 right before halftime then getting beat and fouling his man on a backdoor cut when KU was making a run late.

Seven games into the conference season the Jayhawks sit at 4–3. I don’t think it’s time to panic. I do think, though, that the team is going to regret not taking advantage of this part of the schedule. After tonight’s game against Oklahoma State, there are no easy ones left. KU might play significantly better in the back half of the schedule and still drop 3–4 games.

BTW, I forgot how much I hate unbalanced schedules. I know this is a weird year where the conference transitioned from 10 teams to 14 before going to 16 next year. It does not feel right that KU and Iowa State won’t play again in Lawrence.

NFL Conference Championship Games

I didn’t get to see much of the Chiefs-Ravens game, but I guess those of us who doubted the Chiefs should have known better. A dominant defensive performance while the offense did just enough to win on the road. I should have known that a team that lost to the Colts on their home field wasn’t good enough to win the AFC championship game on the same field.

I watched almost all of the Lions-Niners game, which was a wild, exhilarating experience. A huge first run by the Lions put them on the verge of their first ever Super Bowl, only to end in an epic collapse.

In the moment I was pretty critical of Dan Campbell’s decisions to go for it on fourth down in the second half. But knowing that was their MO all year and their kicker’s numbers fall in the shaky zone where I’m not sure you totally trust him in the playoffs, I’m more comfortable with them after the fact.

Besides, the Lions dropped passes and flukey-as-hell Brandon Aiyuk reception that bounced off the Lions’ defender’s face mask were bigger factors in the loss.

The anti-analytics folks love to make those choices THE factors when a team loses a winnable game. In this case you can’t bitch about Campbell’s calls without acknowledging the Niners benefited from one of the craziest plays in NFL playoff history, and Lions receivers dropped three balls that were in their hands and would have extended drives. Change one or two of those plays and it doesn’t matter whether the Lions still go for it and fail or miss field goals.

I’m not all-in on analytics. I think they need to be applied within the context of each game rather than be viewed as definitive guides. And I will generally a trust a coach like Campbell, who has a clear philosophy on their use and is consistent in their application.

Sucks for the Lions, though. They are young and can get better, but you just never know how long these windows will be open.

Which, flipping this back to the first game, makes Baltimore’s loss even worse. They had home field, a dominant defense, an offense that was as good as it has been in the Lamar Jackson era and couldn’t get it done. All in a year when the Chiefs were, relatively speaking, down. When Joe Burrow was injured. You expect the Chiefs to be back in the mix for home field next year, Burrow to be healthy, maybe the Bills will finally plug their holes, and Houston has a ton of money to build around CJ Stroud with. This might have been the Ravens best chance at a Super Bowl in the Jackson era.

Early thoughts on the Super Bowl? They’ve made it this far so I can’t doubt the Chiefs.

I guess anyone who watched football on Fox this year has to have an opinion about the seeming inevitable bumping of Greg Olsen from the #1 analyst spot for Tom Brady next season.

I’m in line with main-line opinion that Olsen is terrific and it’s a real bummer that he will lose his spot because Fox owes Brady so much money. Unlike some folks, I still enjoy Tony Romo, although he can be a little much. I described Olsen as similar to Romo except where Romo sometimes comes off as overly impressed with himself or excited to show how smart he is, Olsen seems excited to share his knowledge. Romo can grate because he is a lot to deal with. Olsen is a joy to listen to break down the games.

Maybe Tom Brady is going to be awesome. There is some evidence that if he relaxes and is willing to be critical, he could be a good addition. It’s just a bummer that Olsen was basically a place holder and will no longer get to do the biggest games. Hopefully he lands in a spot where we get to hear him each week.

Wednesday Notes

January 24, 2024 / DB

NFL

Because of basketball (KU and CHS) and some other activities, I didn’t get to see much of the four playoff games last weekend. San Francisco is very lucky to advance, and does not seem like the same team that ran roughshod through their opponents during stretches of the regular season. Jordan Love’s final pass for Green Bay might have been the worst choice/throw in a big moment in a long time.

Good for Detroit for advancing again. A damn shame the NFC title game won’t be at Ford Field. That scene would have been wild.

I’ve written many times that no team, player, coach, or fanbase deserves success because they’ve had years of bad luck and tough breaks. That’s not how sports work. You can play hard, follow the rules, be a good teammate, etc and sometimes the other team is just better and/or luckier.

But, man, Buffalo losing because their kicker pushed a field goal wide right seemed like an especially cruel ending to their game. That wasn’t the real reason the Bills lost – they lost because of a couple bad throws, a terrible drop, and their defense wilting – but it was the final gut punch you kind of knew was coming.

Of course I, like about a million other people, said even if the Bills made that kick, the Chiefs still would have found a way to win, either in regulation or overtime. As cruel as having to watch a postseason game end on a kick sailing wide-right again, maybe it was better than losing at the final gun, or in overtime.

Poor Buffalo.

Pacers

Hey, the Pacers made a trade! And it was a big one, grabbing Pascal Siakam from Toronto for a bench player and three first round picks. At first glance three picks seemed like a lot for a player on an expiring contract. Those picks – two this year, the third in two years – will likely be in the 20s, though, so the Pacers likely aren’t giving up franchise-changing draft opportunities. And most NBA insiders suggest that Siakam is open to re-signing with the Pacers this summer.

It’s tough to gauge the trade since Tyrese Haliburton has only played one, injury-affected game with Siakam so far. While he isn’t perfect, and isn’t playing quite as well as he did three years ago, Siakam is a terrific match for what the Pacers do on offense, and a big upgrade on the defensive end.

It’s tough to get top tier players to come to Indiana. In the last three winters they have traded for Haliburton and Siakam. That’s pretty good.

Even after that trade the Pacers remain in good position to make another move, should the right opportunity arise. Or just play out this season, re-sign Siakam, and tweak the roster over the summer to make a real run next season.

Now Haliburton just needs to get healthy again.

Media

A rough week for people who write for a living.

First, Pitchfork got absorbed into the GQ brand. No one is sure what that means short term, but long term you have to think it signals the end of one of the most important music journalism outlets of the internet era. I’ve always been more of a Stereogum fan, but I’ve read plenty of pieces on Pitchfork over the years.

The next day it was announced that all of Sports Illustrated’s staff had been laid off. SI has been a joke for a long time, and hasn’t covered itself in glory recently. People of my generation longed for it to return to its prime, when it was a vital element of being a fully-informed fan of sports. That was never going to happen. With the NFL exploring buying into ESPN, and the NBA and MLB likely to do so soon after, SI could have carved out a new niche as an alternative to ESPN’s online presence, a home for sports journalism that was free of constraints put in place by one league or another. Instead the private equity ghouls that run it chose to strip it to the bone and let it fade into obscurity.

Finally, the Los Angeles Times laid off a large chunk of its workforce, including some great sports writers with national reputations. The Times seemed like one of the last big papers that would be able to thrive in the current climate. Once again, ownership is more interested in squeezing profit from the paper than viewing it as a public necessity.

As a former member of the media this is just more very sad news. There are fewer and fewer independent media outlets that create original and interesting content. Major media outlets are focused on conflict and who is winning/losing. Local media often seems more like advertising than informative news. AI is going to dramatically change news in the next decade.

I never had great illusions about being able to match the money I made in the corporate world as a journalist, not that that was all that much. As the avenues to make a reasonable wage writing dry up and more and more experienced journalists get thrown out of their traditional jobs, I don’t think there is any chance I could ever get back into the semi- or fully employed writing game.

Which I guess means more blogging, so good for my loyal readers I guess?

Jayhawk Talk: Here’s Johnny!

January 23, 2024 / DB

Fans can be overly dramatic about tiny moments in a long season, both good and bad. Keep that in mind when I tell you that Johnny Furphy has saved KU’s season.

He certainly saved the game Monday against Cincinnati, the only KU player who seemed to be locked in and engaged for every minute he was on the court. He had a career-high 23 points on 7–8 shooting, grabbed 11 rebounds (also a career high), kept several other balls alive until teammates could grab them, and hit the biggest shot of the night, a 3 as the shot clock expired to put KU up 10 with about four minutes to play in what ended up as a five-point win.

Crazy that a kid I doubt any KU fan knew about and wasn’t on anyone’s recruiting radar for the current season until late in July has become exactly the piece the Bill Self was looking for to fill the gaping hole in his lineup.

Furphy is a freshman, so there will be regression as defenses focus on him. He can get bullied on the defensive end because of his slight build. He’s not going to continue to average 17 & 8. However, the threat he presents can open up space for his teammates and he is long enough that he can still be disruptive on defense and on the boards even when physically overmatched.

Despite Johnny’s emergence, this team remains maddening.

Monday both Hunter Dickinson and Kevin McCullar seemed to be laboring with their mysterious “knee issues.” It didn’t help that for the first time this year Dickinson was in foul trouble. KJ Adams also seemed off. Since it is January, I wondered if those three were all sick, as their energy levels seemed lower than normal. More likely it’s just that they are asked to play 35+ minutes a night and are already getting worn down with seven weeks of Big 12 basketball in front of them.

Sigh.

The most concerning performance of the night, though, was Dajuan Harris’. He missed two wide-open layups. Three of his turnovers were brain-dead mistakes, throwing the ball directly to a UC player. Plus he forgot to catch a pass from Furphy that hit him in the hands. Dajuan has always been polarizing simply because there are nights where his shit doesn’t work, generally against more physical opponents. Yet there are also games when he punishes bigger, faster, stronger players. You would think by year five of a player’s career those lows wouldn’t be as low, even if we’ve accepted his highs can only be so high. He’s been in a bit of a funk all year.

Self defends Harris, saying that sometimes when you are trying a little harder to share the ball, you are also going to turn it over more. I don’t buy that. Harris was always hyper efficient. He might have Meh games, but rarely was he guilty of the unforced errors he’s been routinely making this year.

I don’t have an explanation, and thus no solution. He needs to get his shit together, since this team has a very narrow margin of error each night. A steady, boring point guard will be just fine.

Monday’s game was entirely too close. Cincinnati did not play well – mostly a function of KU’s defense – but the Jayhawks could not shake them. If you take away all those unforced errors by Harris, and 80%+ free throw shooter McCullar missing four freebies, the final margin is much more comfortable. There aren’t many opportunities for comfy wins in the Big 12, and Monday seemed like a chance to get one. Instead it went to the final minutes with the result still in doubt.

Self, and this team, need to find a way to manage the stretches when all five starters are not on the court. They’ve been starting games well, only to fall apart when a couple starters check out 5–6 minutes into the first half. After the game Self preached that depth is overrated in March, which is very true. But you have to get to March in a good place to maximize the opportunity for your starters to rip off wins. Right now I’m not super confident KU is going to win any Big 12 road games, and several of the home games frighten me. No matter how good the starting five is, or how much the Big 12’s strength helps KU’s analytical rankings, going in as a 3–4–5 seed means the path to the second and third weekends of the tournament is incredibly difficult no matter how talented the starting five is.

M and I didn’t have any contact before or during the game Monday. I wasn’t happy enough with the result to reach out after the game. She did text me about 10 minutes later, saying she heard someone on her floor yell “What the fuck is a Jayhawk, anyway?”

Naturally I replied with a very patronizing explanation of how Jayhawkers were anti-slavery forces dedicated to keeping Kansas a Free State and saving America. Then we started exchanging GIFs, me sending ones of Big Jay and Baby Jay, she sending me ones of the Bearcat. She is a big fan of the Bearcat.

Good times.

I was only able to watch the first half of Saturday’s game against West Virginia, a loss that seemed really bad in the moment but that I think will be respectable when the season ends. West Virginia had won just six games going into that contest, which seemed shitty. What people don’t factor in, or the Mountaineers’ BPI rating reflects, is that they got multiple starters eligible less than a month ago and are still missing one starter because of injury.

Don’t get me wrong, KU should have won that game. They scored 85 points and had just seven turnovers in a road game. 95% of the time that means a W. For some reason a 30% shooting team hit everything they threw up in the first half, often when well guarded, and carried that confidence over to the second half when they refused to fade even when the 3’s stopped dropping. Apparently there were a few maddening missed shots, defensive closeouts, and horrible missed block-outs that were huge factors in KU’s loss. I’m glad I didn’t see those, I might not have slept.

As I said, though, West Virginia has almost all their expected starters in the lineup now. They’ve beaten KU and Texas in consecutive weeks. RaeQuan Battle is going to score 35 on someone. You can’t say anything with certainty in this Big 12 schedule. I would bet that not many teams are going into Morgantown and winning, though. Which will make KU’s loss seem less bad and more of a missed opportunity.

I missed the second half of that game because of L’s games. I believe I’ve shared before that there is another KU dad on her squad, although he was a graduate and law student there.[1] S loves watching this dad and I during games because we see the game in very similar ways. He usually sits a few rows in front of us and will get agitated about something – sometimes a call/no call, other times something one of our girls does – and start looking around for support. Eventually he’ll find me and I’ll say, “I saw it too, C!” and he gets this relieved look on his face, like “I’m not crazy, right?” Then S laughs.

Anyway, Saturday CHS started as KU was wrapping up. We both had our phones balanced on our knees while we watched our daughters. Each dead ball we’d check the KU score then look at each other and shake our heads or pump our fists.

The funniest part, though, came at halftime of the CHS game. He came up to sit by me and we broke the KU game down. Keep in mind, we didn’t see any of the second half. But based on what ESPN, Twitter, and text messages told us, we were still analyzing how it went. I thought about that later and laughed at us.

It is much easier to take these losses when you don’t see them. Maybe instead of clearing the family calendar in March for the last 19 years, I should have made sure we had things scheduled when KU played. My blood pressure might be a lot lower.

Also Saturday, M called me right when the KU-WVU game got to the under–4:00 timeout in the first half. I paused the ESPN app on my TV and talked to her for about 20 minutes so she could tell me all about going to the UC game earlier. When we finished talking, I hit play on my remote. Instead of picking up at the moment I had paused it, the app skipped to live TV, which was in the middle of halftime.

What the fuck?

I needed to eat something before we left so I paused it just to test if I had done something wrong. I ate my sandwich then pressed play. Again the feed jumped to live action, this time as play had just begun in the second half.

I don’t know if this is an Amazon issue – we use a FireStick on this TV – or an ESPN issue. Whoever designed this function, though, obviously has no idea how pausing a live program is supposed to work. Truly maddening.

Finally, this is Jayhawk related, so I’ll throw it in as well.

His daughter is also a freshman and is probably the most physically gifted player on the team. She has moments where she makes jaw-dropping plays. She falls onto the spectrum, though, and really struggles with the mental part of the game. She can be totally unaware of what is going on at times. She makes maddening decisions with the ball or forget who she is guarding and will get subbed out. Fortunately she’s a super sweet girl and once she relaxed and opened up, her teammates fell in love with her. ↩

High School Hoops Chronicles, S1V10

January 22, 2024 / DB

As we had a pretty quiet weekend and KU plays tonight, I’m going to flip my normal routine and cover high school hoops today.

Two more games last week – both wins for JV and varsity – but L was a little off.

In Tuesday’s practice she rolled her troublesome ankle when she landed on a teammate’s foot. She complained about it when I picked her up, but later in the evening and Wednesday morning seemed to be walking normally so I didn’t put too much worry into it.

After their game Wednesday the trainer told us that L was still experiencing pain, and that she had switched L from the brace she normally wears into a heavy wrap. She said they would do some rehab in practice the next two days but she wasn’t super worried about it.

Then Friday after practice the trainer texted me saying L’s pain hadn’t decreased but she also wasn’t seeing any evidence of a serious sprain. She added for Saturday’s games she would tape the ankle.

She didn’t seem slow or tentative to me in games, although she complained after each about how bad she played. She was on the court all but 15 seconds of the JV game Wednesday so it wasn’t forcing her to the bench.

In that Wednesday game we faced Avon, a west-side school whose varsity team was rated slightly higher than ours in the computer rankings. Their JV team was almost all sophomores and juniors, and that showed. They were tougher and smarter than us. AHS held a lead most of the game, but couldn’t stretch the lead beyond a basket or two.

This was a triple-header night, so the freshman teams were playing at the same time as JV in the upstairs gym. Our JV also had a girl who was out sick and began with only seven players on the bench. That became problematic when one of our starters hit the ground hard and had to come out with a head injury.[1] At halftime two girls came running down from the freshman game to join JV. This was an important development.[2]

Late in the fourth quarter we finally grabbed the lead, taking it on two free throws by one of the girls who came down from the freshman game. We were up three with about six seconds left when we let AHS’ one shooter get wide open. She swished a 3 to tie the game. We called time out and the JV coach lit into our girls, “What happened last week? What did we talk about all week?” referring to varsity not covering the shooter in City tournament championship game.

I admit, I actually started laughing, because I said the same thing as the ball dropped through the net. “Only girl that has hit a 3 the entire game and no one is within 10 feet of her?!?!” Like a lot of JV teams, we tend to get confused about who is guarding who, especially on breaks.

The girls shook it off, though. After the time out we ran a great inbounds play. That same girl who hit the free throws moments earlier took off long, grabbed a perfect pass, and laid the ball in to give us the lead. AHS couldn’t get a shot off before the final buzzer and we won by two.

L was 3–9 (0–2) for six points with 2 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3 turnovers.

Later she dressed but did not play in the varsity game, which was also a two-point Irish win.

Saturday was another triple header night, this time against the school our varsity coach attended back in the day. We would not normally play them – they are from up near Ft. Wayne – but she added them to the schedule last year so she could take the team to her hometown every other year. The HN varsity was ranked two spots ahead of us in the computer rankings. Neither game was close.

The JV game started with us up 11–1 after the first quarter. The girls held HNHS to a single field goal until late in the fourth quarter. The Vikings did shoot like 80% from the line, though. The dad I sit by and I were joking they should just drive and try to get fouled since that seemed to be the only way they could score. The Irish won 37–14. I believe ten of those 14 points were free throws.

L was 2–4 (0–1) for four points, with 2 rebounds, 2 steals, and 2 turnovers in three quarters. I swear she hasn’t hit a shot from outside five feet in a month.

Varsity won by 26. We led comfortably the entire game but couldn’t put it away until the final minutes, so L and the other swing players only got in for the final minute.

Varsity is now 11–10. After five straight wins, JV is 10–11. The regular season wraps up with games Tuesday and Thursday.

L spent almost all of Sunday at CHS. The team helped out with a CYO jamboree for most of the afternoon, then stuck around to watch the state tournament brackets come out.

I’m pleased to report that the Indiana high school pairings show is even more maddening than how CBS doles out the NCAA bracket every March.

The show started with the hosts talking about absolute nonsense for a good two minutes before they broke for commercials. Then they interviewed the state athletic commissioner for about five minutes. Making this segment more infuriating was that his microphone wasn’t working properly so you could barely hear whatever he was saying. After each commercial break they showed pictures of teams watching around the state. One of the hosts, who is an older gentleman, commented on how comfortable some of the furniture teams were sitting in looked, or how nice some of the coaches’ houses were.

I was not a fan of how this was all playing out.

When it was finally time for them to unveil the 60-some sectional brackets, they started in class 1A and worked their way up to 4A, where CHS plays. Rather than just rip through them, they analyzed each bracket as they revealed it. There were commercial breaks in the middle of each class segment, and they brought in an assistant state commissioner for an interview between classes 2A and 3A.

The show started at 5:00. We finally saw Cathedral’s bracket at 6:40. At least I could keep one eye on football during all of this.

As a reminder, Indiana high school sports do not seed their playoff brackets, so they are always dumb. In Cathedral’s sectional, the #5 and #6 teams in the entire state should meet in the semifinals. Unfortunately CHS has to play the #6 team in the quarters. Meanwhile the #335 team in the state gets an opening round bye.

If common sense prevailed and the computer ratings were used to make the bracket, #65 CHS would be playing #51 North Central with the winner moving on to play #6, while #5 would be working through the opposite half of the sectional.

Despite how much Indiana politicians love to talk about common sense, it is clearly lacking amongst Hoosiers, at least when it comes to high school sports.

It ended up being this girl’s second concussion of the year. L claims she’s had at least six total concussions. The poor girl’s career may be over and she’s talking about being a manager next year. ↩
Our freshman team is undefeated and were up big in their game. Those two girls were straight JV players Saturday. ↩

High School Hoops Chronicles, S1V9

January 16, 2024 / DB

A super busy week with a very exciting ending as L and her teammates played in the Indianapolis City tournament.

Tournament rules allowed for three swing players who were eligible for both JV and varsity games. These players had to be named before the tournament and could not change from game-to-game. L was one of Cathedral’s, which was cool, but it also limited her minutes for the week.

In Tuesday’s quarterfinals, the JV squad won 57–3, giving up just three free throws.[1] L had 8 points on 4–7 shooting with one assist in 11 minutes. Later, in the varsity game, she chipped-in two points, two rebounds, and two steals during 13, running clock, second half minutes in a 61–19 win.

Thursday was another easy win for JV, this time 57–21. L played about 12 minutes taking, and making, just one shot while grabbing two more steals.

I think the plan was to play her and the other swing players heavy minutes in the varsity game to rest the starters for Friday’s final. But Covenant Christian had other ideas. They packed a zone around our inside players, our perimeter girls could not buy a 3, and the team went a collective 4–19 from the free throw line. Meanwhile CC was running patient offense and hit some big shots. They held the lead until midway through the fourth quarter when we finally went on a nice run to take control. The game very much had a higher seed trailing a lower seed in March vibe, with that extra level of dumb nervousness. CC banked in a three at the final horn to cut the final margin to seven. L did not get off the bench in the 39–32 win.

That all led up to Friday’s finals, both against Bishop Chatard. Remember, the Irish beat the Trojans by two in JV and six in varsity just two weeks ago.

The JV game started slow. We were down 9–8 at the end of the first quarter after Chatard hit a 3 as time expired. The second quarter was a slog, and we led 12–11 at the break.

The key to the first half was L getting two fouls in the first four minutes of the game and sitting for about eight minutes of game time before re-entering. Then she got her third foul just before halftime and had to sit again.

She was back on the court to start the third quarter. We scored to go up three and BC answered with a 3 to tie at 14-all. On the next possession L put her head down, blew through the entire BC defense, and hit a tough layup to give us a lead we never relinquished.

One possession later the girl she was guarding drove deep into the lane and got L up in the air. I was already cussing, thinking she was about to pick up foul number four and return to the bench. But the BC girl went up soft, L cleanly blocked her shot, and the ball caromed off the shooter out of bounds. L yelled, pumped her fist, and pointed the CHS direction before the ref. Moments later she hit another tough shot after driving through the defense. BC called a timeout and she screamed all the way to the bench.

Homegirl was fired up.

With time running out in the quarter L kicked to a teammate behind the arc, and she swished a 3 as the horn sounded. Thirteen point lead going into the final period.

Two weeks ago the Irish led by nine going into the final period, then L sat to save minutes for varsity and we had to hit some big free throws to win.

No problem closing things out Friday. L played the entire quarter. CHS ran patient offense, looking to burn clock. BC made a couple mini-runs but never got closer than nine.

Final score, 35–22 CHS.

Indianapolis JV City champs!

After shaking hands with BC, the CHS girls ran to the middle of the court and piled on each other before receiving the championship trophy. Sadly the nets were saved for the winners of the varsity game.

L didn’t have great stats: four points on those two layups – the only shots she took – two rebounds, that one assist, the big block, and two turnovers. But she controlled the game when she was on the court. Both of those layups were “Fuck you, get out of my way” plays against sophomores.[2] She was terrific on defense, containing whichever of BC’s guards she matched up with. They ditched their pressure in the second half because she kept solving it. And even with her not looking to score, our offense was much smoother when she was running it. There was always an outlet to get the ball to when things got dicey. She played confidently and poised.

Another huge factor was three girls who usually play kind of casual were all locked in during the second half. They grabbed seemingly every offensive rebound. They made tough shots inside. They played calmer than they normally do. L’s BC friend K blocked five shots in the first half. Our girls adjusted and avoided the blocks while racking up four fouls on K as they out-fought her in the paint. L was the steadying force, but those three girls were the engine that powered the win.

Later, on our way home, L told us she almost didn’t play. She nearly threw up, felt faint, and had a nosebleed between school and the game. We knew she had an illness was coming on,[3] but had no idea it was that bad. Without my prompting she said, “This was my Michael Jordan Flu Game.” I pointed out she scored 34 points fewer than MJ, but other than that, she did have a huge impact on the outcome and it was good she decided to tough it out and play.

The varsity game seemed headed towards a similar final margin before some late drama kicked in. BC started the game awesome, leading by double figures much of the first half. Our girls struggled with the BC zone and when we got open shots just couldn’t hit them. There was a sequence where the Trojans hit a shot, we had a 3 circle the rim and spin out, they hit another shot, we had a short jumper spin out, they hit two free throws, and we air-balled a 3. We only had nine points at halftime. At one point we trailed by 15.

CHS made a run after the break and got the lead down to six before it ballooned back up to 13. We chipped away again and trailed by eight going into the fourth. Then a 10–0 run gave us the lead and the final three minutes were back-and-forth.

Regulation ended with the teams tied sending the game to overtime, which was epic.

The entire extra period was back-and-forth. Trailing by one, BC missed a makable layup with under ten seconds left. We grabbed the rebound and got fouled, but had to inbound. We were on the verge of getting a five second call when BC was whistled for grabbing our best player. This was their fifth foul so we finally went to the line. The first shot hit front and back iron before rimming out. The second crawled in. Up two with 4.9 seconds left.

After a timeout, BC got the ball in, raced up the middle of the court, and found a girl wide open on the left wing who swished a 3 at the buzzer for the win. The Chatard people went nuts, the CHS players were in tears, us Irish fans stood in stunned silence. So, so close. That was a clutch ass shot.

The last 15 or so game minutes were fantastic. CHS made an amazing comeback, but the missed free throw and leaving the shooter were massive mistakes. BC had the game comfortably in hand and did well to recover after giving it all back. If you were a neutral it would have been an awesome way to spend a miserably cold, rainy evening.

Afterward L was pissed despite not playing in the varsity game. I think she knew this was her best shot to win a varsity city title given who we lose this year and who BC has coming back. She was also annoyed that since varsity lost, JV didn’t get to truly celebrate their win. BC’s entire roster got to cut down nets while the CHS JV got a trophy.

There are just two weeks left in the regular season. CHS has two games this week and two next. We, and the entire state, find out who we play in sectionals this coming Sunday.

This was not the worst beat-down of the week. In the varsity tournament, there was a 90–7 game. And that was with a running clock. You should be allowed to pull more JV girls up when you know the game is probably going to take that path. ↩
I know nothing about these girls, but L does not like them. Which I really, really respect. I generally hated people I played against, but couldn’t . She focuses her hate far better than I ever did. ↩
She spent almost all of Saturday and Sunday in bed. ↩

Weekend Notes

January 15, 2024 / DB

Kind of a strange weekend, mostly due to the weather, which kept us cooped up inside. I spent roughly 87.2% of Saturday and Sunday on the couch, under a blanket, either watching sports on TV, watching shows on my laptop, or reading one of two books.

Jayhawk Talk: Hoops

It took awhile to get going, but a very nice bounce back game against Oklahoma. Johnny Furphy moving into the starting lineup worked out pretty well, both for him and Elmarko Jackson, who looked more relaxed coming off the bench. The more I see it in action the more I think KJ Adams’ free throw line jumper/floater could be the key to unlocking the KU offense. Assuming this team continues to never hit 3s, that is.

I forgot to mention in my wrap-up of the UCF game that when KU was cruising in the first half, I texted friends that this was the best KU had looked all year. Moments later they went into the shitter. Saturday, after KU blew a five point lead, I said I hated this team and that they were terrible to watch. Moments later they broke the game open. I need to keep my mouth shut until the game is over.

I watched parts of several Big 12 games Saturday. Man, this conference is such a beast. Most games in the 60s, with minimal separation. I watched Houston for the first time. They are so tough and athletic and relentless. Just because they lost twice last week is not a reason to count them out. Their game with TCU was tremendous.

At this point Baylor would seem to be the favorite, even with Texas Tech tied with them at 3–0. Still, Baylor did not look all that impressive when I was watching their game against Cincinnati. Of course, Tech is letting an accused rapist play, which you have to think the Hoops Gods will not look kindly on.

The conference is filled with teams that have very little to differentiate them. UCF is probably the “worst” team in the league, and they just beat KU. West Virginia beat Texas. BYU and Cincinnati are much better than most people expected them to be. Just like I’m going to complain about KU’s shooting every week, I’m going to remind you about how tough the Big 12 is every week.

Jayhawk Talk: Lance!

KU fans had roughly 24 hours of semi-worry and then 15 minutes of full-on panic when rumors about Lance Leipold taking the Washington job bubbled up. First, he was said to be one of the top candidates on Saturday. Sunday afternoon both an allegedly reputable national site and a local source who is fairly locked in suggested that he had been offered the job and was likely to take it.

The next 10–15 minutes were pretty wild on Twitter and in text threads.

Fortunately Leipold put all that speculation to rest with a Tweet of his own and both national and local sources quickly reported that he and KU had agreed to a new contract.

Full-on panic to elation in 15 minutes. America, 2024!

A couple hours later news dropped that UW was hiring Arizona coach Jed Fisch. Which makes me wonder if UW really offered the job to Lance or if it was just posturing by his agent to squeeze a little more out of KU in their negotiations. Regardless, it seems like KU dodged a bullet. We had all relaxed after the main round of coach shuffling passed with Lance still in Lawrence. Then Nick Saban fucked that all up and we had to briefly stress again.

The added bonus is with Fisch leaving Arizona, they are likely to lose some players, weakening a team that was expected to be one of the best in the Big 12 next year. They aren’t on KU’s 2024 schedule, but that does potentially mean one fewer team to have to beat out for a spot on the conference championship game. Although I have no idea how that is going to work in the revamped Big 12. And KU has a few more holes to plug before we start getting too excited about a possible conference title game run.

NFL Playoffs

First off, we all agree the Chiefs-Dolphins game being on Peacock was bullshit, right? Even more bullshitty was NBC’s incessant promotion of the game. Shots of Kansas City during the Houston game, just so they could talk about the nightcap. Calling it a historic event was even more bullshit.

Then came the cherry on top, NBC proclaiming Sunday that it was a milestone in sports and media history. We are into the second decade of broadly available, streamed sports events. NBC didn’t roll out any new technology for this game. They, and the NFL, decided to hide it behind a paywall that still forced viewers to watch commercials just to scrape more money out of fans.

You have to take out a mortgage to afford going to games. Over-the-air broadcasts have more commercial breaks than ever. And now more and more games are slipping behind paywalls. The NFL and Roger Goodell rival MLB and Rob Manfred for finding the most ways to fuck its fans.

I guess the Chiefs played well? We don’t have Peacock. I watched a movie.

Super impressive performance by Houston Saturday. I picked Cleveland and was very wrong. C.J. Stroud is going to be a problem. The Colts better hope Anthony Richardson can develop into a reasonable foil for him. And if Carolina didn’t have a shit-bag of an owner, I would feel sorry for them totally blowing the draft last spring.

Even more impressive performance by Green Bay Sunday, knocking out my Super Bowl pick Cowboys in shockingly easy fashion. Again, I was very wrong. The Niners are going to cream the Packers next week, though, aren’t they, making this an even worse loss for Cowboys fans.

The last game of Sunday was a lot of fun. Detroit jumps out early and their crowd is going nuts. LA claws back in the second half. You could feel the tension in the Detroit crowd as an LA win seemed inevitable. Then a couple close calls went Detroit’s way, the Lions converted a big third down, and they won their first playoff game since 1992. A great, cathartic scene at Ford Field, even if the Rams probably should have won that game.

Weather

As miserable as it was/is here in Indy, we really got off easy. A ton of rain Friday; I had the pump on the pool cover all day and three different times it rained hard enough to cover it completely. It had time to pump nearly all of it away before we dropped below freezing. As we walked out of L’s games Friday it was still raining hard, but with fat snowflakes mixed in. We got home just before everything froze up. We got just a touch of snow overnight and again Saturday evening, barely enough to cover the ground. And the winds that roared Friday into Saturday were not as strong as expected after the changeover, so our windchills were only around –15 Sunday. Far less snow than many of my readers got, and relatively warmer than many of you had to endure.

It isn’t supposed to get above freezing here for at least a week, with no real chances of snow at the moment.

I ran L to practice this morning and made a quick stop at the grocery store. The 30 seconds it took me to walk from my car to the store were not pleasant. My phone said the windchill was –16. Once you get below zero it really doesn’t matter anymore.

As always, winter sucks.

Sports Notes Emergency Entry

January 11, 2024 / DB

Events demanded an emergency sports notes post. I’ll try to keep these relatively brief.

Jayhawk Talk: Disaster

Well that fucking sucked. Arguably the worst Big 12 loss of Bill Self’s career, the first time his team lost when they led by 16 or more points. Having that big lead is what made it worse than the TCU loss in 2013. Because they had this game won. They were toying with UCF. Making them look silly. Then the entire team fell apart when Hunter Dickinson got his second foul and sat the last 3+ minutes of the first half. In the second half they panicked even when they still had the lead, throwing terrible passes, taking terrible shots, and getting cooked on defense. For a team loaded with experienced players, they all sucked when a team that wouldn’t lay down for them. Super concerning.

On the one hand I’m inclined to throw it out as a flukey loss as the team had been trending towards a loss like this for a few weeks. In years past this was a classic Wake Up Call loss. If they can’t get their shit together, though, things could get awfully interesting awfully quick.

Carroll and Saban and Belichick (Oh My!)

What a 12 hours or so for legendary coaches stepping down!

Pete Carroll in Seattle is probably the least significant, simply because the Seahawks have been good but not great in recent years. It was a true surprise – perhaps even to him – that he will no longer coach them. It seemed like he would coach forever. He set up the first college dynasty of the century at USC, a program that in its prime was breath-taking to watch. He won a Super Bowl and lost another. A pretty good run.

Then Nick Saban shocked the world about an hour later by announcing his retirement. A truly stunning turn of events. The greatest coach in modern college football history, and on the short list for all time greats. Alabama should be able to pick just about anyone they want for the job. Yet the opening still comes with a lot of pressure. They hired a lot of bad coaches over a 20-year stretch before they landed Saban. This could easily go wrong and upset the balance of power in the SEC and game as a whole. Many Big 12 fans laughed when Texas and Oklahoma announced they were leaving for the SEC, mostly at the hubris of thinking they could match up with Saban and his Bama machine. For Texas especially, they may have timed that jump genious-ly well.

Finally, Bill Belichick is out in New England, which was very much not a surprise and perhaps a year or two overdue. He will almost definitely end up coaching somewhere next year, so this is just the official end of the Patriots dynasty. Nine Super Bowls – and six wins – in sixteen years is outrageous. For a man who is widely considered the greatest NFL coach ever, his next job does come with some pressure for his legacy. If he does about the same or worse as he did in Cleveland, or in his first year-plus in New England, much of the credit for his success will shift to Tom Brady.

I’m fascinated to see where he ends up. San Diego, err, Los Angeles to try to harness the gifts of Justin Herbert? Washington to try to rebuild that franchise in the post-Snyder era? Might an organization that isn’t totally in love with their current coach – Green Bay, Arizona, Jacksonville, Dallas if they fall apart in the playoffs – decide to make a switch if they can lure Belichick? And then does he have the humility to give up control of the roster, an area he struggled with in recent years in New England?

CFP Final

A kind of disappointing game if you’re not a Michigan fan. I was hoping for a more competitive game from start-to-finish, but have to admire how UM put the hammer down on Washington. They were locked in and ready for their moment.

There was a lot of gnashing of teeth after Michigan won about how they cheated to get their title. I say whatever to all of that, and their “cheating” scandal.

Sign stealing is such a dumb form of “cheating.” Everyone does it. Maybe Michigan took it to another level, but every single program is looking at tape to try to pick up their opponents’ signals. They have someone trying to crack them during games. They disguise their own signals because they know the opposite sideline is watching.

I didn’t care much about the Houston Astros sign stealing scandal. I care less about this. A hitter knowing whether a fastball or off-speed pitch is coming does give them an advantage. But, again, everyone is trying to get an edge; Houston just took it to another level. I think Michigan got far less of an advantage by attempting to steal their opponents signals. They might know the general set, but they still didn’t know the specific play that was coming.

Now I’m mad because people have me defending Michigan…

High School Hoops Chronicles, S1V8

January 9, 2024 / DB

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.

Cathedral claims one. ↩
I’ve lived here 20 years and still don’t totally understand why some schools are in the Indianapolis City tournament while others are in the Marion County tournament. There are four Catholic schools and one Christian school that play in City, while two Catholic, one religious, and another non-religious private school play in County. You would think all the private schools would go one way or the other together. I guess it should be my goal to figure that out over the next four years. ↩