Tag: CHS (Page 1 of 2)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

After playing six games in the first 19 days of December, L and her Irish teammates are in the midst of a much more leisurely three-games-in–18-days stretch. Throw in three days off for Christmas and two for New Year’s and it has been a nice breather after that tough run.

Their only games over the holidays were big ones: split doubleheaders against big rival Bishop Chatard. Last Friday the JV boys and girls played back-to-back at Cathedral, then Saturday the varsity teams matched up at BCHS. CHS went 4–0 in the series, but it wasn’t without some drama. At least on the girls side.

(Quick aside for my non-Indy readers comparing the schools. CHS is over 100 years old while BCHS is the “new” school, opening in 1961. CHS is around 1200 students (although trending dramatically up in the last two years), BCHS just under 700. CHS is much more diverse, drawing from Catholic and public schools all over the metro area while BCHS pulls primarily from Catholic parishes in the northern half of Indy. Diversity means more than just race, but CHS is about 70% white – C’s class is closer to 60% – while BCHS is 80% white. I would guess CHS has both more super affluent families and more families who rely on need-based scholarships to be able to attend. CHS plays in class 4A for all sports expect football, where they are currently in 6A. BCHS is a 3A school, although their football team is moving up to 4A next year. CHS has won the most games in the history of Indiana high school football; BCHS has won the most football state championships.)

The JV game was a big deal, L’s first time playing against her best buddy from middle school, K,[1] since second grade. Beginning in third grade they played together on three Chatard teams, five St P’s teams, one Cathedral team, and two years of travel ball. The girls and families had been looking forward to this game since the schedule came out.

L again played really well. In three quarters she tallied 10 points on 5–9 shooting, four rebounds, two assists, two steals, and four turnovers. Late in the third period she stole an inbounds pass and flipped it to her teammate, who missed a shot but got her own rebound. And missed again. And got another rebound. And clanked a third shot. Then a third CHS player grabbed that rebound and missed. Four girls went after the ball and it kicked out to L who was standing on the 3-point line. She tossed up a long two to give the Irish a seven-point lead going into the fourth quarter.

She had played every minute of the game to this point and began the final period on the bench. When the BCHS pressure started getting to our guards, I expected her to check back in. But she sat. The lead got down to three and we called a timeout. “Surely she’ll check in now,” I thought. Nope. When the players returned to the court she remained on the bench. People around us asked me why she wasn’t playing. Chatard parents on the other side of the gym were texting me asking why she wasn’t playing. She wasn’t hurt. I doubted she had smarted off to her coach. My only guess was the coach wanted to give the other girls a chance to play without L since she has been getting more varsity minutes.

Anyway, we managed to blow the entire lead before some late free throws earned us a two-point win. L led the girls off the bench in jumping on their teammate who hit two big free throws to seal the win.

After the game I hung out with K’s parents while we waited for the girls to come out of their locker rooms. One of L and K’s travel teammates also came to watch. Her dad’s – who was an assistant coach on the travel team – first question, “Why wasn’t L in the game?”

When L finally emerged I told her great game, then hit her with, “Why did you sit the entire fourth quarter.”

“This is so dumb,” she responded, “tonight’s minutes count against tomorrow’s game!”

She told me a week ago that since the JV and varsity games were on different nights, she would be fully eligible for each game. Apparently that’s not the case. We noticed a few boys sat the entire fourth quarter of their game, likely for the same reason.

She was right, that’s a dumb rule. And it nearly cost us the game.

In addition to playing against K, all of L’s cousins who were in town came to the game. She had a cheering section of about 20 people, complete with signs made by the little ones. That was nice, and I think she appreciated it, but you will not be surprised that I slid a few feet away from our main family group so I could monitor the game in relative peace.

So pretty good game. L scored 10 of our 34 points before she sat down, which seems like a good ratio. She has now scored 40 points over her last 11 JV quarters.

K and her teammates will likely get another crack at the Irish next week in the City tournament. L better be ready for them to come at her even harder. The JV and varsity tournaments are played in synch, so assuming all four teams make it to the finals next Friday, L may find herself sitting again in key moments of the JV championship game if the coaches think she’ll be needed in the varsity game. Or maybe playing rules are different in tournaments. I guess we’ll find out.

Saturday night we went to BCHS for the varsity games. It was a terrific environment. Their gym is much smaller and it was completely packed. By the time the boys game began there were people jammed into aisles, standing along the walls, and more who were lingering in the hallway outside the gym.

The girls played first. CHS was missing a starter, weathered foul trouble, and survived a big Chatard run to grab a six-point win. It was a tense, back-and-forth game in the second half. There is a little bit of tension between the coaching staffs that added some extra drama to the night.

L got to play in the CHS road green uniforms for the first time. She logged a little over two minutes in the first quarter, then a decent chunk of the third quarter as we navigated our center’s foul issues. She didn’t do much. One steal, three turnovers. She seemed a little keyed up, but as this was the biggest crowd she’s ever played in front of I understood. A BCHS senior who went to St P’s bullied her on a drive and drew a foul. I told her after the game that was the difference between being a freshman and a senior, both in terms of strength and hoops IQ.

It was fun both nights to get messages from BCHS and St P’s friends congratulating us on L playing well Friday and logging decent varsity minutes on Saturday.

JV is now 5–9, varsity 6–8.

The CHS boys won both their games easily. The varsity, undefeated and ranked #4, was probably the biggest reason the gym was so packed. They have a 6’8” junior who already has Power 5 offers, a sophomore who should be getting offers soon, and some terrific athletes around those two. They play super fast, can shoot, and are good on both ends. They are very fun to watch. The JV is anchored by three excellent freshmen guards and play with a reckless abandon that generally overwhelms their opponents, but also leads to a lot of sloppy-ass play.

Thursday we are off to Louisville for games against an all-girls Catholic school. I don’t know anything about them other than they are ranked #32 in the state on MaxPreps. CHS is #95 on MaxPreps, but come in 20 spots higher in the Sagarin ratings. You can’t do a damn thing with those numbers but I took the time to look them up so I’m sharing them.

A quick, one-game summary to wrap up the first half of the season.

Last night CHS took on HSE, ranked #2 in class 4A. HSE has a junior who is committed to IU and just passed the 1000 career points mark last week. They also have a sophomore who already has multiple D1 offers and was taking visits to big-time schools as a freshman. A very good program from a huge suburban district. The sister school in their district lost in the state championship game last year.

In the JV game, L got a chance to play against one of her new, future travel teammates. However, we didn’t know that girl’s number until we saw a program, so L had no idea they guarded each other for much of the game until I told her on the ride home.

That was a decent matchup, although it was more L guarding H on one end while HSE’s point guards picked up L on the opposite end. H looks like a solid player. She didn’t do anything spectacular but made smart, fundamental plays all night. I wasn’t tracking her super closely, but she scored either 5 or 7.

L clearly took the confidence built playing so many varsity minutes Saturday into this game. She was as aggressive as she’s been all year, but also smartly aggressive. She took 12 total shots. She was 4–9 from 2, 2–3 from 3 and set a new career-high with 14 points. I give the 14 points an asterisk because the official signaled a two-point make on one of her 3’s, but the announcer gave her a three. Since HSE was up by 20 at the time, the scoreboard operator didn’t question it and also gave her three points. I thought the ref was wrong and it was indeed a 3, so I guess it evens out. Glad we didn’t win by one! She grabbed three rebounds and turned it over four times.

She finally realized, “Hey, I can drive people,” and got into the lane often. She looked a lot stronger with the ball than she has all season. Two of her turnovers came when she made drives and passed to teammates who weren’t looking for a pass. She also drew a couple fouls on drives. It wasn’t perfect, but it was exactly what she should be doing.

The only real negative was badly missing her two free throw attempts. I’m not sure what’s going on there. I told her after the game that a few weeks ago her form was perfect, even on her misses. Tuesday her mechanics were a mess and I could tell she was going to miss both before they left her hands.

She sat the entire fourth quarter of an 11-point loss.

The varsity game went exactly as expected. That IU commit went off early, scoring 19 before halftime on her way to 27 for the game. HSE started the game on a 28–0 run. Twenty. Eight. It was brutal. They were clearly much better on both ends of the court, but when CHS did get a good look, you could tell all of our girls were sped up, and missed right at the rim or wide-open jumpers. It made no difference in the outcome, but what ended up being a 35-point loss could have been a more respectable 25 if the girls had settled down just a little.

This game was my first experience with a running clock in a high school game. I didn’t realize that kicks in when the margin gets to 35 points. I’m not sure when HSE first got their lead over that line, but it was well into the 40s in the fourth quarter.

L checked in with 3:30 left in the third quarter and played straight-through until about the 3:00 mark of the fourth quarter. As the clock was running for most of that stretch it went pretty quick.

She got her first varsity assist, driving and kicking for a 3. She air-balled a wide-open 3 for the second-straight varsity game. But she used her confidence with the ball to drive and score when HSE still had three starters in, so that was cool.

Varsity dropped to 5–8, JV sit at 4–9.

After a long, busy, and tough seven weeks the girls finally have a little break. They have light practices today and tomorrow before taking five days off for Christmas. Their next game is the following weekend, when they have split JV-varsity games against big rival Bishop Chatard, where L’s best middle school buddy plays. She is excited not just to play BCHS, or her friend, or because a lot of family plan on coming to those games. Since the JV game is Friday and varsity Saturday, she won’t be on a playing time restriction either night. Hopefully she’s not too keyed up.

After that, varsity has a minimum of nine games left, depending on how the City tournament and sectionals go.

Our weekend was pretty boring, other than a bunch of basketball Saturday, so I’m changing things up for this week’s posts. I’ll begin by recapping L’s hoops then get to some Jayhawk Talk later this week.

In our last volume in this series, I detailed a pretty rough week for L. This post will have a decidedly better vibe and includes another milestone in her young career.

Thursday CHS hosted New Palestine. I was a little worried in warmups as NP had a very tall sophomore who was draining 3 after 3. Our only JV girl with size has moved up to varsity full time, and I did not like the prospect of 5’6” freshmen trying to guard a 6’2” sophomore. Fortunately she wasn’t nearly as good when she was being defended as when she was casually throwing in shots during pregame and had no effect on the game.

It ended up being the easiest win of the year to this point. The Irish steadily built a lead throughout the game and were up by 22 going into the fourth quarter. The starters all rested and the backups held on for a 44–28 win.

L was really good. She hit her first shot – a long 2 from just inside the arc – then three of her next four. She reached double figures for the first time, ending with11 points on 5-of–7 shooting, but went just 1–3 from the line. She added 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 steals, and ZERO turnovers. She was on the floor for 20 of the first 21 minutes before the fourth quarter.

The varsity game wasn’t much of a contest, either. CHS raced out to an early lead and never let up, winning by 19.

That game had some interesting moments.

We’re not sure why, but two normal CHS starters began the game on the bench. They didn’t check in until late in the first quarter and then only played spotty minutes the rest of the game. One has been injured, the other sick, but they were both acting normal. More on them in a moment.

Between weird lineup rotations, the big early lead, and L only playing three quarters of JV, I wondered if she might get a decent chunk of time in the second half.

So I was shocked when she ran to the scorer’s table a minute into the second quarter. Once she checked in, she didn’t leave the court until halftime. Honest-to-goodness varsity minutes!

She did ok. She grabbed a couple rebounds. She missed an open look from 3 against the NP zone. She hit a layup but was called for shuffling her feet before she took her first dribble. She did have a turnover but otherwise she handled herself really well in her six-plus minutes on the court.

She sat the entire third quarter as two of her freshman JV buddies got to play, then checked in for mop-up during in the final minutes of the game.

There was some other excitement. NP had a girl who was a great athlete but not a great player. She threw her body all over the place trying to make plays. She would make a great move to the basket, then hit the bottom of the rim with her shot.

She crashed into one of our girls on a rebound and got smacked in the face. No foul was called since she initiated the contact, but she went to the floor holding her eye. The officials stopped the game to check on her and seconds later T’ed her up. I figure refs are going to give you some leeway when you get hit in the face, so she must have said something really bad to earn the T. Later she took another smack in the face and played with a tissue hanging out of her nose to stop the bleeding. She had started the game with a big bruise on her face. Tough chick.

Understandably she was a little frustrated and began complaining about every call. She was very lucky she didn’t get another T because of how demonstrative she was a couple times.

Her dad, or at least another NP dad, did get ejected, though. I couldn’t hear what he said but several of their parents had been loud all night. He must have crossed the line as well because a ref stopped the game, pointed at him, and asked the CHS athletic director to escort him out of the gym.

Fun times!

To the injured girl’s credit, I heard her apologizing to one of her coaches for getting T’ed up as they walked to the bus.

Saturday we played at Heritage Christian, a 3A school about five minutes from Cathedral. Ten or so years ago they had one of the best programs in the country, winning multiple state titles and sending girls to places like UConn. They aren’t quite that good anymore, and we knew from basketball friends that their JV was bad.

L got off to a quick start in the JV game, hitting a couple shots and one-of-two free throws early. She also had five steals in the first nine minutes of the game. HC could not dribble and she took advantage.

About three minutes before halftime one of HC’s bigger girls crashed into L and fouled her. She knocked L over, lost her balance, and then landed with all her weight on L’s back. It looked bad. L was down for a minute or so before she could get up and walk off the court crying. She sat out the rest of the half and when the third quarter started remained on the bench. She took some Motrin S offered her but didn’t complain. We were cruising so she watched the entire second half next to the coaches. We ended up winning by 27.

L didn’t sit the entire second half just because she got hurt. Varsity was going to be short two players – those two who were benched to start the game Thursday – and several JV girls were going to have to play up. Both of the missing players are soccer players and chose to play in a soccer showcase rather than high school basketball. I wondered if their minutes were reduced Thursday because of their decision Saturday, but L didn’t think so.

Anyway, the game starts, our best player makes a couple dumb plays, and 90 seconds into the game L checks in. I thought she would play 30 seconds while the coach yelled at our star, then she’d check right back out. But L stayed on the court the rest of the first quarter. She missed an open 3 – seems like she hasn’t hit one in a game in about three weeks – but handled herself well. She showed no ill effects from the earlier crushing.

The highlight of the day for us was when she took an inbounds pass, dribbled up court, weaved around a screen, and went straight to the hoop and laid it in.

Varsity points! In December! In the first quarter of a close game!

I’m a little disappointed they didn’t stop the game to honor the moment, but it was a road game and I’m not in charge of these things.

It was the most confident play she’s made all year. I told her if she can do that in a varsity game, she can do it in a JV game.

Same story in the third quarter. She was the first off the bench and then didn’t leave the court again until the end of the fourth quarter. I didn’t track it as closely as I do in JV, but I’m estimating she played 20–22 minutes. She took four shots, only making that layup. Other than committing one foul, she didn’t check any other columns in the box score. But she looked comfortable, moved the ball, and even brought it up when they double-teamed our best player in the backcourt.

The game was pretty great. We had the ball up one with 19 seconds left and called a timeout. Whatever play our coaches set up we ran wrong, because HC’s best player stole the pass and drove for a potential game-winning layup. This girl is a D1 recruit and somehow missed it. But HC got the rebound, gave her the ball again, and we fouled her with :00.5 left. She made the first, missed the second, and we went to OT.

L had played her five quarters for the day so had to sit and watch the extra time. Which ended up being eight minutes because we were still tied after the first overtime period. Fortunately our girls buckled down in the second extra frame and won by nine. Our best player, a junior who played for HC as a freshman, scored 26. Our center had 18 and 16. Our third regular starter had 17 and 7. It was a fun day.

L was very happy after the game. Everyone was high-fiving her and telling her that she did great. She said her coaches told her she’s improved a lot and earned the minutes she played.

She still has a long way to go, but she’s gone from turning the ball over on her first play of her high school career to getting serious minutes in a varsity win. All within six or seven weeks.

A pretty good week for JV, varsity, and L.

Their reward? The undefeated, #2 4A team in the state tomorrow.

A kind of bizarre and not very successful week for L on the court, with one very notable exception.

Tuesday CHS played Zionsville, where a travel teammate goes to school. L came out firing early, hoisting six 3-pointers in the first half. She missed them all, but was fouled on one and hit two-of-three free throws. She also had 2 rebounds, an assist, three steals, and no turnovers in the first half.

However, she did not play at all in the second half. She later told us that late in the first half and again in the locker room at halftime, she nearly passed out. The trainer did a check on her, and everything was fine, but decided it was safest to keep her off the court.

Not sure if it was just low blood sugar, a hint of a bug, or something else. She said once whatever it was passed she felt fine. But she only played half the game, the first time this season she’s played less than 25 minutes. CHS lost by four. L would have dressed for varsity again had she been ok to play.

Thursday they took on Guerin, the Catholic school in Hamilton County, where we used to live. L was excited about this game because Guerin has a lot of girls she played against in CYO, most of their good freshmen were playing on the varsity team, and we had heard their JV was bad.

So much for all of that. L had one of her worst games of the year. She was 0–6 from the field (0–3 on 3’s) and did not score. She had four more turnovers. She did play the whole game. Well, all but two minutes. As usual we couldn’t get any offense going and dropped the game by five.

L was involved in a key moment in the game. We were down by just two with under a minute to play when she drove, shot, and drew a foul. The shot missed but she was going to the line with a chance to tie.

Only the referees claimed the contact was before the shot. Girls from both teams had already lined up along the lane and L was at the free throw line waiting for the ball. It seems like everyone but the ref knew that L got fouled in the air. No idea what that dude was looking at. Naturally we didn’t score on off the inbounds and that was kind of the game.

So that game sucked all around.

However…

L again dressed for the varsity game, which was a blowout as CHS was up big the entire second half. I wondered if the benches would get cleared. Sure enough, with just under 2:00 left the Guerin coach sent in her reserves. The CHS coach followed a moment later. L ran to the scorer’s table to check into her first varsity game with a big grin on her face.

Amazingly, she played better than in the JV game. And by that I mean she didn’t do anything negative. She grabbed a rebound. She came close to an assist and had an unofficial hockey assist on another basket. High school is just like college: when the benchwarmers score, the starters go nuts. That was fun. Those 99 seconds seemed to outweigh L’s poor performance in the JV game, as she was super happy afterward.

Saturday we traveled about 45 minutes to Eastern Hancock, the #2 ranked 2A team in the state. We learned the day before that EH was dealing with a lot of injuries and had requested that the JV game only be two quarters.[1] L was, again, pumped, because she figured they were bad and this might be the chance to get another (half) win.

EH’s JV had five girls. Two of them were solid, the other three sucked. Yet our girls still couldn’t run competent offense. It was more of the same: causally passing the ball around without ever really looking to score. Still, we had a six-point lead with about three minutes to play when L had an open look for three. While her shot was in the air I thought, “If she makes this, the game is over.” She missed. The game was not, in fact, over. Nice freaking jinx, dad.

EH threw a press at us after their next make. Our standard press breaker is to in-bound to L, she probes the defense, then if she sees a trap coming she’ll dump the ball to another girl who attacks up the side and reverses to L in the middle if she’s trapped. This has worked very well all year. Saturday the other girl dribbled into a triple team on three straight possessions and lost the ball each time, all turning into EH buckets. That morphed into a 13–3 run to end the half-game, and another (half) loss for the Irish.

L was kind of bad again. 0–4 (0–2) from the field. 1–2 from the line. Two rebounds, an assist, a steal, and four turnovers. Turnovers have been a problem lately. Sometimes she makes shitty passes. Sometimes she isn’t strong enough with the ball. Sometimes she makes a good pass and her teammates don’t catch it. It’s really an all three phases thing right now, and she needs to find a way to be better with the ball.

We could tell she was straight-up pissed after the game. Fortunately she dressed for varsity so we didn’t have to deal with her for a bit.

I got roped into keeping the book for the varsity game, which ended up being a very good one. EH has five seniors back from a team that lost in semi-state last year. They added an amazing freshman, who scored 21. Both teams had six-point leads at one point. One of L’s buddies who is playing up from JV scored a career-high 12. The game was tied at 50 with under a minute left when that EH freshman hit a 3 to break the tie and EH won by three. The EH players and fans were very excited to beat a class 4A team, even if the Irish are just 3–7. For what it’s worth, the varsity has played the 12th toughest schedule in the state, across all classes.

Three games, three losses, and L scored 3 total points. I guess she actually just played two games. Aside from getting into the varsity game Thursday, it was not a great week for her. JV is now 2–8. The good program news is the freshman team is undefeated. We asked L if she would rather play with them. She was very much against that idea.

Two games last week. One of them was the biggest night of L’s young career.

Tuesday we played Ben Davis, a west-side of Indianapolis school that is the second-biggest in the state.[1] Their athletic program is generally quite good. Their football team just won the 6A state title and their boys basketball team was undefeated 4A state champs in March. The girls hoops program made it to semi-state last season. Back in the day – 2000–2009 – they won four state titles in ten years, two of those undefeated seasons, and in 2009 were crowned national champions by USA Today. But they were just 1–6 coming into our game.

The JV game was pretty similar to the Warren Central game a week earlier. BD was far more physical and athletic, plus they were older, and dictated almost all of the action. It didn’t help that our only decent inside player could just play one quarter so she was eligible to play in the varsity game, filling in for our injured center. We ended up losing by eight but had trailed by 12–16 for most of the second half.

L genuinely got beaten up. She was limping after the game because of one collision. She had big claw marks on her leg from a loose ball pileup. And her left arm was sore because someone landed on it in another scrum.

She played all but 58 seconds of the game, scoring 5 points on 2–7 shooting from the field (1–3 on 3s). She added a couple rebounds and five turnovers. She was matched up with sophomores and juniors all night, so I was proud of how she hung in.

BD’s varsity won by eight. They had a player who hit her first five shots of the game – four were 3s – and that was pretty much the difference.

Thursday Center Grove came to CHS. Their varsity team was ranked #3 in the state, but were coming off their first loss of the year. They have a girl who is going to Villanova next year. Unfortunately our center who is going to Nova to play volleyball was still out with a concussion.

Fortunately their JV team wasn’t quite as strong. In what was truly the ugliest quarter of basketball I’ve seen this year, we had a 7–1 lead after the first quarter thanks to a banked-in 35-footer at the buzzer. We only scored two in the second quarter but still led by one, before giving up a 17–7 run in the third quarter. We made our own run late, but couldn’t finish the comeback and lost by two.

L probably had her best game of the year. She tied her career high with nine points, hitting three of four shots (1–1 on 3s). She finally decided to drive and had two beautiful blow-bys that she got fouled on. Each time her shot rimmed out. Each time she hit one-of-two free throws. She played fantastic defense, too, the best I’ve ever seen from her. She made it impossible for whoever she was guarding to get into the lane. She had a rebound, an assist, and three steals. She had three more turnovers, but only one of those was because of an error she made. She actually got to sit out a little more this game, playing 26:40.[2]

Her middle school and travel ball buddy, also L, who went to a rival high school came and watched. I’ve seen her a few times since school started, but it was my first time seeing her mom since August. We either coached together, I kept score for her when she coached, or we sat together for the last six years in both CYO and travel ball, so that was fun.

After the game Other L was talking to some of the St P’s girls who cheer for CHS while we were waiting for L to come out of the locker room. Then Other L yelled my name and pointed at the court with a big grin on her face. L was pulling on a varsity warmup shirt with a goofy grin of her own.

That’s right, seven games into her high school career L got to dress for the varsity game against the #3 team in the state! We were all pretty excited. It was a shame she was a sweaty mess otherwise I would have gotten a picture.

She didn’t get into the game. I didn’t expect her to, even as CG easily won by 16. Maybe if CG had cleared their bench there would have been a chance but even that was unlikely.

Put that all together and I think Thursday was the best day of her season, so far. Would have been nice to win the JV game to top it off. A third of the way into the season, both varsity and JV are now 2–5.

The Irish have three games this week. Varsity plays the #13 4A team tonight, a 3A Catholic school that starts a bunch of freshmen L played against in CYO Thursday, then the #2 2A team Saturday.