As I abhor the use of the term “perfect storm” to describe every confluence of events that leads to any outcome, I will not try to explain this post as the result of a perfect storm of events. I will say, however, that three games in three days + Thanksgiving travel + parent teacher conferences = hard to write a timely post after each game.
Please accept my apologies, you the teaming masses.
This will be a mash up of thoughts from the St. Joe game and the M. Night Chaminade game.
Only time will tell if this will rise to level of the the Harbaugh Notice, but for the last three games Matt Roth has been compared to Jimmy Chitwood. That’s a completely faulty analogy, by the way. What made Jimmy such a powerful force in Hickory, is when the people were trying to run Coach Dale up the Monan Line Jimmy stepped up and said, “I play. Coach Stays. He goes, I go.” We fired Sampson’s ass and Matt Roth said, “Kelvin Who?”
My hope, heading into Maui, was that we would play hard and be competitive. I knew we’d get beat by Notre Dame, but I had hoped it would be closer than that. I knew very little about St. Joe’s, but I really thought we’d play them closer than that.
In order to hear a story about the last time IU lost two games back to back, by 30+ points, you’d likely have to endure a long and rambling tale where the phrase “He wore an onion on his belt, which was the style at the time. . .” or “We decided to celebrate this sweet event with a big glass of lemon juice, lemons being the sweetest fruit available at the time.”
Phil Martelli looks like smaller version of Peter Boyle.
I like that we don’t have a mascot. Most mascots just stand there, and cheer, maybe dance a bit, but the owl from St. Joe’s kicks ass. Flapping your arms non stop for 2+ hours, three days in a row makes Magnus ver Magnusson look like Woody Allen.
Clearly, we have a lot of problems as a team, but this is what I find encouraging. Most of the things we do poorly can be taught and improved upon.
We don’t close out on three-point shooters at all.
We were right there in that St. Joe’s game until we turned the ball over something like 8 out of 10 possessions in the second half. So, let’s put taking care of the basketball high on the list of things to work on.
We run into each other going for the rebound all the time.
When we drive, stop about six to ten feet out, and either look to pass it, or take the jump shot we’re roughly 14,000x’s more effective than when we push it all the way to the basket. I’d like to suggest drills where the two-foot jump-stop is the focal point.
Speaking of driving, Daniel Moore does a great job of getting into the lane, but prior to the Chaminade game he never looked to shoot. He passes really well, but without the risk of the shot, he’s going to find those passing lanes closed down.
Right now, we are a team full of Derek Colemanesque clutch free throw shooters.
Now comes the silver lining. We played three games, in three games, with little to no chance to practice in between. We now have a lot of information on which to base the next few practices. And the things we don’t do well are fixable, and will undoubtedly improve with practice.
Here is the theme song for the St. Joe’s game, in honor of Phil Martelli.
Here is the theme song for the Chaminade game. It doesn’t have much to do with the game, but it’s the last chance I’ll have to show love to all we love about Hawaii.
Jeff Taylor Writes 