The 1980's had not been great to the Streaks. We had won no Regional titles. We had winning records in 1980 (21-4), 1981 (14-10), and 1984 (16-10). The previous two seasons, we had gone 9-17 and 8-17. There was a petition drive by "concerned citizens" to fire the boys coach that Spring. Some had wanted to include the girls coach but fortunately in 1986 there just was not that much interest in girls basketball.
In 1986-7, we matched up vs. Quincy for the Regional Championship at Galesburg. We had split with Quincy during the season- losing at home in December 47-32 and winning at Quincy in late January 48-21. It was our chance to finally get a Regional title. I had developed laryngitis the day of the game. Mike Jaskoski, who was a good friend and on the boys staff volunteered to sit on the bench and help communicate to the players.
We played well but it was a tight game. We took a time out with the ball and under 5 seconds to go. We were down 39-37 and had the ball at half-court. Jas and I nervously talked about about what we wanted to run, and then I went into the huddle.
Almost 40 years later, I don't remember exactly what we tried to run. Like any coach diagraming a last shot, I understood what I wanted and I believed in what I diagrammed. The play did not work. We got the ball into a non-shooter, who just before the buzzer had to take a guarded shot.
Thirty minutes after the game, Jas and I sat sadly on the bench talking about what almost happened and the disappointment we felt for the players. As we were talking, Jas looked down at the dry-erase board. As he looked at the board, he managed a laugh and said, "Do you think they understood what we wanted?"
As we looked at the board, it was a mess. There were lines going every where. As I looked at the diagram, it took me a minute to decipher- and I had drawn it. I have put three different picture of bad diagrams. I don't think any of these diagrams were "the play," but you get the idea that I sent the team out with bad instructions.
Quincy had switched back and forth between man to man and zone defense. So rather than running something we practiced, I thought I needed to make something up in the huddle that would work vs. mm or zone defenses. So I was drawing something and asking them to run something with 6 seconds to go that we had never run before. It took losing a Regional, to learn the lesson to always run one of your regular plays at the end of games.
I was always taught that one play doesn't win or lose a game, but I sure wish I had that time out back.
Several summer later at a Knox Bucks Camp, I had the opportunity to talk with Bob Kies, who coached at QND and later in Wisconsin, and Dan Sullivan of Princeville. Coach Kies had with him and showed the cards of all his end of game plays. On his little card, he had side ob's, full ob's, baseline ob's, plays vs. zone, and plays vs mm. He had charted for under 3 seconds, 3-6 seconds, and so forth.
After seeing his organization, I realized that you couldn't just leave it to try to remember the possible options at the end of a game. So I made up my own guards with all of our possible options. My second lesson was to always carry a cheat sheet.
The 1987 team started two sophomores (Shannon Johnson and Linda Carlson), and one junior (Alicia Brannon). In 1988, those three plus Jocelyn Turner and Vicki Fields started on a team that won 20 games and the Regional Championship. And the Streaks won 20 or more games for the next 21 years, and won 18 straight Regional titles.
No comments:
Post a Comment