2008 - 2009 Travel Season

Another VERY Entertaining Mothers / Daughters Game

Girls take a 2-1 lead in the series

The "Hard Wood Hotties"

"Hard Wood Hottie DELUXE"

Mom's planning strategy

Girls planning strategy

"mouse" was shutting down the mom's

Our Referee

The Table Crew

Tina and Roxy

Another Martin on the floor ...

JOHN!!!!

(tourney info below or click here)

THANK YOU

A thank you to the girls for .....

.....  learning the importance of blending individual talents together and play as a team.  Very few teams have accomplished what you have demonstrated these past three years and what you learned will go well beyond the basketball court!

.....  coming to every practice eager and willing to learn so as to improve as an individual and as a team. 

.....  dedication and commitment both on and off the court to your teammates and to yourself.

.....  having a "never quit" attitude; no matter how hard you were asked to work or no matter the score up on the board.  As a team you never quit, you never let down and you played as winners no matter the circumstances!  Again, that attitude will serve you well in the future on the court and in life!

.....   being willing to be challenged; both personally and as a team.  A challenge each of you lived up to admirably and in doing so gained the respect of your opponents, your fans and your coaches!  You should all feel proud of the successes that were not always reflected in the game score.

.... and thanks for some very entertaining basketball games!!!!  You guys are the BEST!!!

A thank you to the parents for ....

.....  unyielding support shown to your daughters.  You made sure girls were on time to practices and games and your support in the stands always gave the team a lift!

.....  unwavering support shown to us in coaching your daughters as we felt best in teaching them more than simply basketball skills.  And your support of our philosophies and tactics that make this more than just a basketball experience.

.....  no undue pressure to win at any cost.  Your support of your daughters, of the coaches and support of "team first" allowed us to win as a team without undue importance placed on any one individual contribution.  We celebrated individual performances but did not depend on those for our victories.

.....  the new friendships that have been gained through my involvement in basketball!

A thank you to John  for ...

..... all the hours he put in these past three years coaching and lending me a hand in coaching these girls!  Your presence and guidance had a great impact on the team and our successes!

..... all the help on the bench!  Your insight during games was a tremendous help in managing substitutions and the game in general and your advice to both me and the girls was always welcomed and beneficial!

And finally, a thank you to my family ....

..... for putting up with a schedule that seemed many times to have put basketball ahead of the family.

..... for putting up with the stresses and strains which although is never intended can and have come from basketball activities and affects our family.

..... for absolute support in my coaching activities and adjusting to those needs!

It has been a pleasure and especially an honor to have had the opportunity to coach these girls and having all of you as part of our extended family!

Thank you!

Tournaments

Notices

MYAS State

7AA

Playing back into 3rd place is tough at the MYAS tournament when you lose your first game.   We played "OK" but not great against Orono.   We had a tight game at half time, but let them go on a run in the middle of the second half to send us into the left brackets.

Our lackluster play continued through our wins against Tartan and Holy Family.   In both games we should have easily won to advance.  But with Tartan we took the game to the last play and came away with a one point win.  Against Holy Family we spotted them a 12-3 half time lead.  Then we used our speed to wear them down and scratched our way back into a 22-19 win.  

Even with our very average play, the girls found a way to win these two games.  That says a lot about these players.   And to top it off, we could have folded up the tents against Holy Family, but the girls never gave up.   Someone said it last year, these girls come to the court knowing they can win and only the final buzzer will tell them they are wrong.

Sunday we continued to move closer to the 3rd place game.  First up was White Bear Lake.   We held their best shooter to one point and built a 6 point lead which eroded to a tie game at the end of regulation.   In overtime we came through with three clutch free throws and pulled off our second over time win of the season.

To get to the 3rd place game we had one more game and we had to get through Wayzata.   This is the same 7A team we played in Wayzata, so we knew we had to control their two big girls.   The girls played well, but a few turnovers at inopportune times cost us points as Wayzata opened up an otherwise close game in the last 5 minutes to send us home.

Three wins and two losses on our state tourney!   That's a HUGE accomplishment for this team.   And we continued our streak of NO friendship games this season; another HUGE accomplishment!!

The girls made great strides in improving as players and a team again this year.  It was truly a joy to have had the opportunity to work with the girls and their families!

Thank you!

St. Cloud Tournament

A Hard Earned 3rd Place!!!!

I hated the brackets!   9 teams!!!  Who brackets 9 teams in a tourney????   I considered withdrawing from the tourney when I saw that we would have to play through Rosemount just to get to quarterfinals.   But we confirmed we would be playing.

We opened against a Sartell team we felt comfortable we could play well against.   Unfortunately they could only field 5 girls for their first game.   Like Alexandria the week before, we pressed them until we built a 15-0 lead then fell back into a man-to-man defense that protected the lane while giving them free perimeter reign.  

We moved on to what looked to be a competitive game against Rosemount's B team.  But we couldn't find Rosemount in the MYAS state brackets????   During pre-game we found out this was their A TEAM that would be playing in the 7AAAA bracket next week!!!

I was almost ready to throw in the towel before the game started.   How could we play with a team of that caliber?  And what the heck were they doing in the B bracket????  

But we played ... and BOY!  Did we PLAY!!!!    We countered their pick and roll with a sagging match up zone.   We broke their aggressive half court trap with tremendous passing!   We used what we learned in our earlier game to attack their zone and man-to-man defenses.  23-23 at half time!   We started to believe that we could actually win this game!

The lead went back and forth with no team getting a lead beyond 4 points in the second half.  We shut down their star player (16 of 23 points in first half) and did a FANTASTIC job on the defensive boards; limiting them to one shot on each trip down the court!   Suddenly the buzzer goes off and we sit tied at 34-34!!!

In overtime we play them without their top three players who all fouled out trying to stop our attacking offense!   We hit a few free throws and when the final buzzer goes off we let a sigh of relief with an upset win over a very talented, aggressive team!

Without a doubt this was the most memorable and satisfying win in our three years of playing!   All 10 girls stepped up big time!   We set aside fear of our opponent and played with respect of their talent; then played to their level!   I could not be prouder of these girls!!!

Sunday we moved into quarterfinals against a Dassel-Cokato 7th grade school team that started in the A bracket and later allowed to move to B (hence the ugly 9 team bracket).    We were down one player (dance competition) and close to losing another who woke up with a fever.   So we called on the services of one of our 6th grade players to step in and help provide some relief.    It great was to have the extra player just to provide some rest of the others! 

Dassel is a HUGE team!   Four of their players were bigger (taller AND bigger) than Liz!!!   We played them tight in the first half dropping back to a 5 point deficit with a last second 3 point shot by Dassel.   In the second half we couldn't buy a basket!   We went "Oh-For" through most of the second quarter and quickly fell behind by 15 points.   By the time we started making baskets it was too late and we ended up moving to the 3rd place game with a 44-30 loss.

In our 3rd place game we saw the same Grand Rapids team we earlier beat in the Brainerd Tournament.  We again put a full court press on against them and built a solid 17-4 lead!   The accuracy problems of our first game were resolved as we hit almost everything we put up in the second!  

We took home our 5th trophy of the year and our 8th placing of the season!!!   And we continue our streak of NOT playing any friendship games this season!!!

Oh yea ... I still hate those brackets ... <G>

On to state!!!

Albany Tournament

2nd Place!!!!!

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Waking up way before sunrise was all well worth it!!!

What looked like a very competitive tournament on papers proved out to be as expected on the court.   We chose the Albany tournament over the usual St. Cloud tourney with hopes to see new teams we otherwise don't see at the metro contests.   This weekend we ran into several outstate "School Teams" (teams which play 7th grade school ball as well as travel ball).

Practices have been focusing on movement on the court when the player does not have the ball.   We've worked on cutting to the basket, rotation around the perimeter and passing the ball away from the strong side of the defense.   There's still alot of time needed to get the girls comfortable with what's being taught, but we have alot of season left as well.   And Albany was going to be our first chance to try out what we worked on against another team. 

We played our best offensive game of the day against a team that beat us by 2 points last February in St. Cloud.   Hutchinson is a very scrappy and aggressive team.   We pressured them with a full court defense and moved the ball well on offense.  

In our second game we faced Foly's 7th grade school team.   Suffice to say this game ended up as a win, but our second game curse came into play again and we struggled until we put together a few successful trips down the court at the end of the game and moved into the Championship game.

For championship we faced a very aggressive St. Cloud team.    Again we struggled on offense when we should have been able to put up many more points than the score indicated.  We trailed until the last 3 minutes of the game when we went up by one after a nice drive to the hoop.  Then fell behind by 1 point and finally by 3 as the clock ran out on a designed 3 point shot play in the end. 

In our last two tournaments we have hit our goal of 25% accuracy from the field.   So we're hitting a good number of shots we're taking.  Now we just have to start taking more shots.

This was a very good tournament against some very good competition.   A VERY well earned 2nd place trophy.

Maple Grove Tournament

3rd Place!!!!

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GREAT weekend of basketball!!!!

We opened Saturday morning against an Anoka Ramsey team that wasn't ready for our full court defense nor our aggressive offense.   We quickly jumped to a 20-0 lead and slowed down our offense at the end for a 48-13 win.

Our second game was a bit more concerning.   Chaska... the dreaded Chaska team.   Last year we played Chaska twice and lost handily to them each time.   Chaska has gone through some changes with the opening of Chanhassen High School and the formation of their travel program.  However, they are still a formidable team.   We opened with 8 quick points and kept the game close through the first two quarters.  A few mental errors on defense allowed them to put 4 quick baskets up and take 6 point half time lead.

In the 3rd period they showed their old run-and-gun style and quickly put up 10 points while we struggled to find the hoop on offense.  In the final period we out scored them, but by then it was too late.   In the game Chaska hit 12 free throws in 14 attempts.   That and our brief defensive breakdown in the 2nd quarter resulted in an 11 point loss.

On to the third place game against Edina.  We expected a scrappy game and that's what we got.  Edina dropped back into a 2-3 zone and made us earn every basket.   We hit the first shot of the game and held the lead until the final buzzer. 

A third place finish in Maple Grove!!!!    This is always one of the most competitive and challenging tournaments of the year.   We played three solid games against very good competition.

A well earned 3rd place finish!!!

Edina Tournament

First of all, it was both a satisfying and frustrating weekend.   We didn't seem ready to play against the speed and skills of Waconia's 7A team, but still kept the game tight until the end and showed we could be competitive against A level competition.   We also had a chance to use a new defensive set in a game and it worked well.   A few turnovers and fast breaks were the difference in that game.

 All 10 girls really stepped up against a very tall Mounds View team.   Liz, George, Linsi and Jordan out-rebounded girls much larger than them and they outplayed them down low.   Syd, Alicia, Brit and Brit did a great job attacking their defense from the sides.   And Jenna and Anna controlled the ball well against a very physical team.   Our defense was again superb.  

 Eagan was another great game.  That Eagan team is one of the better B level teams we've seen yet this year.    They destroyed Maple Grove (38-15) and Champlin (37-19) in earlier wins.  I have no idea how they lost to Lakeville (who later lost to Mounds View) to end up in Consolation.   

We implemented a new offensive set prior to the game and had some success.    It's hard to make those changes without the chance to practice, but this group of kids have shown they can pick up those changes fairly well.   Eagan came at us with four defensive sets and we adjusted well to each.    We came out strong and held a lead at half time.  But in the 3rd quarter shots that fell in the first half were missing the rim.    And our free throws just weren't dropping.   But even with that we played them tight to end up with a 2 point loss to a very good team.   

I have no doubt the experience we gained against Eagan will help us through the rest of the year. 

Wayzata Tournament

We expected to see some of our toughest competition at Wayzata and that's what we saw.    The 7B bracket had 7 teams that are the top 7th grade teams in their respective associations and were all playing in our B bracket.  

At the same time we felt we could play with any of the teams and knew that it would come down to us playing our best games to come out with more an a win.

We opened against Wayzata's 7A team and played them tight the entire game.  Until the last 2 minutes of the game we stayed within 2-3 points but could never close that gap.   However, we limited a team that followed up our game with a 37 point effort against a very good Woodbury team to scoring only 23 points.   We tested our new pressure trapping defense and it paid off with several back court turnovers.   Now we need to work harder in turning those turnovers into OUR points.

We followed the Wayzata game with another faceoff against Chaska.  In three years we have yet to beat Chaska's teams.   However, our new pressure defense completely wore down their already tired players and we had one of our best offensive games of the year in a 30 - 24 win.

Moving through the consolation bracket our next game was against Coon Rapids' 7A team.   They came at us with a very effective 1-3-1 zone which caused us many more problems than it should.   We seem to see straight man-to-man against B-level competition, but whenever we see A-level teams they drop into either a 2-3 or 1-3-1 zone.   We're going to have to spend time working on how to move about the court with and without the ball when going up against zone coverage.   We played Coon Rapids straight up through the first half and started to adjust to their zone in the second, but our real downfall was getting only 2 points from the free-throw line as compared to CR's 16 points from the same.  

5 tourneys and we've been able to stay out of friendship games ... so far.

Great experience against very good teams.   This should help us in becoming a better team through the rest of the season.

Final Season Stats

22 wins, 17 losses

2 - 2nd Places

2 - 3rd Places

3 - 4th Places

1 - Consolation

NO Friendship games!

Most points scored in a game - 48

Fewest points allowed in a game - 5

1052 points scored (aver. 27.0 points per game)

933 points allowed (aver. 23.9 points per game)

23% accuracy from the field (goal was 25%)

38% accuracy from the free throw line (goal was 50%)

Brainerd Tournament

We had come out of a Becker Tournament with concern of the team falling into a slump.   Our play fell off a bit in our last second loss to Princeton the previous week.    With Brainerd we opened against a Grand Rapids school team which we knew little about.   We needed that first win more than any game this year.

And the girls came out with a tenacious defense that limited GR's offense as we did a GREAT job on both the offensive and defensive boards.   Our rebounding kept them from scoring on second shots and allowed us to put up points on our end.   We hit a solid 6 of 16 from the free throw line and ended up with a very satisfying 35-19 win!

Alexandria was affected by illness and played our game with three girls from their A team.   Our defense was UNBELIEVABLE in limiting Alex to ONE field goal and FOUR free throws for the entire game!   This even though we pulled off the full court press after going up 15-0 and not contesting the perimeter on defense.  We went to the free throw line 6 times and hit 5 shots!  We also hit 33% of our shots from the field.   In the end we pulled back on the offense and moved into quarterfinals with a 39-6 win.

Minnetonka has 4 7th grade teams.  One plays A, one plays A & B, one B and one B/C.    It's clear they have a strong program to pull in enough players for 4 teams.  And we had to get through team #2 to get to championship.   Minnetonka dropped back into a match-up man-to-man zone; similar to what we run when we drop back inside the 3 point line on defense.   We couldn't penetrate their defense and had a problem stopping their outside shots.  At half time they held a 16-5 lead.   We adjusted with an "Attack and Back" offense that blended our zone offense with a spread set.   In doing so we opened the court to get some traction inside.   We played a tremendous 2nd half and unfortunately the clock was our enemy as we didn't have enough time to make up the difference and in having to stop the clock in the end we sent them to the free throw line where they made 4 of their last free throws.   As time ran out we were left with a 30-24 loss.

Our 3rd place game put us up against the same Minnetonka B team which we beat by one point in the Rogers tourney.   We just didn't play well in the beginning of the game.   We always seemed to be a half step behind on defense, committed way to many uncontested turn-overs, and could not stop them with our press.    Even with all of our problems, we held them to 14 points through the first 26 minutes of the game. 

Then the wheels came off in the last 2 minutes of the game.   Three turnovers UNDER their basket, several miss-placed passes, fouls that sent them to the line and we watched them score 12 points in the last 2 minutes of the game!!!   We ended up losing our chance for 3rd place with a 26-21 loss.

It's rather ironic.   Two years ago we would have been ecstatic about just winning a game.  Last year we would have been happy to score more than 20 points in any game.  This year I found myself disappointed when the girls finish 4th amongst 12 teams in a very tough tournament!

The girls are back to playing very good basketball.   We have some work to do to address a few small things that WILL lead to wins where we have seen losses these last couple of weeks. 

It was a heartbreaking last game, but overall it was a GREAT weekend of basketball by the girls!!!

PS:  Thank you to the Brainerd Coaches and Association for being such great tournament hosts!

STMA Tournament

5 Games - 4 wins - 154 points while only giving up 88!

Consolation Champions!

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The girls continued to improve their game with the STMA tournament.

We faced very good competition against Brainerd and Elk River along with games against several teams struggling to find their groove.

After having practice cancelled Friday night due to weather, we opened at 8 am against Zimmerman.   They were a very athletic team, but our trapping defense wore them down quickly and we ended up with our first of 3 running time games.

Next we faced Brainerd.   It was a classic game of two teams that match up well against each other.   The game went back and forth; with Brainerd taking a 6 point lead before we hit on a couple of 3-pointers to close it to several points.   We ended up losing the game to a very good competitor, but ended up again scoring over 30 points in our game.

The brackets put us early into Consolation contention and we would have to win 3 games to take home the medal.   We started our run against Buffalo; our third game of the day.   Even though the girls were starting to show fatigue, they played hard and we walked away with our second running time game.

Next up was Blaine's B team (the Blaine A team was in the other side of our 7B bracket).    We again found that 8 am games are no longer our bane and we wore down Blaine's short bench for our third running time game.

On to Consolation against Elk River.   Elk River surprisingly came out against us with a 1-3-1 zone defense.  Fortunately John had watched the end of ER's game against Zimmerman so we had some time to talk through how we were going to handle their zone between games; which came in handy when we saw their zone from the tip off through the end buzzer.  

We played fairly well and adjusted throughout the first half until we found a set that started working for us.   The second half their defense kept us from getting to the basket.  That along with missed shots and our poorest showing from the free throw line kept ER in the game.   The long weekend was showing up as we struggled to execute what the girls knew they had to do.   But a couple of steals and fast breaks built our lead at the end to 8 points and eventually a Consolation VICTORY!!!!

Considering the game schedule and competition, we were very proud of taking home Consolation.    4 big wins.   4 games scoring 30 points or more.   3 running time finishes.   And alot of confidence as we plan for Edina!

GREAT JOB!!!!

Rogers Tournament

2nd Place!!!

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An amazing weekend of basketball!

The competition was fierce .... all the big schools were there .... Chaska, Chanhassen, Eden Prairie, Minnetonka, Brainerd, Orono ..... and we kicked off the Rogers tournament with another 8 am game!

We opened with a very hard fought win against Minnetonka.   Minnetonka took advantage of several let downs by our defense and kept the game tight to the very end.  Our offense moved the ball well and drew several key fouls at the end to put us on the line.    Some confident shots from the charity line put us into the lead.  A final timeout by Minnetonka allowed us to put in our "tall team" which stymied a final drive by 'tonka as the clock ran out.    A 31-30 win and we moved into quarterfinals.

With our 3-0 record in 8 am games, we faced off against Brainerd Sunday morning.    Our goal was to limit their fast break transition game and limit their strongest player to 10 points or less.   We played amazing team defense and prevented a single fast break basket.   We ended up with a 27-21 win and it was on the the Championship game in the always challenging Rogers Tournament!!! (after another 8 am victory, I'm thinking we should play ALL of our games at 8 am! <G>)

We faced off against Orono in the Championship game.   We seemed to break our "2nd game" curse and played a tremendous game against a hot shooting Orono team.   We fell behind by 8 points, then fought back to close the gap to 3 towards the end of the game.   Again we were hitting our shots from the free throw line, but several other-wise easy shots from the field failed to drop through the hoop.   We ended up taking 2nd place after a very well played 38-31 loss.

Without a doubt, the girls played the best three games seen in 2+ years.    We put up fewer shots, yet still averaged 30 points per game.   This shows that we are taking smarter shots and scoring from the free throw line when we get the chance.   And our free throw shooting directly led to our two wins and kept us in the game against Orono when our accuracy from the field unexpectedly fell off. 

Who would have thought we would be taking home a 2nd place trophy at Rogers??????  

I think the girls always knew they could do it!

Jersey Numbers