EYBL basketball dynasty

[hoopsguy]

No, this is not an online league. File this under real-life dynasties, as my daughter will be playing up a year on an U15 EYBL team this spring and summer. Pretty excited for her, so thinking of chronicling some of the journey here. With COVID protocols in place, it has been impossible to see practices but the first spring tournament will take place in about ten days. So I'll be trying to get more familiar with the roster, the competition, and to share some of my thoughts watching AP (will use initials for the girls, with expectation that this will not give away too much personal info) try to hold her own against older kids.

[Young Drachma]

Nice!

[hoopsguy]

First spring tournament is coming up in Chicago-land area on 4/17 - 4/18. More to come in that in later posts

Most of the girls on AP's team were starters on varsity programs during their freshman year, with the most accomplished ones showing up as 2nd team / honorable mention on conference teams. I believe all of them have Twitter accounts at this point, which is where I've gathered some of the information. So, in a vacuum, that could be a little daunting for an 8th grader.

AP played a couple of winter tournaments with what I'll call a representative group of these girls. I'm using that phrase because those were more or less "games of opportunity" out of state while the high school season was on hold in Illinois. So when we travelled to Iowa and Indiana for games, it was literally 80%+ Illinois teams because the local kids were playing high school games. Also, given that there were no deposits to secure the spots on the team, the kids were more or less free agents. So some families got a chance to assess our roster, look around at other programs, and potential choose other options. While there is only one IL team in the EYBL, there are other highly competitive leagues. Historically the very high profile EYBL teams are the 16U and 17U teams ... 15U is not exactly an after-thought, but the perceived gaps between EYBL teams and other high-level traveling squads are not as great. Point is, I'm guessing we'll see mostly the same group, but maybe 2-3 new faces as a by-product of that unusual off-season.

Anyway, tangent aside, AP was able to hold her own playing with older girls at a higher level in the winter tournaments. Considering that she had only played at her age group with her old club team, this was a concern. Before making the move, we had discussions about playing time and about long-term goals ... we did not want her to be miserable if her playing time was a fraction of what she had become accustomed to. And while the first weekend of games felt more like an "even playing time" approach up and down the roster, the next two tournaments were more serious and roles started to emerge.

AP is about 5'6", pretty muscular and uncommonly athletic. She has real short-term burst and a good vertical. At age twelve she measured nearly 20" for her vertical and had the top score on broad jump. She makes the "oooh" plays and I do not think that is just my dad goggles kicking in for that observation. On her junior high school team and other travel teams, she played wherever she was most needed - press-breaker, post-up player, drive-and-kick, eraser near the basket. On this team, that role had shifted to defensive swiss army knife, taking on individual assignments and help roles with aplomb. As her dad, I would love to see her get more point guard reps because she is a good passer and normally an excellent ball-handler, particularly in open court. But on this team, she is often playing more of a 3D forward role, running good pick-and-roll actions and letting teammates who need shots to get going have their chances. She was getting good minutes and part of the closing lineups in tight games. The coaches love her effort level and work ethic. So that is the initial scouting report and the EYBL winter recap, which takes us through January 2021.

[rjolley]

Congrats to AP! EYBL is a great circuit. Keep us abreast of how she's doing.

[hoopsguy]

Thanks, rjolley! We're definitely excited about it!

Also, on a semi-related note, just saw Facebook memories of AP's first travel game two years ago today. She came off the bench for that team, after being on spring break the week prior. Was convinced that coach did not like her ... by the end of that weekend, that was no longer a concern. She started the rest of the season. I can definitely see glimpses in that video of the player that she has become, but it is odd seeing the level of physical development from all those kids over two years time. Everyone is so much taller!

[hoopsguy]

That spring season two years ago was unfortunately the only time that AP was able to suit up with her prior travel team. At the time, AP was also playing for a very competitive soccer team and that was the priority sport. We opted to stay with her feeder team (and junior HS team) in the winter of 2019 and were very much looking forward to playing spring travel 2021. At that point, AP was still playing soccer but we had shifted to basketball as the primary sport. But then the pandemic hit, and there was no season.

Last summer, AP decided that she was all-in on basketball. She attended every camp that she could find. She played fall basketball with her old program and had signed up for winter basketball as well. But there were no competitions at any of these, and we had seen on Twitter that the EYBL team was having open gyms ... probably around Sept / Oct 2020 when AP joined those.

Long story short, they offered her a chance to play with their U15 team. Suggested that she was very competitive in the open runs (she attended 3, I was not allowed in to see any of them) both with kids her age and all the way up to the U17 kids. Couple that fearlessness with her athleticism, and they were intrigued in what she might bring even though her jump shot lagged behind most of the teammates. I had wanted AP to attend those sessions to get used to playing with older, stronger kids. She has hopes of starting on her varsity program as a freshman, and that is going to require beating out a lot of upper-classmen, so that learning curve needed to start earlier than 9th grade. Missing seasons due to a pandemic was not helping the cause, so those open gyms were a small step towards finding her level.

Those open gyms also led her to depart a program that was quite good, was five minutes away from our house, and where many of her friends played. It led to some discussions on what she wanted out of basketball, and if she was willing to find her own path, face adversity, etc sooner than what any of us expected. I'm proud of her willingness to dare greatly; that is not easy to do at any age, let alone at 13.

[rjolley]

A shot can be developed with enough practice, especially at her age. Experience with older/better players can teach her how to play when she faces those kind of players. The skills you can't teach, athleticism, hustle, desire to work hard and get better, confidence, etc, would be among my reasons for bringing up a player to a higher age group. I've seen a number of players who dominated their age group but didn't do well when they moved up. They were above the players at their age, but didn't have what it takes to compete a step up.

Sounds like AP could have that ability to play up. Hope she continues to work through the issues she will face as well as improving her skillset.

[hoopsguy]

rjolley - sounds like you're advocating for the same things that her new coach identified. Those themes came up in our phone conversation following the offer.

In terms of her shot, it has improved a ton over the last two years. My understanding is that her form is pretty clean; just needs consistent reps to continue accelerating that growth. AP and I have talked about how it has been easier to score off her drive, movement without the ball, or post up and that some of those things will likely be taken away from her by bigger / older / better players. So we're trying to develop her confidence and validate that her in-game form when guarded mirrors what she does during private lessons, time on shooting machines, or just putting up jumpers in our driveway.

[Breeze]

looking forward to following along...

[rjolley]

Learning to get her shot off against older/better players is going to be something that will be invaluable to her as she progresses. There will often be someone who is bigger or better as she goes through her career. Putting in the work during practice and training and getting a lot of experience in that situation does help players not shy away from those moments.

As she goes through the rough patches, AP should remember: Shots may or may not fall, but hustle and sound defense should always play. Coaches always need players that get to lose balls, play defense without fouling, and can cause havoc for the other team. And you'd be surprised how playing well on defense keeps your energy up on the offensive end and helps you out of slumps.

[hoopsguy]

I mentioned that there were three tournaments with the EYBL team over December and January. AP also got some run in with a few kids from her now-past travelling team. That past program was still shut down over the winter season, but one of the father's told his daughter to handpick some kids and he would coach them in "One Day Shootouts" (OTS) in neighboring states. He was also able to secure some gym time at a nearby high school one night a week. So AP was still playing basketball a couple of days a week in February, this time against girls her own age. And she was a force, but the basketball definitely felt messy compared to what we were starting to get accustomed to with the EYBL kids. AP had already picked up some help line concepts, and you could just see the difference between her and the other kids in terms of guarding the ball. And the passing was noticeably worse. So. Many. Turnovers. But AP also got to play with a group of friends in games one last time, which was great. Right up until the part where she got hurt ...

AP has complained about minor aches from time to time, but nothing had ever carried over over weeks. That included a few scares on the court where I thought she was definitely injured and going to miss large chunks of time. This injury happened while annihilating probably the worst team that we played in the OTS. It was basically a lay-up line; their transition defense was atrocious. Except for the time that someone basically cross-checked AP late in the 2nd half with their team down 25. AP had been the passer rather than the finisher on most of the fast breaks, so I have zero reason to think it was personal. But she went down hard, picked herself up, and finished that game. Then played through a very physical game against a familiar foe in the 2nd game of the day.

Coming out of that weekend, she complained of hip pain at practice. And we saw it again at the tournament where she would attack the basket in open-court, land funny coming off contact with the defender, and grab her hip. The coaches pulled her, and we saw a trainer in advance of the following week ... the only "overnight" trip for a two-day tournament. AP was under orders to closely monitor the condition. I was unable to attend that weekend, which ate me up even before watching the videos.

First game, she is moving pretty well on defense, she is challenging shots, she is taking jumpers, all looks fine. Until she gets out on the break, lifts for a contested layup, and lands grabbing her hip. She is ready to get pulled, but on defense she forces a turnover and takes off again ... and the same thing happens, but this time a foul is called and AP is down.

Sits the remainder of game (they won), sits the 2nd game (they get creamed), tries to play again in 3rd game but is shut down with more pain pretty fast. And is in dress clothes for the final game.

So doctors appointment follows, and she was diagnosed with an apophyseal fracture iliac crest. Basically, muscle pulled off bone, likely owing to a combination of not being fully developed and some overuse. PT for five weeks, two days a week to help strengthen all the muscle groups around the one that is causing the pain.

So that was March, and really the first week of April. Last Wednesday night was AP's first night of practice where she wasn't operating under restrictions and tonight will be her first where they are running half/full court. I'm anxious on her behalf right now, waiting to talk to her at 10PM when they break and see how she made out.

[rjolley]

Glad she's recovered and is able to get back on the court. Hopefully, she's able to fully trust her hip so that she's not thinking about it. That can cause more problems in effort and performance and can lead to more injuries.

Thankfully, i didn't have big injuries during my playing days, but when i did have one that kept me out for a short time, I found that it took a bit to get beyond the pain in my mind. It's hard to say where that line is between playing through pain and overdoing it, but there will be some playing through it. She's young, so taking some time to let her developing body heal may make more sense than her pushing through it. Hope it works out for you all.

[hoopsguy]

In terms of recovery, all the credit in the world to the PT folks over the last five weeks. But I think something at our last visit has helped with the "headspace" issue.

hoopsguy - "So, we got my daughter a trampoline for Christmas. Did not want to set it up while going through rehab, but do you think that presents a risk if she bounces on it starting this weekend?"

PT - "nope, she should be fine"

Next day, AP is doing backflips on it. The following Wednesday was her first day doing any running / cutting in practice, and was full bore this weekend. Now asking me to take her to shooting machine tomorrow night, is out in the garage working on dribbling drills ...

I really think that she built up her confidence quickly on the trampoline, even though it is different muscle groups. But knowing she could do something athletic more or less unlocked her willingness to try more in practice in ways that I did not pick up from her just days earlier.

[rjolley]

Exactly! Great news. Glad to hear she's back to being herself.

[hoopsguy]

So I had mentioned earlier that AP left another travel program to join the EYBL club. It just so happens that we're going to see that group in our first spring tournament this coming weekend. We'll be heading up to Milwaukee for a US Jr Nationals tournament.

Upcoming competition:
Saturday morning: IL Rockets. Based out of Naperville, this is a team that AP has seen a bunch of times, although I'm working with the assumption that it has been primarily U14 kids in the past. They generally play D, have not had gifted playmakers, and at the U14 level they mug AP as part of their rock-fight strategy to win games 30-28 (narrator - they usually lose rock fights against AP teas). The Rockets play in the BlueStar league.

Saturday afternoon: IL Hoop Dreams is not a program I'm familiar with, although they are based out of Elgin. A look at their Twitter feed reveal a couple of names at the U17 team that I recognize, but no insight at all into who we might see at U15. Not ready to go deep diving into US Jr Nationals websites for their results.

Sunday morning: AP's old program, M14. She knows some of the U15 kids, but not all of them. She did have an opportunity to guest play with that group two seasons ago, and recognizes a couple of kids from her school, but not as familiar with this group as I would have expected. Also compete in the BlueStar circuit. This game is circled for AP, for obvious reasons.

4th game will be determined by results from the first three. I know that this is a new group of girls, in terms of playing together, but I'll be a bit disappointed if we're not 3-0 heading into the cross-pool game Sunday afternoon. I suspect the competition is going to be jumping up several levels next weekend, so hopefully the girls can find some early success locally.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by hoopsguy

My understanding is that her form is pretty clean; just needs consistent reps to continue accelerating that growth.

Reminds me of a kid back in my old hometown - son of an old schoolmate - who turned himself into the school's 4th ever 1,000 point scorer.

How does an undersized relatively slow kid with no really striking athletic feature do that? Repetition and dedication best I can figure.

He should have been born in 1950s Indiana sort of dedication. In the gym shooting before daylight year round kind of dedication.

He turned that into NAIA offers and, most importantly to him I believe, a chance to continue playing for another four years.

I'm not saying that's the path for your daughter, sounds like she has other stuff in her toolbox, but "consistent reps" should not be undervalued.

[Young Drachma]

Enjoying following along, half makes me wanna dynasty the HS tennis season I'm coaching lol.

[rjolley]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Reminds me of a kid back in my old hometown - son of an old schoolmate - who turned himself into the school's 4th ever 1,000 point scorer.

How does an undersized relatively slow kid with no really striking athletic feature do that? Repetition and dedication best I can figure.

He should have been born in 1950s Indiana sort of dedication. In the gym shooting before daylight year round kind of dedication.

He turned that into NAIA offers and, most importantly to him I believe, a chance to continue playing for another four years.

I'm not saying that's the path for your daughter, sounds like she has other stuff in her toolbox, but "consistent reps" should not be undervalued.

Very true, Jon. Most kids don't understand the work that needs to be put in to fully utilize their abilities. The sooner they learn, the better player they become. Have to be sure to balance that out with school and a social life, but a couple of hours a day of focused training can do wonders for your skillset.

[hoopsguy]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Reminds me of a kid back in my old hometown - son of an old schoolmate - who turned himself into the school's 4th ever 1,000 point scorer.

How does an undersized relatively slow kid with no really striking athletic feature do that? Repetition and dedication best I can figure.

He should have been born in 1950s Indiana sort of dedication. In the gym shooting before daylight year round kind of dedication.

He turned that into NAIA offers and, most importantly to him I believe, a chance to continue playing for another four years.

I'm not saying that's the path for your daughter, sounds like she has other stuff in her toolbox, but "consistent reps" should not be undervalued.

Yep, although my expectation is that we may be approaching a point in her development where many (if not most) of the kids are passionate enough to put work into their craft.

For our Friday night session, I had a couple of pretty simple additions to her usual shooting. First one was putting her on the foul line after she had worked up a lather, then told her she had to hit four straight before she could leave the foul line. It took a little while - the rims are really tight, so more or less have to swish them - but she definitely was more locked in on her form and that showed up in today's game. Second was to work on floaters a little bit. She tried one in a game this afternoon, and told me afterward that she will be ready to work harder with me on that shot as it was there for the taking in both games.

[hoopsguy]

Last night introduced me to Hudl and starting to splice together highlight packages. Have a feeling I'll be spending a lot of time with this over the next couple of years.

[hoopsguy]

Upcoming competition:
Saturday morning: IL Rockets. Based out of Naperville, this is a team that AP has seen a bunch of times, although I'm working with the assumption that it has been primarily U14 kids in the past. They generally play D, have not had gifted playmakers, and at the U14 level they mug AP as part of their rock-fight strategy to win games 30-28 (narrator - they usually lose rock fights against AP teas). The Rockets play in the BlueStar league.

This was not a rock fight. And although the team was wearing Rockets uniforms, it was not a traditional Rockets team either from what I was told during the game. I was working the scoring table for this one, so chatted with a Rockets parent. Basically, all nine of their freshmen came from another program that shuttered over the pandemic and they added the best 8th grader in the Rockets system. AP has competed against that 8th grader a few times but she never looked better than she did in this game surrounded by a team that really shot the ball well. They hit 8 three pointers in the first half, building out a nine point lead that they never surrendered, defeating AP's team 51-46.

AP got very limited minutes in this game, and she was really effective in those minutes. She is one of the fastest players on the team and also among the most active defenders. If the plan was to stop teams from burying threes (it was in the 2nd half, I was able to overhear the halftime talk) then she should have played more. But one of the coaches shared after the game that it was pre-determined that AP was not going to play much coming back from an injury, missing a couple of weeks of practice, etc.

Our team has some terrific size. The biggest girl is about 6'5, and we've got another pair of six footers. But our lineups with two bigs did not defend well in this game, and they did not create enough mismatches on the glass or in the post to offset the shooting barrage in the first half. In the second half, the 3s stopped falling but there were too many turnovers.

Towards the end of the game, AP had a cut to the basket and her teammate found her for a layup to cut the score to 49-46 with just over a minute to go. AP got a steal on the inbounds and passed to a wide open teammate two feet from the rim. Bricked layup. And we never got another point. That was the one that stuck with AP after the game ... she felt like the game was there for the taking at the end.

AP finished with 8 points, all from inside ten feet. She moved well without the ball, shared the ball on the fast break and in half-court, was disruptive defensively, and hit her two foul shots. If she does that every game this summer, she will be helping her team a lot. If she does what she did on a projected minutes basis, she is going to have people taking notice.

I was just relieved to see her moving so well on the court. Absolutely no tentativeness, no favoring one side, no limits on what she could do. And no soreness afterwards. Frustrating to lose a game where I had expected a victory, but the opponent shot great and earned their win. Onwards.

[rjolley]

Glad to hear she played well coming back from injury. And nice to hear the coaches took that into account with respect to her playing time..

[hoopsguy]

Originally Posted by rjolley

Glad to hear she played well coming back from injury. And nice to hear the coaches took that into account with respect to her playing time..

Yep, between games the assistant coach called her up to share that she had played well, earned more PT in coming games, and that they were trying to make sure she was healthy. They have an eleven person roster, which is probably 1-2 more bodies to navigate than I would prefer, so I completely get that there are going to be unhappy folks every game. I'll reference PT anecdotally across the other three games, but short version is that this was not an issue for the remainder of the tournament.

Bummer is that I think - with full parent goggles in effect - that they could have won this game if AP had played more as part of a smaller lineup to guard the line better.

[rjolley]

Early in the season in a local tourney, the coach is probably trying to get a feel for how certain players react in that type of situation and trying to get players experience in it. When the "bigger" games are played, I'd guess they'd shore up the rotation and have a group of closers.

[hoopsguy]

Saturday afternoon: IL Hoop Dreams is not a program I'm familiar with, although they are based out of Elgin. A look at their Twitter feed reveal a couple of names at the U17 team that I recognize, but no insight at all into who we might see at U15. Not ready to go deep diving into US Jr Nationals websites for their results.

So while I did not explicitly say this in the write-up, this was a game where I expected a double digit win. And we saw scores from the M-14 / Hoop Dream "battle" with a 35 point margin, so heading into this I was thinking not about the win but the final margin. If this was close, M-14 was going to give us the business.

No worries on that front. I was once again scoring the game, which largely prevented me from watching a very close M-14 / Rockets game on the adjacent court. But AP's team rolled to a 56-17 win. Pretty much everyone got healthy in this game after a frustrating earlier game. It sounds like Hoop Dreams was in similar boat to us with a bunch of players in their first tournament of the year, with a group that had not previously played together. But there was a talent gap, as Hoop Dreams lost every one of their games by 30+. Their head coach did them no favors having them in this bracket, considering that there were two good teams in the division below ours.

For AP, she again had 6-8 points and was lamenting an easy missed layup after the game. But there were a couple of pretty fun moments.
- matched up 1:1 with ball-handler about 2 feet beyond top of key, stripped the ball and went coast-to-coast for layup
- off a rebound, threw a bounce-back from her three point line to the opposite three point line, hitting a teammate in stride for a lay-up

I was pretty pumped about that assist. She makes a lot of simple passes in half court to create good shots, but also generates some highlights with outlet passes. This might have been her best one yet.

The assistant I mentioned earlier asked AP near the end of the game if she was OK coming out a little earlier so they could give some late run to another kid on the team. I've talked with AP about how starting does not matter that much in the overall scheme of things, particularly in these non-EYBL tournaments, but getting minutes late in close games is where you know that you've earned trust. We got affirmation on that front in our showdown with M-14 the following morning.

[hoopsguy]

Originally Posted by rjolley

Early in the season in a local tourney, the coach is probably trying to get a feel for how certain players react in that type of situation and trying to get players experience in it. When the "bigger" games are played, I'd guess they'd shore up the rotation and have a group of closers.

Funny stuff, I hit on that in the next post

And next weekend's games are bigger (EYBL, rather than local tourney), but the most important ones are not until July, based on my limited grasp of how this works.

[rjolley]

If by important you mean Peach Jam...then yes, though the league games are important to qualifying for and seeding at Peach Jam.

[hoopsguy]

Originally Posted by rjolley

If by important you mean Peach Jam...then yes, though the league games are important to qualifying for and seeding at Peach Jam.

I don't think there is a Peach Jam tournament on the girls side. There is a tournament of champions in Chicago on July 10-12 that I believe is the one where earlier results contribute to seeding. The tournament this weekend (Boo Williams) is one of four other EYBL tournaments on the schedule. And there is one 15U only EYBL tournament that is new this year; previously, the 15U accompanied the 16U and 17U teams, but that division was not recognized as an EYBL, per se. Again, new to me so may not be explaining perfectly.

[rjolley]

My mistake. I thought for sure I read there was both a boys and girls side for Peach Jam.

Boo Williams is this weekend? Very nice. Tons of talent at that tourney.

[hoopsguy]

Jumping around a little bit here, as I still have not posted the recaps from last Sunday's games, but pool play schedules released for the Boo Williams tournament. We need to finish in top two of our group of four to earn championship bracket status.
- Tennessee Flight (Friday 9:30 EDT)
- Michigan Crossover (Saturday 8:00 EDT)
- Fairfax Stars - Wooden (Saturday 11:00 EDT)

[hoopsguy]

Originally Posted by hoopsguy

Jumping around a little bit here, as I still have not posted the recaps from last Sunday's games, but pool play schedules released for the Boo Williams tournament. We need to finish in top two of our group of four to earn championship bracket status.
- Tennessee Flight (Friday 9:30 EDT)
- Michigan Crossover (Saturday 8:00 EDT)
- Fairfax Stars - Wooden (Saturday 11:00 EDT)

Looks like they completely rebooted our pool / schedule 24 hours later. Now as follows:
- Alabama Southern Stars (Friday 12:30 EDT)
- Fairfax Stars - Randolph (Friday 6:30 EDT)
- All Iowa Attack (Saturday 11:00 EDT)

[hoopsguy]

So I've got some catching up to do on game posts coming out of the Boo Williams this weekend. I'll just tease that content with three notes:
- we played more than 3 games
- we played the home team (Boo Williams)
- we played the champs of 15u

[rjolley]

Originally Posted by hoopsguy

So I've got some catching up to do on game posts coming out of the Boo Williams this weekend. I'll just tease that content with three notes:
- we played more than 3 games
- we played the home team (Boo Williams)
- we played the champs of 15u

What was the talent level like at the tourney? I noticed there are 2 Boo Williams tourneys and I can't remember if we did the one in April or in May a few years ago.

Were you able to catch any of the other age divisions or the boys games?

[hoopsguy]

Originally Posted by rjolley

What was the talent level like at the tourney? I noticed there are 2 Boo Williams tourneys and I can't remember if we did the one in April or in May a few years ago.

Were you able to catch any of the other age divisions or the boys games?

Boys was not running this same weekend.

It was very challenging to see other games, even our own club teams, due to COVID protocols. They were rotating everyone out of the gym after every game to do some kind of a "deep clean" between games. Ticket allocations were heavily limited, seats were spaced out (but not enforced) and there were few chairs provided.

For girls, it featured 32 EYBL teams in each of the divisions. There are a lot of regional EYBL tournaments - the rest of our schedule will be these, more or less. But this one had all the teams. I would have loved the opportunity to see a lot more basketball as a fan, and I expect I will at the Tournament of Champions in July when I've gotten doubled-vacc'd and I'm hopeful protocols will be a little less onerous than they were this weekend.

AP was excited to learn that Overtime was in the main gym (15U was in convention center, until final game) and to see Shaq's daughter warming up. So that was about the extent of exposure we had outside of our games.

[rjolley]

Unfortunate that you weren't able to due to protocols, but understandable.

Looking forward to the write up for how the tourney went.

[hoopsguy]

For the M-14 game, we knew we needed to beat the to win our division. And likely do so by more than a bucket or two if we wanted to win a "point margin" tie-breaker with them + Rockets. Add in that M-14 is AP's old club, and that she would be competing against a future high school teammate (who was also coming off an injury) and she was very excited for this game.

My scouting report on M-14 = stop the Lexis. There are three of them: LC, LD, and LS. Each of them were starters for their high school teams this year, and AP has attended private coaching sessions with at least two of them. LS was the one that I expected to have the most impact based on previous viewings, but that did not end up being the case. In fact, we more or less negated two of them ...

Early on, they were determined to take our "big" outside, as the opposing center took (and made) early three pointers. But we were also effective inside. AP got limited minutes as we fell behind early, adding a steal and a leaner in the lane. But M-14 was getting to the foul line and making shots, building a 15-11 lead. At this point, they were 4-4 on free throws and we were 0-2. These trends continued throughout.

At that point, AP came on with what I would consider to be one of the club's most effective lineups. Two bigs, the most natural PG, and a stud shooter alongside AP. And they cut the deficit to one before our future HS teammate hit a corner three for M-14. Ugh. Also worth noting that AP got blocked into next week on an attempted put-back. That does not happen often, but she never saw that kid coming. But AP recovered with a big-time rebound and put-back, cutting the deficit to two. The next trip down she took it to the hole, got fouled, but somehow that was whistled as on the floor rather than shooting. Baffling. We were down 25-23 at the break.

Video on this game is challenging; small gym, only got half the court. So missed all of APs defense in first half and offense in 2nd half, forcing me to rely on memory a bunch. And not all of these are good memories.

We got the first bucket of the second half, our big getting any easy one inside. Our two big lineup was working better than against the Rockets, with the 6' showing more mobility and put-backs, while the taller one more or less shot over people. AP had a post feed where we drew a foul, then proceeded to miss two more free throws. 1-6 on the game at that point, missing a chance for our first lead of the game. Follow that with a baffling travelling call as our player tried to corral a rebound, and an M-14 three on the ensuing inbounds, and it felt like an opportunity had been squandered.

Another three from AP's schoolmate and M-14 was back down 5. I knew she had been working on her three pointer, but I did not realize that was more or less her role on this team. Kudos for her work on this, but the last time I had seen her she was a more versatile offensive player. I suspect some of that was rust coming off the injury, but it may also be what she needs to do to get touches with that group. Two more M-14 buckets in transition and all of a sudden we were down 37-28.

We had cut it back to 5 when AP got a nice board, but got picked as she turned to move the ball up. This is one of her better attributes, most of the time ... she can advance the ball, get us into transition, and make good decisions on drive vs dish after crossing half court. But another not great moment this time. AP insists she was fouled on this one, and video replays show her ditching her mask as it was ripped in the process.

She bounced back with a steal immediately, and her best defensive sequence of the weekend. I counted four different "shows" that either deterred would-be shots or impacted the eventual three point attempt, but she was all over the place defensively here. This is something that is unique to AP on this team. There is one other kid that is as fast as AP, but none of them are as relentless rotating between help defense inside and flying out to challenge three point shots. Really love watching her engaged like that, even if it is not the type of thing that ends up on highlight videos. Still down 5, time starting to become a factor.

Back to back buckets for the team on offense, and we've got a three point game with about 2.5 minutes to go. AP has been on the court for something like seven straight minutes, as has most of this smaller lineup. The defense has been a big factor in the comeback, but I suspect these kids were getting winded.

Another M-14 turnover, and we get fouled on the other end. Secondary ball-handler, good shooter at the line. 1-2. Another steal for AP on a lazy outlet pass, and we're in position to take a lead. Bucket, tie game! About 90 seconds to play (clock and scoreboard now obscured from video feed). Another stop, then AP gets an assist on a triple and the crowd is LOUD in this small gym.

AP gets called for a shooting foul next trip down. She has been shadowing their "most effective Lexi" pretty heavily, but this time she conceded too much driving lane and that kid put the ball on the floor to her left effectively. Credit AP with building a pretty strong scouting report over the last 30 minutes; that is exactly what I would have wanted her to concede. But that kid is also automatic at the foul line ... except here, where she misses the 2nd.

Bad turnover against half-hearted M-14 press. Sigh.
Gave up offensive board on ball that three kids had a hand on. Deep breathes.
And then "effective Lexi" hits a 22' where AP left her a little too open. She is definitely not used to see kids hit from that far back, and that space mattered on the close-out. M-14 back up again, time running out. Absolute dagger, and conceding that shot was not part of the scouting report

On offense, AP catches the ball deep in the post but with a lot of traffic. Turnover on a play where she tried to pass out, missing a back-cutter who would have gotten a very open look.

We deflect one in the backcourt, thinking that we've got a ten second call, but the ref whistles AP for a foul when both kids are diving after a ball. Tough, tough, tough call in that spot. Worse yet, that sends Lexi to the foul line to bury a pair of free throws. Now down two scores with about 40 seconds to play.

Another turnover, more foul shots, and that is all she wrote. 51-44 loss. AP took this one hard, blaming herself for the loss. It was definitely not her best close of a game, and I think she let the moment get to her a bit ... something that she has historically been immune to over the past couple of years. But hopefully fuel for her this summer when she sees these kids at private lessons and next year at high school. That team has been playing together for three years, while our group is generously at three months. I like our talent for a rematch later this summer, but that doesn't make this loss feel any better.

[hoopsguy]

And after the detailed write-up for the M-14 game, I'll give a very short one for the final game of the USJN regional tournament. We drew a Lady Lightning team that was not particularly good. We've seen a few different Lady Lightning iterations over the winter, and lost to one of them, but this was not that team. This was a rout, 61-18 in a game that was not competitive at any point in time.

Many of AP's former M-14 teammates came to see her play in this one, as they had just concluded their last game right before tip-off. We definitely enjoyed seeing a lot of friends at this event, and it was terrific for AP to have a vocal cheering section for the first half of this game. Nothing really of note here ... couple steals, boards, layups but it all felt anti-climactic.

So, a 2-2 record with close losses and blowout wins. I definitely did not see this as much of a confidence builder for the upcoming Boo Williams tournament. Knowing that we were going to be playing national teams, who had likely been together longer than us and probably not had their seasons upended quite as much as Illinois by pandemic protocols, I figured we would play our three pool games and be sent home. I'm thrilled to report that was not the outcome, and I do think the close losses in this weekend helped at Boo Williams.