The Week That Was #2

#7 posting 12.2.2006
your daily dose of girls basketball news & information

THE WEEK THAT WAS #2

13 games, 6 days. That was the ride last week capped by the Rogers Breakdown Tip Off. So far I have only seen one duplicate: Hopkins. Everyone else was new this week. Some of the early season misadventures on offense are continuing. I witnessed 90 possessions with Park Center and Stillwater with balls going every which way. But for the most part 71 possessions is the average right now. PP100 average is 70.42 with a .345 floor %. Championship teams of course aspire higher.
Even though the offenses are slow starters, some defenses have been lock down already. Rogers and Hopkins frustrated two 2008 D1 Verbals: Rogers with Hannah Draxten of Fergus Falls (Iowa) and Brianna Mastey of Becker (Minnesota) by Hopkins.
Hopkins had a strong defensive effort against St. Paul Central in their first game with a 69.51 effort. It was much tougher against Becker with 47.37. Rogers held Fergus to 44.83. Minneapolis South held Fulda, the defending state A champ, to 48.57. Woodbury also held down Mpls Roosevelt to sub 50 pp100.
The floor % numbers also back this up. 18 of the 42 teams (43%) are either freezing or below (32.0 to 21.2%).
Offenses I am hoping will be able to heat up as the weather gets even colder.

Some teams and players don't seem to have had a problem so far with offense so far. And that leads us up to the Team of the Week.

I have told you before that team has to have the gold standard of one point per possession with the average possessions 71 right now and a floor % close to the magic .500 mark.

This week's TEAM OF THE WEEK is:
MINNEAPOLIS SOUTH
for its play against Fulda with 104.35 pp100 and .493 floor %. South executed and shot well against Fulda, who will be in the thick of things in the A championship hunt all year and two players that will be off to college to play ball: Kaitlyn Kramer to Dakota State and Laura Kramer to SW MN State. South's guard trio is among the finest in the state, if not the best. Quick, all can handle the ball, and have court sense. South earlier in the week beat Andover 77-41. They have weathered the loss of Kiswana McCloud in strong fashion. That leads us to the Player of the Week.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Many worthy candidates up in Rogers on Saturday, but for the total team impact, and of course results, the pick this week is
ALYSSA KAREL, Cretin-Derham Hall.
She had a 145.8 pp100 and .708 floor %. She scored 53% of her team's points, and delivered numerous assists, initiated the possession with her steals.
This weeks team is going to 15 players on three teams because of the amount of games seen and the outstanding performances. Of course the rules still apply. I have to have seen the player during the week. They had to have 10 possessions in the game. They should be above 100pp100 and .500 floor %. They were.
FIRST TEAM
Ashlynn Fuller, Champlin Park
Tayler Hill, Minneapolis South
Alyssa Karel, Cretin-Derham Hall
Anna Kovalchuk, DeLaSalle
Sari Noga, Parkers Prairie
SECOND TEAM
Brittany Drew, Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted
Cassie Rochel, Lakeville North
Caitlin Rowland, Hopkins
Jenny Theisen, Champlin Park
Taylor Young, Edina
THIRD TEAM
Tina Fisher, Park-Cottage Grove
Angie Gatz, Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted
Natalie Gigler, Champlin Park
Jenny Gilbertson, Winona Cotter
Katie Pettit, Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted
Best pp100: Tayler Hill, Mpls South 166.7
Best floor%: Sari Noga, Parkers Prairie .750
Again for those that have move than 10 possessions
Best #s under 10 possessions: Amanda Chesness, Rogers 200 pp100; .800 floor % in only five possessions. Chesness is a starter

THINGS THAT ANNOY ME
I could write on this a long time. There are many things about what I have seen out there that bug me, but weak, soft cream puff passes tops the list of things that make me puke. It mars my viewing of the game and it mars the beauty of the game. Is it great defense when some kid throws a lollipop that you can time with a calendar. I want snappy, zippy frozen ropes and guess what the teams that are Golden are the opens that move the ball with authority. Players are weak, but a coach only has so much time to practice.
THE CURE
Get an 8 pound medicine ball. Pass that around, snap and move. When I was coaching I had players line up at the baseline and free throw line and we would pass that ball. After a few minutes we would be snapping the ball on the frozen rope on skip passes. You don't have to be lifting weights and the kids can see the improvement when say "we are passing air".

Back in 1996, in the heart of January, when practicing we were focused on the state tournament and state championships and we would tell the Osseo kids that any time a jv player touches the ball that would be a turnover against a Miller Twin from Rochester Mayo. It helped our JV was pretty good that year. They were undefeated and they didn't let the varsity off easy at all.

Also we had rules like 1. you can't pass through a hand. and 2. pass to the same color you are wearing. I can't tell you how many times I have seen these rules violated this year.

THE WEEK AHEAD
Their won't be two game days again until later until tournament time at the end of the month.
It looks as if it will be five games in six days.

Next up: tomorrow morning