Game Log 1/4/2008: Second verse, different gender

Tonight, it was a freshman girls blowout. 35 points or so, and never close--never close to close, in fact.

Partner was a longtime vet who got on my good side during our sideline pregame, saying "I need to force switches on fouls." Amen to that. We agreed that not switching takes us out of our game.

Very little to remark on in this one. We figured out the skill level for these girls, which was low, and let a few travels, etc. go, especially in the second half. These girls need to learn how to play basketball, and they won't do that if we blow every possession dead.

That said, there are a few things that we can teach them by calling them consistently. I called about a half-dozen three-second violations, mostly on the losing team. The players either didn't know the rule or didn't understand it, and the coach patiently explained after each whistle: "Katie, do you understand what happened there?" Nice. The same on two moving screens...pushes. "Do you know why he called that, Janet?" In the fourth quarter, I heard the coach saying: "We need to get our goals for this quarter." That's awesome...this team probably won't win any games this year, so it's nice that he's found smaller benchmarks to show their improvement.

I don't know what they're paying this guy, but it's not enough.

GOOD: Call selection suited to purpose
WORK ON: Stay alert late in game. Get in shape.
NEXT: More freshmen! (In fact, right now that's all that's on my schedule.) Tuesday night.