Game Log 1/29/2009: Movin' on up...

Top big school girls' against middle of road school girls. Top school was up by 10 out of the gate, middle school hung around between 5 and 8 in the second quarter, and top school blew it open in the third. Oh, and the JV game was barely memorable.

Partners and I worked well together and also didn't work well together. In the first half of the JV game, I really felt like we were on a string, rotating very nicely together. It got a little ragged as the players did, but hey, it was a fine 3-person rotation we had going.

However, in the Varsity game, there were times when I didn't feel like I was on the same page as what my partners were calling.

The first half, they called a few more than I do. Was I taking passes? Nothing too serious, I thought. Our assignor had watched the second quarter and gave us a quick halftime critique, saying that he felt like we weren't protecting the shooter too well. He did, however, say that I had a good and-one at the end of the half. But I can recall one or two light-contact shooting moments that I deemed not enough to call.

In the second half, my partners called quite a bit more than I did. Some of this was simply the luck of the draw...there was a long stretch where I was the C and all the action on both ends of the floor was very far away from me (may have even stretched to 4 or 5 minutes of play). I'm not going to reach to call anything in T or L's area, especially on a shot, unless I have a really, really good look (and I recall one of those, actually, that I took). But they kept calling loads of stuff. I only had a few.

I don't want to get overly worked up about this, but I'm noticing I've been calling a little less than partners have lately. Maybe my instinct to notcall stuff until I see a result isn't what's wanted in this association. And I want crew integrity. So I'll have to keep an eye on that.

Not a bad night, though. One of my partners put it well in the locker room after the game: "You know, I can't think of a single call I want back tonight. Not one "oh, man, why'd I blow that whistle?" And neither can I. I probably could have whistled one or two that I didn't, but it was a perfectly adequate evening.

Assignor said I'm rotating too late and too quickly (running rather than the preferred brisk walk). It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that these two criticisms are related...cause and effect (I go late, so I have to run). I'll solve the first (not waiting so long) and the second will follow.

THINGS I DID WELL: "Looked good after blowing the whistle," I'm told. Picked up rotations well as T and C.
THINGS TO WORK ON: Consider passing on fewer calls, especially on shooters; rotate earlier as Lead.
NEXT UP: Massive blowout JV/Varsity game on Monday night. (First time the teams met, one team scored over 11 times what the other team scored.)