Game Log 12/17/2009: A hair off

Not much to complain about in this JV/Varsity girls' doubleheader, but I don't think it was one of my best nights, either.

The three of us were set to start the JV game when the Varsity coach came and said nobody was there for the C-team game upstairs. We tried to contact the assignor--no luck--so one of my partners went to do that game solo while the other partner and I did a 2-person JV game. I now do enough 3-person that it's weird to do 2-person, which is actually kind of nice. The JV game was completely, 100% without incident. We called a fair number of fouls early--as I recall, the foul count was out of whack--but it went just fine. My relatively-green partner was in my area once or twice, but no big whoop. The game was sort of endless--lots of whistles--so the partner who soloed upstairs wound up watching and waiting for us. But there was little to pass on.

The Varsity game was not a big problem either. The coach for Blue liked to chirp quite a bit. I had a pretty clear shooting foul against his girl early--full forearm on full forearm--that he wanted to talk about. He surprised me with his civility. "I can't even argue that. You saw what you saw. But I think you got it wrong." I smiled and said "I disagree, coach." Handled that okay. He did get louder when the foul count was strong against him, but I didn't see anything to call against White. It eventually evened up just of its own volition, but he was still barking a little. Nothing T-worthy, but enough that we discussed later on how we need to make sure he didn't get in our heads. Was he in my head? I think he was, just a little, but it didn't impact any of my calls.

I had two I'd like back. One was an OMG double-dribble that was in front of my partner as C (I was T). I thought he had it. I should have saved his butt, but I didn't. The other was a scramble for a loose ball. Blue landed on top of White, so I called Blue for the push. About two seconds too late, my mind reconstructed the play: Blue didn't land on top of White she pushed her; Blue landed on top of White because White was on the floor, where she tripped up Blue. Blocking foul on White. Barking coach had some things to say about that. Regrettably, I couldn't compose a good response on the spot, and I didn't want to burn my one "Gee, I screwed that one up" for the night just then...so I gave him the ignore.

The game itself was fairly slappy and sloppy, but we got through it. Our observer said we had a good game. He also said that my mechanics are as good as anyone's he's seen. WOW. I can't believe I've gone from "look bad, too loosey-goosey" to "one of the best I've seen" over one summer. I think I'd like a second opinion, to be honest. While I can handle a compliment, I'm just not sure I could have come this far this fast with no real practice. But still, it's nice to hear.

THINGS I DID WELL: Positioning, rotation
THINGS TO WORK ON: Brain freezes (double dribble and set up wrong on FTs twice), coach management a little better, perhaps
NEXT UP: Smallish schools on Tuesday night. Girls JV/Varsity again.