Misunderstanding

If anyone asks one of our players today if they are ready to play, the answer will almost certainly be "Yes!" Unfortunately, that's the wrong answer, or at least an answer out of context. Yes, I'm sure the girls are excited about playing. No, they are not ready. There's no way. From Day One of official practice, we have a limited number of sessions to do work on one or more of the following things: conditioning, ballhandling, passing and catching, shooting, rebounding, defensive work, footwork, installing offenses, installing defenses, transition game, out-of-bounds plays, presses, press breakers, and all the teaching that goes along with it.

To make it even more interesting, for one full week (of the three weeks we've been practicing), our leading scorer from last season has been touring college campuses around the Northeast with her junior class. So, we haven't been able to put anything new in this week. She gets back this afternoon and we play our opener tomorrow against Wayne. So...that might help you understand why I don't get too excited about the opening weeks of the season. We know what we're up against and we set a goal to get better every night through the season so we can be at our peak when the tournament rolls around. Winning and losing have much less significant ramifications in November than they do in February.

Of course, we're going to try to win, and I think we will win. But we're almost doing it with a handicap and that means we aren't going to be as sharp and prepared as one would like. Still, it's a great opportunity to find a way to win and trust me, finding ways to scratch out wins is an art and a necessary element to playing championship basketball. That's what we intend to do tomorrow and every time we take the floor -- find a way!

I'll let you know how it goes...