Tough loss on the road last night to a very good Princeton team. One of our biggest keys we talked about was rebounding, and we were hammered on the boards in the second half last night. Princeton outrebounded us 44-26 including 20-6 on the offensive boards. It's very tough to win close games with that kind of a discrepancy on the boards.
Another frustrating thing in the second half was the number of times we forced Princeton into a turnover, and then gave it right back before ever getting a shot off. Right now we are playing a lot of inexperienced players and we just have to learn how to win games against good teams. We have to understand how important every play is and how it affects the outcome of the game.
Jake Junis was phenomenal last night, scoring 39 points on just 18 shot attempts. He was 9-11 from 3 point range, many of those coming well beyond the arc. Jake surpassed the 1,000 career point mark. He needed 21 for the game. He had 26 in the first half!
Princeton had all 5 starters in double figures. That's the type of balance that I think we are capable of when we get healthy and back to full strength. The guys are still playing hard and that is a positive. I thought we had several trips on the defensive end though where one guy would take that play off or not box out, and against a good team it showed! Again, we have to learn from it and understand we cannot take plays off!
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Friday, December 11, 2009
Coaches Corner: Ottawa 48 Rock Falls 40
Right now we are really struggling to shoot the ball well. Against Ottawa, we also turned the ball over 17 times which is just way too many turnovers when you are struggling to score as it is. We are experiencing some growing pains with the new offense. We have given the kids a lot of freedom with this offense, but we have to show more discipline and understand who we are right now. We are really an average team offensively right now and we cannot keep giving possessions away with turnovers and poor shot selection.
On the other hand, Ottawa is one of the better defensive teams we will see all year. They just flat out get after it on the defensive end. I think our kids have done some very good things on the defensive end as well and that continues to carry us early in the season. Shay Brown had 7 steals against Ottawa. We held Ottawa to 33% from the field, but they outscored us at the FT line 15-5. Dylan Austin led us with 15 points and Matt Lauts led with 7 rebounds. We have to do a better job of freeing Jake Junis up for some higher percentage shots when teams are keying on him like Ottawa did. Hopefully we take away the lesson that every possession is important on the offensive end, that there will be nights where you shoot poorly and you have to find ways to win those games! We have to work for some more easy baskets and get to the FT line even more on those nights when shots are not falling. We attempted only 8 FT's for the game.
On the other hand, Ottawa is one of the better defensive teams we will see all year. They just flat out get after it on the defensive end. I think our kids have done some very good things on the defensive end as well and that continues to carry us early in the season. Shay Brown had 7 steals against Ottawa. We held Ottawa to 33% from the field, but they outscored us at the FT line 15-5. Dylan Austin led us with 15 points and Matt Lauts led with 7 rebounds. We have to do a better job of freeing Jake Junis up for some higher percentage shots when teams are keying on him like Ottawa did. Hopefully we take away the lesson that every possession is important on the offensive end, that there will be nights where you shoot poorly and you have to find ways to win those games! We have to work for some more easy baskets and get to the FT line even more on those nights when shots are not falling. We attempted only 8 FT's for the game.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Coaches' Corner: Rock Falls 61 Hall 51
Seems like we did just enough to get by last night. For the first time this year we did get the ball in the lane on over 85% of our possessions which was the bright spot. Way too many turnovers on offense though. We did not shoot a FT in the first half which is just unacceptable. One of our team goals is to make more than they attempt from the FT line. We ended up accomplishing that, but I thought we could have really pounded it in the lane more in the first half. We scored 41 points in the second half once we made the attempt to pound it inside. Our break has to get better as well to start creating more easy baskets.
Defensively we were bad last night. I think our defense had been our strength going into last night. For whatever reason we did not pressure the ball or closeout well last night. When we did pressure we gave up easy drives to the rim. We didn't adjust to the officials very well either when they started calling hand checks and reaches pretty consistently. We cannot have guys committing their 3rd or 4th fouls reaching in either. No one rotated to take charges last night. I thought we had 5 good chances.
Yes a win is a win, just not sure we improved at all last night and I hate wasting chances to get better. We will have to be better tonight against Ottawa who is always very strong defensively!
Jake Junis led us with 21 points and 7 rebounds. Matt Lauts and Brett Chappell also scored in double figures. Dylan Austin finished with 5 assists for us. Andrew Cain gave us a nice lift off the bench in the first half with 3 rebounds and an assist.
Defensively we were bad last night. I think our defense had been our strength going into last night. For whatever reason we did not pressure the ball or closeout well last night. When we did pressure we gave up easy drives to the rim. We didn't adjust to the officials very well either when they started calling hand checks and reaches pretty consistently. We cannot have guys committing their 3rd or 4th fouls reaching in either. No one rotated to take charges last night. I thought we had 5 good chances.
Yes a win is a win, just not sure we improved at all last night and I hate wasting chances to get better. We will have to be better tonight against Ottawa who is always very strong defensively!
Jake Junis led us with 21 points and 7 rebounds. Matt Lauts and Brett Chappell also scored in double figures. Dylan Austin finished with 5 assists for us. Andrew Cain gave us a nice lift off the bench in the first half with 3 rebounds and an assist.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Player Performance Ratings
One tool that the coaching staff uses to evaluate players after every game is a player performance rating. Each stat that we keep is assigned a positive or negative point value. Here are a list of the stats we keep and how we assign points:
2 PT FG Made= +2
2 PT FG Missed= -2
3 PT FG Made= +3
3 PT FG Missed= -2
FT Made= +1
FT Missed= -2
Fouls= -1
Turnovers= -2
Offensive Rebounds= +2
Defensive Rebounds= +1
Assists= +2
Steals= +2
Charges Taken= +5
Blocked Shot= +1
FT Assist (any pass that would have been an assist if the payer had not gotten fouled and missed the shot attempt-these do not count on assist records but we do like to reward them with performance points)= +2
Our highest overall team rating so far this season was against Newman on Tuesday night with a +70. Our low was a -24 against Dixon on Friday night. Shay Brown has the highest individual game rating thus far with a +25 against Morrison. A big chunk of that was the 16 rebounds he pulled down that night. Overall, Shay also leads us on the season with +73. Jake Junis is second with a +57.
We don't generally compare post players' scores with perimeter players' scores. We generally feel post players should have higher scores due to taking higher percentage shots, being in a position to grab more rebounds, and not turning the ball over as much as a guard might. The biggest reason for the ratings is to take the emphasis off of the need to score points in order to contribute. It also emphasizes the fact that scoring points alone is not enough. We try to use the ratings to encourage our players to become more complete players and not just one dimensional. The ratings do not cover things on defense such as boxouts, closeouts (contesting shots), pressuring the ball, etc. So they're not perfect and are not a total measure of how a player performed on any given night. However, it has really helped to give more meaning to the stats we keep and emphasize to our players.
2 PT FG Made= +2
2 PT FG Missed= -2
3 PT FG Made= +3
3 PT FG Missed= -2
FT Made= +1
FT Missed= -2
Fouls= -1
Turnovers= -2
Offensive Rebounds= +2
Defensive Rebounds= +1
Assists= +2
Steals= +2
Charges Taken= +5
Blocked Shot= +1
FT Assist (any pass that would have been an assist if the payer had not gotten fouled and missed the shot attempt-these do not count on assist records but we do like to reward them with performance points)= +2
Our highest overall team rating so far this season was against Newman on Tuesday night with a +70. Our low was a -24 against Dixon on Friday night. Shay Brown has the highest individual game rating thus far with a +25 against Morrison. A big chunk of that was the 16 rebounds he pulled down that night. Overall, Shay also leads us on the season with +73. Jake Junis is second with a +57.
We don't generally compare post players' scores with perimeter players' scores. We generally feel post players should have higher scores due to taking higher percentage shots, being in a position to grab more rebounds, and not turning the ball over as much as a guard might. The biggest reason for the ratings is to take the emphasis off of the need to score points in order to contribute. It also emphasizes the fact that scoring points alone is not enough. We try to use the ratings to encourage our players to become more complete players and not just one dimensional. The ratings do not cover things on defense such as boxouts, closeouts (contesting shots), pressuring the ball, etc. So they're not perfect and are not a total measure of how a player performed on any given night. However, it has really helped to give more meaning to the stats we keep and emphasize to our players.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Coaches' Corner: Rock Falls 52 Sterling 42 11-28-09
This is why I have been saying for so long that I love the makeup of this team right now! As bad as we were on Friday night, and as hard as we were on our kids during post game meetings on Friday night and film on Saturday afternoon, our kids responded in a very positive way. We called them on what we thought was selfish play on Friday night and they proved they learned a lesson on Saturday night. As a coach, that's all you can ask is that you don't repeat mistakes-especially mental mistakes. I believe this group is really excited about learning this game and they show it almost every day. This group has already faced a lot of adversity with injuries and suspensions and to end the week at 4-1 was very satisfying.
Our scoring was very balanced: Lauts with 12, Junis and Chappell with 11, and Brown and Austin with 9 apiece. Lauts was the leading rebounder with 7. Austin and Junis each grabbed 6 boards. Our discipline on offense was much better. We got the ball in the lane on 78% of our possessions for the night and only attempted 7 three-point shots. Our defense was outstanding, holding Sterling to just 35% from the field and allowing just 8 FT attempts. We also survived a long stretch with Junis on the bench with 3 fouls in the second quarter. I probably should not have played him with 2 fouls in the second quarter, but was afraid the game might get away from us. Our kids did an outstanding job keeping it close in the second quarter.
Shay Brown has been outstanding defensively for us this first week. That has been a huge bright spot for us. Jake Junis has been as good as we thought he should be as long as we can keep him out of foul trouble. Matt Lauts has shown some versatility in the post and presents some matchup problems for opposing teams. Dylan Austin has been a very solid option on offense and has defended and rebounded well. Brett Chappell has been fearless-and I think the more he plays and learns at this level the better he will get. TJ Teske has stepped up off the bench playing his role well and providing some energy defensively. When we limit turnovers and take good shots, we look very tough and that will continue to improve. Again, all of the adversity will make this team stronger-it has to!
Our scoring was very balanced: Lauts with 12, Junis and Chappell with 11, and Brown and Austin with 9 apiece. Lauts was the leading rebounder with 7. Austin and Junis each grabbed 6 boards. Our discipline on offense was much better. We got the ball in the lane on 78% of our possessions for the night and only attempted 7 three-point shots. Our defense was outstanding, holding Sterling to just 35% from the field and allowing just 8 FT attempts. We also survived a long stretch with Junis on the bench with 3 fouls in the second quarter. I probably should not have played him with 2 fouls in the second quarter, but was afraid the game might get away from us. Our kids did an outstanding job keeping it close in the second quarter.
Shay Brown has been outstanding defensively for us this first week. That has been a huge bright spot for us. Jake Junis has been as good as we thought he should be as long as we can keep him out of foul trouble. Matt Lauts has shown some versatility in the post and presents some matchup problems for opposing teams. Dylan Austin has been a very solid option on offense and has defended and rebounded well. Brett Chappell has been fearless-and I think the more he plays and learns at this level the better he will get. TJ Teske has stepped up off the bench playing his role well and providing some energy defensively. When we limit turnovers and take good shots, we look very tough and that will continue to improve. Again, all of the adversity will make this team stronger-it has to!
Coaches' Corner: Dixon 57 Rock Falls 43 11-27-09
Anyone who was there knows this was a terrible night for us on the floor. We shot 24% on the night, partly because of bad shot selection and decision making across the board. We were undisciplined on offense to say the least. Our goal is to get the ball in the lane on 85% of our possessions. We only did so on 61% on this night and when you are struggling to make shots, that will make it tough to win. Another goal of ours is to score 40 points in the paint and we were only able to score 22 in the paint, mainly because we settled for jump shots all night.
Matt Ross from Dixon is just an outstanding player. We struggled to match up with him. The bright spot for us was that I thought we executed the game plan defensively very well until the 4th quarter.
On the offensive end, we refused to try to run any offense, settled for the first available jump shot over and over again, and really handled end of quarter situations poorly. We were outrebounded 36 to 26 on the night.
I was extremely disappointed in our body language, attitudes and leadership on the floor during this game. We are a better team than we showed on Friday night!
Matt Ross from Dixon is just an outstanding player. We struggled to match up with him. The bright spot for us was that I thought we executed the game plan defensively very well until the 4th quarter.
On the offensive end, we refused to try to run any offense, settled for the first available jump shot over and over again, and really handled end of quarter situations poorly. We were outrebounded 36 to 26 on the night.
I was extremely disappointed in our body language, attitudes and leadership on the floor during this game. We are a better team than we showed on Friday night!
Coaches' Corner: Rock Falls 61 Stillman Valley 35 11-25-09
I don't know what it is about the Wednesday night game at 5 PM, but it always seems like we would rather be somewhere else. Like in previous years, we did enough to win against a short-handed Cardinal team, but were less than impressive in doing so. Defensively we were sluggish and got beat off the dribble way too easily. Not a whole lot stood out to me in a postive way in this one other than getting a win. Jake Junis led us with 17, Dylan Austin and Brett Chappell added 14 each. Matt Lauts was the leading rebounder with 8. We shot 53% overall.
Coaches' Corner: Rock Falls 72 Newman 50 11-24-09
This was a game in which I thought Newman's size could give us fits. I loved our defensive intensity early on. We had some foul trouble in the second quarter that caused us to back off a bit. Jake Junis was obviously phenomenal with 32 points and 8 rebounds. Best part about it was he did it in a number of ways: knocking down threes, strong drives to the rim, pull-up jumpers-pretty impressive night. We did have entirely too many turnovers finishing with 21 on the night. That is not something we can continue to do and expect to beat good teams down the stretch. Matt Lauts was the leading rebounder with 9. Shay Brown and Brett Chappell both had 4 steals. Shay Brown also led in assists with 4. We ended up outrebounding a much bigger Newman team 36 to 24. I thought our shot selection for the most part was pretty good and we finished the night at 52% from the floor. Overall a pretty good night for us!
Coaches' Corner-Rock Falls vs. Morrison 11-23-09
Obviously with Morrison being short-handed due to their success in football, it is very tough to really evaluate our play in this game. I thought it was a typical opening night game-pretty sloppy overall. Shay Brown was outstanding with 11 points and 16 rebounds in a little less than 3 quarters of play. Jake Junis also scored 11, Matt Lauts with 10 and Brett Chappell with 9. No starters played more than 3 quarters on the night.
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