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Bucket Getter (work in progress)

Chapter 1: Comeback

“Find a guard!” Coach yells at Charles. Charles lands after working hard for a tough rebound. Charles is a strong wing who defends, rebounds, and shoots it well. His ball handling isn’t great, however, which is why Coach wants him to give it up. Lakeside is playing Mountain Creek who’s a much bigger town but Lakeside is on a 5 game winning streak. Lakeside has one heck of a senior class this year and the local newspapers have been hyping them up for a couple years now. They’re 8-2 so far this season and 4-0 in their division.

Charles gets his head up and finds Jason. Jason’s a quick player who’s got decent size for a high school guard. He’s a skinny 6 feet but he’s wiry. He makes himself seem stronger by getting his defenders off balance. He’s a high school guard though and his decision making can be quite suspect. One possession he’ll make a dazzling no look dish and the next he’ll throw a behind the back pass into the front row. Jason gets his head up and attacks the middle of the floor in transition. It’s three on two and he dribbles to the foul line, sucks the first defender in, and gets Charles back with a bounce pass for an easy lay-up. Coach Jim calls a timeout once the ball goes through the basket. Lakeside’s down 8 with 6 minutes to go in the third quarter.

Mountain Creek has the size advantage so Coach has Lakeside sitting in a 2-3 zone so they don’t get bullied on the inside. Only problem is that Mountain Creek has been knocking down three’s all night so they need to make a change. Lakeside could go man here but Mountain Creek has some very shifty ball handlers and Coach worries that they could shake loose from his guards. He has noticed that they don’t always take care of the ball though. Maybe some pressure is what they need.

“Alright guys lets jump into the 1-3-1 here and try to suck them into some double teams. Michael, I want you at the top. I want you to usher their ball handlers to the sideline and then as they pass half court I want our wings to double team. Everybody jumps up into the nearest passing lane. We’re going to leave the over the top skip pass but if our ball pressure is good enough he shouldn’t be able to see that pass. Lake on 3, win on 6.”

They break the huddle and start off in their 3/4 court press. Michael, the player at the top of the zone, is a part of the heralded senior class. He’s 6’4″ and a pure athlete. Coach likes to play him at the 4 on defense but on offense he becomes a secondary playmaker. He’s extremely fast and agile for a player his size. He’s very energetic but that can get him in foul trouble some times. On offense his best skill is attacking the basket and either finishing or finding open shooters. He’s not an off the ball threat because he can’t really shoot from the outside. He shines when Coach allows him to wreak havoc on defense, something that he’s hoping for right now.

Mountain Creek inbounds the ball and sees Michael loosely picking the ball up from the top of their key. Michael wants to apply just enough pressure so he can suck him into the trap without making feel threatened enough to pass prematurely. Michael sidles him into Charles right as he crosses half court and they got him. Both players form a 90 degree wall up against the half court line and the sideline. The Mountain Creek guard picks up the ball in a panic and tries to split the trap with his pivot foot. The defense holds and Charles gets his hand on the ball and knocks it loose to Michael for a run out with no defender in sight. Lakeside down 6.

The game shifts. Lakeside’s been playing on their heels all night but the press switches the way the games being played. Lakeside gets 16 transition points in the final 10 minutes of the game and go on to win by 8. “It all starts on defense, guys. Our half court offense wasn’t there but once we started applying a little pressure and turning them over we got much easier shots. I have to do a little thinking on some of our half court sets so we can try to get a little more flow on offense. That was a good win against a pretty good team but we’ve got a long way to go. Nick break us down.” Coach Jim lets Nick break the huddle in the locker room. Nick works his tail off in practice. He’s always the first guy on the floor when there’s a loose ball even though he only plays 8 minutes a game. You need guys like that.

The huddle broke and each player went back to their locker to get changed. Coach walked into his office and his assistants followed. “Defense came up clutch again today. Unfortunate that we have to rely on that sometimes. We have to come up with some better half court schemes to get the offense running a little smoother. Johnny, I want you to flip on some NBA games this weekend and see if we can incorporate anything. I’d try to find some tapes of the better offenses and see if we can chop it up and show it to the guys.” Johnny Sampson pulled out a spiral notebook and jotted some notes down. The notes were really just scribbles but the act of taking notes in front of your boss is always a good idea. Johnny’s a Lakeside alum and played for Coach 10 years ago. He played division 3 college basketball and now is an coaches the JV team and teaches phys. ed.

Coach put his stuff together and grabbed his bag of basketballs. He walked out of his office and made an announcement to the guys. “Alright, good win guys, practice tomorrow at 9 AM. Make sure we get to bed at a reasonable time tonight.” Tonight was a rare Friday night game and they don’t have another game until Tuesday. “We’ll take it easy at practice tomorrow” Coach thinks to himself “if they bring the right attitude.”

Coach walked through the lobby, acknowledging the parents waiting for their sons to come out of the locker room. As much as he would just like to talk and think about basketball there is still a large human element to coaching young men. If one of their parent’s want to pull you aside, Coach thought it was important to give them some time to talk through what they’re thinking. The social aspect can be just as important as the tactical aspect to being a good high school coach. He was able to avoid those interactions today and got in his old Toyota Camry and drove home.

Coach Jim lived in a very reasonable home. He, his wife Amanda, and his young son Dave had a 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom ranch in Coville. Coville was right next to Lakeside and the house was about a 15 minute drive from the gym. “A pretty simple life”, coach would think to himself some nights, “I can’t help but feel pretty lucky sometimes.”

Chapter 2: The First Piece