Positive observations amid local basketball scene

By Mike Brown

Remember how earlier in the season many gymnasiums were sparsely filled and there wasn’t much noise or spirit at most local high school basketball games?

The downward trend has rebounded nicely the other way. Last Friday’s frantic game between previously undefeated Pettisville and upstart North Central was a flashback to the “old school” when the gym was packed end to end. The crowd was into the boy’s game from start to finish and the players produced a classic.

Another “old school” attribute is the emotional play of junior forward Derek Wyrick at North Central. His determined will to win is a reminder to other area players, coaches and fans. In the first three minutes of last week’s classic game, the Eagle leader came off the floor to the bench, visibly upset that he and his team had started poorly and Pettisville was out to a big lead.

For just two seconds, Wyrick threw a towel over his head as he sat. Sitting right behind the bench, I could see him take some deep breaths, gather himself, take the towel off, and then look to coach Justin Houk to get back in the battle. The rest is history. His emotional leadership and 23 points along with multiple blocks, rebounds and steals were the difference in a great North Central victory.

It was also cool to see reserve players like NC’s senior forward Lucas Kidston and Stryker High’s Megan Rupp jump off the bench in big games last weekend and be mentally ready to make huge contributions and score crucial baskets.

Around the area, fans tend to ask sports writers “what is your favorite team?” In this business, it’s a mistake to root for any particular team and all I ever hope for is a competitive game. It’s tough to write about blow outs.

But one team in the area is impressive and they toil in somewhat obscurity in the little village of Pioneer. This is a school without football and without much luck in any sports the past few years. The NC girls hoop team won only once all season a year ago and they haven’t won a game yet this season.

But after participating in a recent practice, it’s easy to admire them for their efforts and stalwart intentions to get better and lead the program upward bound. There’s talent there, a quality group of coaches giving their all, and it’s a classic case of struggling to get the girls to do more little things and a few big things to win games.

But as one of the NC coaches wisely says, what the girls (and boys) do on our local high school basketball teams is learn life lessons far more valuable than winning a game on Friday or Saturday night.

During last week’s Holgate victory over a struggling Edgerton boys’ team, veteran coach Paul Wayne provided some great insight with a lead quote. “The skills of the game were once learned and practiced in the driveways and barns.” His team had just beaten Edgerton by a final score of only 36 to 27.

His wise comments brought back fond memories of a long time ago in Vermont’s very harsh winter climate, and I could have made millions back then if I had patented a wool glove with the fingertips cut off. Today the catalogs and stores are full of custom gloves made just that way.

Back in “the day” it was so much fun to play one-on-one or two-on-two hoops in an unheated barn or in the open driveway. Believe me, that’s where we learned to make moves in between getting slammed into the barn door or pushed into piles of snow along the driveway court.

Our old house had an attached barn where during the winters, even when we were competing in junior varsity and varsity games, we played basketball games on a discarded bushel basket with the bottom cut out. My father still remembers thinking the entire house was coming down when my forever friends Paul Obuchowski or Donnie Bruce, who always struggled to stop me on offense, figured out a way to contain my scoring with left or right hand shots. They would slam me into the flexible old barn door where the hoop was attached to the rafters. So, I learned to be even more creative and quicker to avoid getting slammed and of course still spin, bank, or dunk the ball into the low basket.

It has sometimes been painful this winter to watch varsity teams, boys or girls, score zero or only three or four points in a quarter, and often finish many local games with only 27 to 40 points in a full game.

Why the difference? According to research, computers and cable television keeps today’s teens inside, sitting down, watching the screen an average of five hours per day.

Holgate coach Wayne was right: today’s players generally just don’t have the skill set to score points consistently against a rugged defense. I’m not suggesting we abolish televisions or computers, of course, but it would be way cool if today’s coaches carved out 15 minutes of each daily practice to work on scoring ability and put more creative style, skills and wow factor into the local game.

It would be even cooler to see local kids outside having creative fun on a hoop court more often regardless of the weather conditions. I’ve still got some of those wool gloves without fingertips.

Bears playing well

The new year has been kind to the Bryan varsity boys basketball team.

The Golden Bears are 4-1 in 2009 with wins over Archbold, Patrick Henry and Van Wert -- teams they rarely beat.

They have been playing the way I expected them to play after an impressive showing against No. 1-ranked Ottawa-Glandorf -- which lost two over the weekend for its first losses -- in the season-opener and they've been doing it by getting the ball down low to 6-7 Austen Alabata.

Alabata had an impressive weekend. He had 12 points in Friday night's 55-42 win over PH and had 13 points and six blocks in Saturday's 52-43 win over Van Wert.

He's playing more aggressive and his teammates are making a conscious effort to get him the ball down low, especially in the opening quarter. Alabata had six points in the first quarter on Friday and 11 Saturday.

And you can't forget Matt Jones who tore it up over the weekend with 38 points in the two games. He's been the catalyst for the Bears on the offensive end all season and with Alabata stepping up, that's a good 1-2 punch.

The first quarter's been somewhat of a problem for the Bears in their seven losses and even in some of their five wins, but the last two games they've been redhot to start the game. They raced out to a 21-8 lead against PH and had a 15-9 lead against Van Wert.

If they can continue to have strong starts and not drop off during the remaining three quarters, they will be hard to beat over the course of rest of the season.

Speaking of the rest of the season, of the remaining eight games on Bryan's schedule, only two teams have a winning record -- Evergreen (9-2) and Hicksville (9-3).

The other six teams have a combined record of 15-49.

Three of those foes are NWOAL opponents -- Montpelier (1-10), Delta (3-8) and Swanton (2-8) -- and if Bryan can get past those three, it sets up a showdown with Evergreen on Feb. 20 at BHS for a chance at a share of the NWOAL title. The Bears are one game behind the Vikings.

NOTES: The seven teams Bryan has lost to have a combined record of 54-15 and none of them have more than three losses. And the five teams Bryan has beaten have a combined record of 15-41.

Expected one thing, got another

I went into Thursday night's North Central-Stryker boys basketball expecting to see a closely contested matchup between two of the top teams in the Buckeye Border Conference and what I saw was something entirely different.

The Panthers (5-4, 3-1) played perhaps the most flawless basketball game I've ever seen (at least at the high school level) in an 80-52 victory.

Offensively, they got the shots they wanted (and made them), they outrebounded the Eagles (4-3, 2-2) and had an astonishing one turnover. One turnover in a high school basketball is unheard of, and I'll be surprised if I ever see that again.

But defensively was where Stryker really shined.

Stryker hounded, shadowed and frustrated NC freshman standout Anthony Kidston all game long and it used an assortment of players to do it.

The Panthers kept Kidston from receiving the ball and when he did, he was forced into taking tough, contested jump shots. He ended with 12 points (6.5 below his average) and a good number of those were from the free throw line.

Despite not playing well, it was obvious from the onset that Kidston is a player to watch. He can shoot, he's quick and he can jump. He's very similar to Archbold's Gene Goering from years back. You will be hearing Kidston's name mentioned over the course of the next few years, and I look forward to watching him.

While one standout didn't have a particulary good game, some others did, including a monstrous game from Stryker's Jordan Jaggers.

Jaggers, a senior, is one of the best players in the area (that was my third time watching him) and he proved it Thursday night. He had 30 points on 12-of-19 shooting and NC didn't have an answer for him.

NC coach Justin Houk said the game plan was to let him shoot. Bad game plan, coach.

Jaggers is a smooth player with a nice jump shot and the Eagles lost track of him multiple times in their 1-2-2 zone and he made them pay.

Also having big games were Stryker's Zach Erb and NC's Derick Wyrick -- both seniors. Erb had 15 points while Wyrick had 20.

All four players -- Kidston, Wyrick, Jaggers and Erb -- are among the top scorers in the area and really are a treat to watch.

If you haven't seen either team play this season, make it your duty to see them.

They play each other again on Feb. 20 at North Central, but a few games to check out before then: Jan. 23, NC vs. undefeated and state-ranked Pettisville; Jan. 31, NC vs. Antwerp; Jan. 24, Stryker at Tinora; and Feb. 13, Stryker vs. Pettisville.

Final Bowl-A-Rama Picks standings

Tom Voigt: 24-10

Lee Hudnell: 21-13

Nate Parsons: 18-16

Don Allison: 15-19

Mike Brown: 14-20

John Fryman: 14-20

Of course the boss won, we let him!!

Game should've never came down to that...

Whistle...

Whether Archbold's David Rupp fouled Bryan's Caleb Turnbull with 0.9 seconds left or not doesn't matter...

The game should've never came down to that.

The Golden Bears had a five-point lead with less than 45 seconds remaining and couldn't hold it -- they turned it over, missed a few free throws and let the Blue Streaks get layups.

Not only that, but the players on the court should be the ones that decide the outcome, not the refs.

Up until that point, the game had been evenly played, although the first half resembled more of a JV girls game than a Varsity boys game.

It's a shame the game had to be decided on a blown whistle than another four minutes.

But you have to give credit to Turnbull, he made the free throw.

After the game, Billman and Turnbull both mentioned the similarity between that and a drill the team does in practice.

I've been a part of those pressure free throw situations in practice and it's not the same. In practice, you have 20 people watching you, not a gym full of screaming fans all looking at you. But I guess practice makes perfect and he knocked it down.

On another note, Austen Alabata finally made his 6-7 frame have an impact. He had six points, nine rebounds and six or seven blocks and altered many others. He's shown signs of what he can really do throughout this season, but hasn't put together a full 32 minutes. I think he did that Thursday night.

Both coaches, Billman and Archbold's Doug Krauss, both mentioned how much of an impact Alabata had after the game Thursday night and Billman said the Bears really need him to continue to do that throughout the rest of season. I couldn't agree more.

What those of you that went, what'd you think of the game and the call?

How do you teach confidence?

Stryker coach Steve Brown pointed out that Edgerton had superior height and impressive depth in terms of team talent. But his players have been competing in recent years against fellow Stryker players such as the Boetz triplets and they have all matured and grown confident from that routine. The Lady Bulldogs started the Tuesday night game in a dazed and confused state and are playing far below their talent level. With seven losses, Edgerton coach Kelly Thiel is scratching her head wondering when her players will step up and move toward a better effort paced by improving their confidence.

Brooke Riehle is a proven star for Edgerton with wit, style, size, and athletic ability. But most telling of Edgerton's chemistry and confidence issues, she did not score a point against Stryker. She had numerous opportunities for shots in the lane but seemed unsure of her position on the floor and seldom had a good touch on the shot. The general scoring frustrations around the area, it seems to many observers, is focused on so few players being able to create easier shots.

Meanwhile, senior Brooke Hancock is a much stronger and more creative player this year compared to last year for Stryker. She had several slick drives and moves to the basket and rarely, as she did last year, is content to stand on the perimeter and look for the long three ball.

The impact of the three-point line still seems negative to many veteran observers. Much of the local high school game is set up based on most players standing around or rotating to the outside of the arc. Few players can post up, head fake, drop step, or be creative in making shots on short-range areas in the lane. What happened to between the legs dribble moves, cross-over dribbles, hook shots, and up and under moves to create easier shots? It seems like the local high school game is digressing in some ways thus the low scoring contests with many boys and girls teams struggling to score more than 40 points on any given night. It's like a throwback to the 1950s to report now that most game-high scorers were limited to only 12 or 15 points.

An old coach of mine in the late 1960s said an above-average athlete should be able to score 25 points every game. His formula per game? Five outsides shots made (no three pointers back then) gets 10 points, two steals for layups makes four more points. Three hustle plays gets three easy follow-up offensive rebound baskets or "garbage points" for six more points. Five times to the foul line guarantees five more points and presto that's 25 points and routine back in the "old days." That mindset and more helped the late, great Pistol Pete Maravich set the average per game scoring NCAA record of 44 points per contest when he played college ball for LSU. There were no three-point lines back then and if so Pete would have averaged more than 50. The most creative scoring whiz of all time was constantly double-teamed, too.

Next week I'll get to see Steve Curry at Davidson College in North Carolina play live and in person. He seems to be the first player in many years with the knack and the creative wizardry to hit for 40 or more points in a single college game. His ability to get open, create shots, and hit from all over the floor, might offer insight for local high school players after reporting on watching Curry close up and in person.

This is from Mike Brown, but we're still trying to figure out how this blog works so I'm posting it...

New TIMES SPORTS BLOG

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