New Year Means Different Race For Girls, Boys Basketball Teams
New Year Means Different Race For Girls, Boys Basketball Teams
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Roger Grossman-
New Year Means Different Race For Girls, Boys Basketball TeamsWelcome to 2020!
We’re in the first full week of the new year and decade (yes, 2020 is the start of new decade, not 2021—but that was for last week’s column). That means the resolutions you made while you were tipsy on champagne have probably already been broken with no sign that you will ever seriously try them again.
It means that the holidays are over, and the grind of winter is underway. It’s a game, winter. Every day it doesn’t snow, we win. When it snows, we lose. And like international soccer, you know about when the winter game should end, but you never know for sure until the full-time whistles sound.
For boys and girls basketball teams, the new year means two very different things.
For boys teams, hanging a 2020 calendar on the wall means the season is roughly half over.
Hopefully there was a little of time during the holidays to rest and heal up from the first half. The holidays give teams a few extra days to practice on things that needed corrected, and maybe it allows some teams that have struggled to hit the reset button and start fresh.
It also could hurt a team that got hot in December. A few days off at Christmas could ruin the rhythm of a squad that was humming along.
But, for all boys’ teams, the second half of their season means the majority of their conference games are in front of them. Heavy, meaningful games in hostile environments are on the horizon with non-conference games sprinkled in to prep a squad for the postseason.
For the fellas, it’s a long-distance race that requires patience and seeks consistency.
For the girls’ teams, it’s the exact opposite.
Their sprint to the finish is on. They each have six or seven games left, and the sectional draw is less than three weeks away.
Coaches have less than a month to either fix what isn’t working or come up with alternatives. The firey trials of the tournament are coming, and they consume everything unable to stand up to the intense heat.
A lineup change, a new defensive philosophy — those changes have to be installed this week or early next to have a realistic chance to be ready for the first week of February.
Girls teams’ coaches probably spent a large chunk of their Christmas breaks (which are generally shorter than boys breaks to start with) contemplating those changes. Heck, they could be wrestling with the thought that making any change at all could make things worse instead of better. A good team, with the right tweak, could become a really good one — but they also undo a lot of good things the team already had going.
It’s that whole “Bird in the hand, birds in the bush” thing.
Both seasons are exciting, in their own ways.
Boys teams know that what happens after the holidays is what will be remembered about their team’s season.
Girls teams know that conference champions will be crowned, and they are heading up the ramp to the postseason.
James Naismith invented basketball in 1891 to give his track athletes something to do to stay active during the cold Massachussets winters.
What would you do with your long, cold Indiana winters without it?
