Boys Basketball Scores 1/12-1/17

[SFB14]

I agree about the summer leagues and getting kids to participate is a serious problem. I have a son in the BG system and I can tell you that this past summer they were forced to play 8th graders (going in to 9th) in some/many of their games. Now granted they had a once in a lifetime football experience and it was worth the time they put it in, but when you can't get your best baskeball players as well to summer games/workouts it make is tough and I think it is showing on the court during this season. They do not seem like a skilled basketball team, but more like a team of athletes trying to play basketball.

Many of these kids at all schools are going to camps/combines/7 on 7s on the weekends and lifting and doing clinics with the team during the week. Throw in 3-4 day team camps, vacations, jobs, and the ever expanding football calendar (from heat acclimation starting in early August moving forward) and it makes it tough when you are pulling kids in so many directions and they are forced to make a decision on what to go to. I don't believe it has as much to do with a coach's ability to motivate them to get there as it does that you can't be in two places at one time. Is that anyone's fault? I don't think so. It's just the way things are in smaller schools when you are forced to share athletes. BC has a group that are dedicated basketball players and it shows.

I said this before and I'll say it again here, I'm alarmed at the inability to shoot the ball on the high school level. Maybe I'm making to much of this but I don't remember ever seeing it this bad and I've gone to 3-4 games a week for many years. I believe the lack of shooting comes back to the time spent in the off-season to get better at that particular skill. I liken it to playing golf. To be really good at it you have to invest a lot of time and thousands of swings in order to just be decent. If you don't pick up a club but once or twice a month in the summer, you aren't going to hone the skills needed to play the game. Same theory holds with shooting a basketball and if you aren't available to get better doing it out of season, you can't expect it to be good enough in season. I'm not sure what the solution is, but I do know that it doesn't appear as if it's going to get better any time soon.

[D6sports101]

From the time I watched BG this year I noticed that they really have no great basketball players. Good athletes but below average on the court. Only a couple could make shots which goes back to the point made about the offseason.

How could bg drop off so quickly from only a year. Lack of time put in? Lack of talent?

[SFB14]

I don't think they are that talented offensively. Other than 2 or 3 guys they don't get much from the seniors, don't really play any juniors, and everyone else they are playing on the nights I've seen them are sophomores. While the younger guys are good, and in a year or two may be very good, it's a big adjustment going from playing junior high (many games against 8th graders because other LHAC teams have moved up their 9th graders) to having to carry much of the load on a varsity team, especially since they didn't have any pre-season practice at all. Add in the fact that the players on the team have been going virtually non-stop since early August (football to basketball) and I"m not sure fatigue isn't an issue, it has made for a very inconsistent year from the Marauders.

I'm sure they are getting better against the schedule they are playing, but I don't know that it's going to show in their overall record. However, if I was another class A team who plays in a weaker conference I'd still want nothing to do with playing them in the playoffs.

[D6sports101]

Depth and fatigue can really hurt teams down the stretch. Playing sophomores could be good in the long run but from the record I see it does not hold true for this year. I did notice 2 sophomores in the starting lineup when I saw them play and actually thought they played very well.

[TAHS92Alum]

How could bg drop off so quickly from only a year. Lack of time put in? Lack of talent?

I know that when you have a lot of success in one sport, that effects others. They miss a lot of preseason practices, conditioning, etc for the winter sports when your football team makes a deep playoff run. You do get those kids out, but they are not prepared or still recovering from a beating a football season takes on you.

[223113]

Bump. Does anyone know?

I saw Will on Sunday at the Southern Alleghenies Football Coaches Association (SAFCA) banquet. He was in a knee brace, on crutches. I believe basketball season is over for Will.

[Manfred]

I saw him at the game last evening. Really a shame, a very good athlete. Results of the game showed CC didn't need him against FH.