Woburn and Winchester are the top two girls' programs from the Middlesex League. What lessons emerged from their game last night? I have no affiliation with either team.
1. "The ball is gold." Turnovers are "zero percent" possessions. What did you see?
2. "Technique beats tactics." The offensive rebounder gets better position and the rebound. The defender ignores verticality and fouls. What's special about this? Nothing...and we see it EVERY game.
3. "Fall in love with easy." The 'easy' assist comes on the look-ahead pass as the scorer leaks out on the rebounding.
4. Decision tree. High ball screen but congestion as the spacing isn't great. First choice is use or reject. The defense chooses to switch and reaches in. "Show your hands." Conversely, the weak side defender is in good help position.
5. "Draw 2." The penetrator draws help and finds the open corner 3. I don't know if the defensive teaching is to help off the corner 3 or not.
6. Failed ball containment dooms defense. Know when to get out of the way. Black abandons the ball screen and the driver exploits an edge.
7. What's next? Will it be a ballscreen, a ballscreen slip, or something else. The first decision is to reject or use the screen.
8. To be or not to be? I'm not an officiating basher. This seemed like a nothingburger to me. No dog in the fight. I bow to the experts.
9. Is this supposed to be FLEX offense?
10. Call me old fashioned. Pass, cut urgently, return pass and score. Multiple actions fail often from lack of hard cutting.
11. Man bites dog. The defense looks confused from the outset. Worse yet, the defender screens her teammate allowing an open 3. Exceptional teams WIN possessions. A few poor possessions per game separate wins and losses.
12. "Once is not enough." I've seen Black score repeatedly on this simple BOB STS...there's a stagger out of a triangle and then screen-the-screener for the middle as defense gets stuck in traffic.
13. "Movement kills defense." Hard cutting and a dribble handoff get rewarded. The ball has energy and four of the five players get touches.