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Holiday Tournaments
Morgantown Holiday Tournament first round action last evening.
Parkersburg South 82
Martinsburg 69
Morgantown 80
Winfield 40
Observations from first round.
Parkersburg South looked very good. They go at least 11 deep and kept constant pressure on Martinsburg. May not be the most talented Parkersburg South team, but they play hard. Beat Martinsburg up and down the court alot.
Martinsburg is a talented team but not deep. Brewer and Robinson are the real deal. Nice players but it appeared not used to the up and down pressure South threw at them.
Winfield is a young and talented team. Cooper and Brock are nice players. They will give some teams fits as the season wears on.
Morgantown is deep and senior oriented. Morgantown goes 12 deep. Pretty good team oriented much the same as South.
Second round matchups today will be Winfield and Martinsburg at 3:00 and Parkersburg South and Morgantown at 6:30.
Tuesdays Scores from Morgantown Holiday Tournament
Martinsburg 67
Winfield 60
Morgantown 69
Parkersburg South 60
Observations from Day Two.
Martinsburg defintiely misses their point guard. Martinsburg led at the half by 19 largely due to Winfield playing their entire JV starters the second quarter. Winfield came out in the third and cut the lead to four and five points on several occasions but could never get closer to that. It did look like Robinson was uncomfortable running the point. Nice team.
Morgantown and South was like a championship boxing match. Morgantown jumps out to an 11 point lead and South cuts it to two on several possessions but could never overtake the Mohigans. South did not shoot the ball as well today as they did the night before. Morgantown was a phenomenal 22 for 22 from the charity stripe. This was the difference maker. What happens on a neutral court?
No question Morgantown and Parkersburg South are two of the top teams in the State.
Enjoyed having all of the teams make the trip to Morgantown. It was a pleasure watching all of the teams.
Wasn't shocked
I figured Parkersburg South would win the game considering like you said that Wright wasn't playing. She is indeed their best on ball defender and helps the other players get into passing lanes. She also does a good job of managing things. I figured if they lost by around 10 then its not that bad. They do need to work on moving the ball more. And your right they did lead at the half so thats another positive they can take from the game plus the fact that they had a very long lay off. Hopefully the coaches can have the players work on some of their weaknesses and ball movement then it will be even harder to stop them offensively. 82-69 is a pretty high scoring game for girls or boys ball. The coaches also need to bring up 1 or 2 of the JV players they haven't shown me that they really are great judges of talent because they have a decent freshman they could bring in that is a decent defender, rebounder and is athletic
Freshmen playing at varsity level
From my experience when I coached,it is awfully hard to throw a freshmen into competition such as Parkersburg South or Morgantown early in the season. Now,if a freshmen gets a little experience on the JV level and works her way onto varsity as season goes,thats another thing. It would take an awfully good freshman girl to just go right up and play against the Souths and Morgantown. And I would guess that if this freshman girl is so good,she would have been on varsity from the jump.I heard the same thing from fans and parents that I should bring this kid up or that kid up.Sometimes if you rush a kid,they get dominated on that level and you lose them forever.The freshman may even be better slightly talent wise than some varsity girls,but there is something to be said about experience.You are going from a small middle school gym to the big stage in a big time tournament.Some extremely special freshmen do it and succeed,but as a coach you want to be nearly positive they will or they may lose their confidence at a young age and never get it back.Just food for thought.
Well in the case that I'm
Well in the case that I'm talking about the freshman in question played up in AAU ball over the summer against a lot of talented players and practiced with a lot of the top players in the area that were on the team. They showed they could still perform even against more experienced players. Did they make mistakes sure but at the same time they were learning and got better as the AAU season progressed. And I'll agree with you moving kids up when they may not be mentally ready can be detrimental. But with Martinsburg they have players that really can't handle being on the varsity level. Oh and before anyone thinks this nooo the child i'm talking about is not my child so i'm not biased in that regard. And really i'm not suggesting the child be permanently on varsity but she could definitely help more than a couple of the players on the bench. Maybe play them 2-3 quarters of jv and then 1 quarter or so of varsity. Switching this particularly player with the player on the varsity that doesn't get any playing time would help them both. The varsity player would get more playing time and develop her confidence and the JV player would play against harder competition than she gets on the JV level and at the same time help the varsity
Well,its early
And coaches this time of the year are trying to figure what works best and what are strengths and weaknesses,etc. Alot changes from the start of the season til the end.So perhaps some of these JV kids will get a shot.Alot of times a coach may scrap his whole original gameplan due to many factors. Coaching is not easy. Even the best coaches get criticized.I think its important to stick with whats working and when an aspect isnt working,you look for ways to improve it rather it be schemes or personnel.I'll say this,Martinsburg has gone from laughingstock to a top 5 or 6 team in the state. Talent means alot to do that and in this case adding Brewer,but still you have to credit the coaching staff somewhat.Most turnarounds of this type take 2-3 years no matter who it is.As far as the AAU thing,that is more age based. 14 yr olds vs 14 yr olds etc. In the case of a high school team,you are talking taking a 14 yr old with a less mature body and mind in most cases(notice I said most) and putting them against a well matured 18 yr old.But I do agree that there are cases when the freshmen are the best period. I do not know the complete dynamics of Martinsburgs bench players nor do I know the JV players well enough to compare.I always felt that you get young kids on the court. If you bring them up to varsity,they have to play 3-4 qtrs maybe 2. otherwise you waste their progression.The more they play and gain confidence,the better they can help later in the year or next year.
Yea your right its definitely
Yea your right its definitely early in the season and maybe the coaches will change things up depending on how the season progresses. Believe me I understand coaching is in no ways easy. There is a lot of pressure from administration down to parents. I've definitely had to hold my tongue when it comes to my own children and their coaches. And i've sided with the decisions the coaches have made in the vast majority of cases because they see things that most people don't. I always tell my kids when they complain that no one is perfect and to work on their games so there is no doubt who deserves to be on the court. I definitely give the coaches credit for standing up to some of the causes of Martinsburgs disfunction last year. It was painful to see how terrible they played and how they wasted some of the talent on the team with the infighting. With the addition of Brewer and the departure of some of the problems I'd say Martinsburg is top 5-6 team. Not sure what it will take for them to overtake the likes of Huntington, Parkersburg South, Morgantown and North Marion. I saw North Marion and they are very impressive especially when you consider most of them are sophomores
I was shocked at Mart - PS score
I was shocked at the Martinsburg Parkersburg South score. However,My buddy told me tonite that his daughter said Martinsburg played without their starting point guard Dashel Wright. Her and Wright played AAU ball.Martinsburg evidently had to put Robinson at point and it wore on her bringing the ball up the court.The one game I saw Martinsburg Robinson played point very little and Wright was their best on ball defender. I saw in the paper where Martinsburg led at the half,looks like they got wore down. Also,Park South played its 6th game,Martinsburg had not played since Wheeling Park about 2-1/2 weeks ago.