“If you can’t solve a problem, then there is an easier problem that you can solve: find it.”  /George Polya

At this point I call this being a little bit stuck. There are things you just can’t riddle and sometimes all there is left is to simplify the whole operation. I refuse to believe that there is yet another team that is purely better than us. I believe, no – I know that this team is capeable to play in this league and compete, there is just something off. There is something that needs solving and it seems that those are some very basic things.

Last week we met Deisenhofen at our home. Our defense at Hellenendome went down after four quarters when we capitulated to guests 28 to 67.

First Quarter

Guests had pretty tall roster. It will be very hard to use little guys because that would put us in disadvantage in Defense. Still, they had to be played and my big guys on field had to take the responibility in Defense to help at penetration from outside by playing helpside and boxing out properly.

We started out and we hold up pretty good till minute 5 losing just by 4 points. Then mistakes started to happen. Time-out Hellenen. Unfortunately, that did more bad than good and opponents loaded 6 points till minute 7. After that – our defense went to ground and they went on rampage. Dive after dive and finding that hole in Defense – they kept putting ball in. We struggled in our Offense as against taller guys it was hard to penetrate and our shots were not finding their way into the basket. Losing 8 points with no answer we were going down at first quarter badly. Also mindset started to wander and took focus with it. I knew I will need another time out at second quarter and opponent Coach was smart enough not to take one as his Team was crushing us down. At minute 9 some guys managed to go through and get fouled on shot attempt and made freethrows, but that didn’t save us from going down in first with 10 to 26. Minus 16 – hard to deal with.

Second Quarter

They came crashing down and made fast 10 points leaving us at 10 to 36. Enough to demotivate any team. Time-out Hellenen on minute 13. Come on boys, let’s do some Defense at least. Fast forward, opponents scored only 14 points this quarter and we managed to keep them down 20 for the rest of two also. Offense – 3 points for us. We had nothing to answer with. We went in half-time break with 13 to 40.

Third Quarter

This was the same as second point wise. Our Offense tried to penetrate opponents, take them from afar with shots, but ball always find it’s way out of the rim… or around it. Sometimes there are just these days… To be honest – Defense was okay. Against taller team we managed to close middle to penetration and control the sides. Opponents scored mostly due to our inability to properly and timely box out and take defensive rebounds. This must be fixed for next game. Third went down by scoring 5 and letting in 15. 18 to 55 after third quarter.

Fourth Quarter

Well, I think anyone understood what’s the outcome of this ramble at Hellenendome this time. Still we had to learn from this game and keep going in order to do so. We ended fourth by scoring 10 and letting in just 12 points. Still very dissapointing loss again as I know we can do much, much better. Hellenen went down with 28 to 67. Thanks Deisenhofen for the game and lessons.

After brainstorming through this game and taking in some Feedback I drew some conclusions. It was now clear visible that there must be some important changes. I have been too soft on this. It’s time to simplify and teach some important lessons. You can have a one bad day, but if it happens multiple times – it’s time to find the problem and get rid of it. Observation seems right – it’s in the head, I think I am just wrong about the depth of it… it’s much simpler as I have imagined.

There is Christmas break coming. It’s time to go through everything and develop some new foundations for the round two. Await us. We’re coming for Round 2.

Coach Valts