2016 May 19
I awoke to the gentle sound of beeping from the street 8
stories below. I left the sliding door to the balcony open to get fresh air and
for the street to act as my alarm clock. It is very quiet in the overnight
hours, but slowly comes to life around 5:30. I rolled over and looked out over
the river. It was hazy and my once in a lifetime view will have to wait until
tomorrow.
After breakfast, the team walked to practice. I am not sure
I have ever walked to practice as a coach, and it may have been high school the
last time I did it altogether. It made complete sense. The building is just on
the other side of the river and there is a bridge a block away that leads right
to the arena parking lot. When we arrive, the Cheer Squad is already there and
practicing. They wind things up and we ramp things up. I don’t want to go too
hard, but we didn’t do anything yesterday and I want to put in some new
wrinkles. We will be playing the same team from last game, the Lions. It is
hard to beat a team back to back, especially when they have some material from
which to scout. Our sneaky ace in the hole is Marshall. They have not seen how
well he shoots the ball. We start with the passing drill and shooting and some
full court press break style running, but we spend most of our walk through
time on zone offense. We had a basic set in, and I wanted to tweak that one a
little and put in a new one. Zone offenses are designed to take advantage of
space by creating deception. It’s important for the player with the ball to
either attack the basket or be patient and wait for the next pass to develop.
With all that stressed, we put in two more in-bounds plays to highlight certain
shots for certain players. We run full court for 15 minutes practicing our new
zone stuff, shoot some fouls and call it an hour. We walk back to the hotel.
Sitting at the lunch table with Robert, our Chinese scouts
come and sit with us for a minute. They tell me, through Robert, that the Lions
will be playing mostly zone tonight. I smile. I knew that was the only way to
protect their very tall, but very slow center. When the Lions arrived at the
arena for practice, they insisted that everyone leave. I suppose that everyone
meant only Americans as the scouts clearly we able to see what the Lions did at
practice.
After lunch, the laundry arrived at my room. Fold it. Sort
it. Have the guys come down to my room to claim it. When the last player left,
I ironed my tonight clothes and left for a walk to the other side of the river.
I can see the shopping from my balcony and it looked hopping last night. The
walk lasts 2 hours. The stores are about 20 minutes away and I stroll the
avenue looking in lots of windows. I only go into a few. One was a music store
where a nice looking guitar could be had for $880 RMB, and another was an
alcohol and tobacco store where I thought I would be able to find a cigar. No
luck. I am hoping to end my night tonight with a beer and cigar on the balcony.
Did I mention I have a balcony with a kick ass view? Two hours later I am steps
from the hotel when I think a bird or an air conditioner has dripped on me. The
temperature is upper 70’s, but it is humid. Then another drip. It starts to
rain and I count my lucky stars that I am right at the hotel and not across the
river. Perfect timing.
Game time
We walk to the game in uniforms. I think we look silly, but
no one complains and it’s a short walk. The gym is already hot and there is
hardly anyone inside. By the time tip-off happens, the air is thick. More from
the high humidity than smoking. I start Tyler and Aly as they have yet to start
a game. Tyler is a game manager, and Aly hustles. I am nervous that Aly may not
be able to handle the 7’2” center. We begin the game with three very good shot
opportunities and come away with zero points. It should be 6-2, but it’s not.
And then, the Lions go on a run and before you know it, it is 24-1. One point
in five minutes. I feel like I could get one point in 5 minutes, but we just
couldn’t buy a bucket. Wholesale substitutions. The next group of guys chips away
and starts to get us back. It was just a matter of getting a couple stops and
believing the ball would go in. As we start to close the gap, they go zone. Our
eyes goes wide as we know we will kill their zone.
By the half, we are up 43-38. That’s a 42-13 run to end the
half. Damn. Unlike a couple games ago when we got down, tonight the players
were pretty calm about it. Lesson learned. However, they are still overreacting
to official’s calls. The animated American athlete you see on Sports Center is great
for TV ratings and selling tickets, but completely unaccepted here in the land
of respect based culture. Think about the Asian kids at the Little League World
Series as they bow to umpire before each at bat. The refs are not use to such
antics and are quick to call fouls, assess technical fouls, and generally whine
to Robert about how I need to change my player’s attitudes. The ref’s are not
wrong, it is just not going to happen.
The second half the Lions came out swinging, but they didn’t
have enough to go the distance. They fell farther and farther behind and our
players got more and more energized as solid defense turned to exciting fast
break chances at the other end. Marshall breaks their spirit with back to back
to back three’s. We were sailing right along. Up 20 with a couple minutes to
play. An elbow here. A grab of the shirt there. The Chinese team was tired and
frustrated and didn’t want to lose again. With 4.8 second on the clock, a loose
ball going out under the basket becomes a projectile. A Chinese player jumps
out of bounds, grabs it, turns and fires it back in play. The problem is
Marshall’s face was right there. So in a moment that mean nothing, we are about
to have an international incident.
There was much cursing and some shoving. There were threats
of great ill doing. But, it didn’t get all the way to a fight as it had before.
Then came the dreaded handshake line. I know it’s a great tradition in hockey
after a series, I just don’t think we need it after every game as a rule. If
some guys want to meet at half court and exchange pleasantries, that’s cool.
Everyone else should be free to go to the locker room. So the finals seconds of
a good win were obscured by drama. Nonetheless, the final score was 96-77.
(95-53 after the first 5 minutes) (wow).
As I write this I am sitting on the balcony. There was no
chair out here so I dragged an over-sized upholstered arm chair into the night
air. I am smoking and imaginary cigar because I could not find one when I was
shopping today. I am drinking an imaginary beer because I was too lazy after
dinner to walk the two blocks to the market to get one. On the plus side, my
feet are up, the night is beautiful, and both the beer and cigar are perfect.
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