Penn Notes

The Maroon · Joined: 23 Feb 2007 Posts: 459 Location: Bethlehem, PA

My daughter's 9-year old team plays an intricate offense whereby one person gets the ball and dribbles in no particular direction and eventually runs into trouble and heaves it to another player who then follows the same script. Eventually they put up a bad shot or turn the ball over. They score about 6 points/game.

Early on Penn used the same offensive philosophy. John Leone always preaches that they invented dribbling to make the game harder, but Penn LOVED to dribble. THey were stuck at 7 points for about half an hour. I was thinking they might be one of the worst teams ever to visit Kirby.

Penn...stinks...GIven my home-court advantage=12 points rule of thumb, that Penn was 0-5 coming in, that their coach is a twit, and they were inept offensively...I was looking for some deep bench minutes.

BUt something problematic happened....We couldn't pull away. Garner didn't dress and I didn't see her and her absence made a difference because the Penn guards consistently lowered their heads when they attacked the hoop--BEGGING for charging fouls--but we didn't rotate well.

And all of a sudden, late in the first half...despite Penn showing as much shooting range as the cute little girl who took the promotional foul-shot contest..(come on...give her the damn tickets...we aren't selling the place out!!) Penn was down by...3.

THey played good defense Penn did. And we did a horrible job of handling the press. TO many dribbles into the corner...for one thing. We had 15 TO"s at halftime...15...But we played well the last few minutes and went into the break up by 9.

Which was pretty much where it stayed for most of the second half until 2 things happened: Spicer got her fourth foul and we started playing horrid defense. A bunch of players with half-commitments to the double teams and Penn discovered the pass and started draining 3's.

We almost blew it at the end. With 10 seconds to go Penn had a 1 point lead and Erin Power had the line on the ball. She lost control and as she was falling she pulled a Chris Webber and called a TO. ALl of a sudden we got ourselves two shots AND the ball. Zavocki hit both foul shots and--as the bench drew it up--drew the foul. Problem is she only made one of her 2, Penn drove the court--picked up a layup and the 'Pards better thank their lucky stars they didn't get an "and one" in the effort.

Here's a problem: We can't play without Spicer. SHe was out of the game for 6 minutes and we were outscored by 7 during those minutes while only putthing up 5 points (a 33 PPG pace) in that time. She isn't shooting particularly well--particularly from 3, but she's the most important player for this team. She rebounds well, she keeps the show going on offense, she does all the little things....Yes---Everyone has read my rants that they give her too many minutes....I am a buffoon....You can say it. On the way home my daughter talked about autograph day and she said she wants Spicer's autograph in particular. She also misses Vanessa. We're kindred spirits, me and my daughter.

Nice game by Virgin who gives us the inside out combo we desperately need. Nice foul shooting--including 4-4 in OT. Nice job not folding. A win...is a win. Smith is playing within herself and matched up with a couple of Penn's trees and grabbed 9 boards.

I'm not going to take to the streets yet. We are sorely lacking a 3 point threat besides Zavocki--and given our relative lack of height inside that's gonna be a problem. I'm really worried about that....We're not getting nearly as many 3 point looks as other teams because their fading to Zavocki--who is shooting 47% of our 3 point attempts.

Overall though a good night at Kirby and we got two winnable games on deck: NJIT and Bryant. Everybody hates Bryant. Admit it.
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I bleed Maroon

Refrider · Joined: 24 Feb 2007 Posts: 63

...and the scary thing is we lose many seniors:including spicer, zavocki, cullen and garner (I know I'm missing one more).

I thought Texas Pan Am would be the worst team I would see this year. I stand corrected, it's Penn. Even so, a team that shot 25% took us into overtime (which without that Chris webber called, probably would have won the game).

Don't know about you but I haven't seen so much "walking" since the American Cancer Society "Relay for Life". event The refs were being kind at the end. They could have called walking on almost every possession.

See ya friday!

TheTruth · Joined: 26 Feb 2007 Posts: 485

Love the commentaries esp. since I can't get back to the games. keep them coming.

notleo · Joined: 18 Sep 2008 Posts: 74

On the way home my daughter talked about autograph day and she said she wants Spicer's autograph in particular. She also misses Vanessa. We're kindred spirits, me and my daughter.

When is Autograph day, my daugther cant wait to meet the whole team?
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notleo

The Maroon · Joined: 23 Feb 2007 Posts: 459 Location: Bethlehem, PA

The Maroon · Joined: 23 Feb 2007 Posts: 459 Location: Bethlehem, PA