Grinnell vs. Central

Growing up in Vermont and now living in Iowa I have seen my fair share of barns. The basketball terminology of being unable to hit "the broad side of a barn" is familiar and a effective metaphor for a poor shooting night...and a perfect description of what happened when we played Central College last Tuesday.

We shot 18% from the field and 9% from behind the 3-pt arc. Despite the fact that we had more steals, more blocks, and less turnovers, the Dutch outscored us by almost 30 points. For a coach there are two ways to think about a game like this. One, you could say it was just an off-night and the team will shoot better the next game. Or two, you could ponder the situation over the course of multiple days (and multiple turkey dinners) and come to the conclusion that there needs to be a drastic change in how you teach and drill shooting. I am leaning towards the second option.

The previous game we shot 39 % from the field, 43% from 3-pt land. What could be different? We were on the road. It was a weeknight versus a weekend night. It was the day before vacation. The gym and hoops were different. The lighting was different. We were wearing black versus white.

The list goes on and on. After consulting with my official and unofficial assistants I realized three things; to be able to perform consistently on the road and at home we need to shoot and train in an environment that is altered on a daily basis. Second, no matter where we are competing our technique needs to remain unchanged and correct. The fundamentals are always the fundamentals. Third and final, we need to shoot under more intense defensive pressure in practice.

We have four days until we open Midwest Conference play. We will be shooting A LOT of shots. We will be returning to the fundamentals of shooting. BEEF! (Balance, elbow, eyes, and follow through) And we will be demanding a higher level of performance from the athletes while under pressure.

We could just say it was an off-night, but I'm not willing to take that chance.