Basketball: Mid-Season 2017-2018

February 1, 2018

This season feels a bit different without the player that we relied on all the time - Makeila. I think it was generally better for us because it forced the players to work with each other as opposed to resorting to one player.

During these games, I've learned about my strengths and weaknesses. One of my strengths is defense, as I move around quickly and often communicate with the other defenders. I also can steal the ball easily, as I am short. However, I still have many things to improve on: passing and shooting. Sometimes, I make passes to the other team because I begin to panic when a defender (or more than one) surrounds me and I feel like I cannot see the rest of the court, so I chuck the ball somewhere. Other times, during fast breaks I panic when there's a defender blocking my lane during a layup, causing me to miss many of them. Moreover, when I make bad passes from either making the pass too slowly, not seeing a defender moving there, or issue of communication, this leads to so many turnovers. Also, I haven't been taking many shots, leading me to barely contribute to the points of the game. I'm averaging around 2 points per game, which is worse than last year. But perhaps it is beneficial for me to not shoot as often if I miss a lot more than I make, as my team already struggles with getting rebounds (height is not our advantage), leading to the other team gaining possession.

Also, none of the plays are really working for us. Either one person forgets to move and so the play fails, or the defense from the other team constantly changes, so we do not know how to adjust - especially when they switch to a man defense. When they do that, we pass around aimlessly to avoid getting a turnover, but there is a lack of a cut and pass. I think a main reason why this is one of our weaknesses as a team is because we have so few practices that we can't develop muscle memory or intuition to pass and cut, while the other person either looks for the pass or sets a pick during man-man defense.