16U Game Today

Today my 16U Team played an away game against SG Bad Essen/Osnabruck. We arrived at the game late so we were limited to a 10 minute warm up, which is fine with me, but the kids just didn't seem focused. I told them to not underestamate any team they play and come out and send a message. The other team was little and not real talented so they just thought they could coast to a victory. SG came out hard and ready to play and we came out flat not ready to play. By the end of the first quarter the score was tied 13-13 to a team we should have been beating by 20points at that point. The second quarter went the same as the first with us just on cruise control and them playing as hard as they can. At halftime the score was 27-29, them. Walking into the locker room at halftime I told my assistant coach things were about to get ugly. I lost my mind during halftime, I yelled at every single player about every single thing they were doing during the game. I told them, AGAIN, you can't just show up and beat people. They think because they're 2-0, at the time, they just show up and win. They are getting too "cocky" and arrogant for me. But, boy did I let them have it during half time. They came out in the second quarter with a 12-2 run, eventually putting the game out of reach. We continued to pressure them into misstakes and bad shots and we were running our offense and finishing at the rim strong. We ended up winning the game 66-52 but I am still not satisfied about their efforts during the game. When they want to they play great defense and run the offense to a "T". But when they just cruise and relax they look like garbage on offense and even worse on defense. Our next game is next weekend and we must win, because its my birthday..haha.