Picking Up the Pieces

Hello everyone. So sorry for the absence. Since my last post on December 5, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas/New Years/Martin Luther King Jr. Day/whatever other significant events happened in your lives. Being a senior, I've had lots of projects and scholarships rear their ugly heads at me. Since a lot of those things have died down, I'll be trying my hardest to start consistently updating the blog again.

Okay. Time to talk some basketball.

Obviously a lot of games have happened since my last post (the Eagles have gone 8-4 since.) But at the risk of making a ridiculously long blog post, I'm going to stick to writing about the most recent stretch of Christian High School basketball.

Unfortunately, it's going to be the least fun to talk about.

It seems that our beloved Eagles have hit a bit of a skid. After taking the Clopton tournament, the Eagles dropped their first home game of the season in ugly fashion to the Winfield Warriors. This loss broke an undefeated streak of 9 games against the Warriors and showed that the Eagles once again have a rival for the district crown. I won't hang around on this loss specifically (maybe some of the stats) because it happened a few weeks ago and getting hung up on the past never does anyone any good. Also, Winfield is clearly an inferior team to the Eagles so I don't think there is much to talk about. In contrast, there is much to talk about regarding this past week. Starting Monday, the Eagles took the floor at Fox High School for the annual Fox Tournament, a tournament which the Eagles took third in last year. They came out of the two week stretch on a strong note, defeating Fort Zumwalt South 58-51, furthering their dominance against the GAC this year (they're 4-0 against GAC opponents this year.) However, the Eagles followed this victory up with an uncharacteristic loss to a clearly weaker Gateway Tech squad. To the Eagles chagrin however, Zumwalt South was able to top Gateway Tech the following night, giving the tiebreaker to the Eagles.

On Friday night, the Eagles took the floor against University City, a team with more athleticism, more height and more prestige. However, the Eagles usually pay no heed to teams with this reputation. Alas, that didn't apply on Friday. The Eagles were toppled 74-61 in a well-fought, if sometimes shaky effort against the UCity Lions. To start off, I want to say that I think this was a legitimate loss for the Eagles. The Lions were an extremely athletic, well-coached team that featured a few explosive scorers and some lights-out shooters. The 13-point margin was not characteristic of how close the game was (I'd say it was about a 5 or 6 point game.) This was clearly seen when the Eagles battled back from a 12 point deficit to cut the lead to 1 point at the beginning of the fourth quarter (courtesy of a trio of Marcksman treys and two Adam Glenville free throws.) Just look at this insert of the stltoday.com article in which David Gammon, head coach of University City, gave the Eagles some very high compliments.

“That's a real good basketball team,'' Lions coach David Gammon said of the Eagles, who battled back several times before University City pulled away late. “That No. 21 (Evan Marcks) can really shoot it, and they just would not quit."

That being said, this game got out of the Eagles hands. Yes, the Lions got off to a 6-6 shooting start. Yes, they had the clear size advantage down low. And yes, Travon Williams, a 23 PPG player was held to 4 points in the first three quarters. To counter those points, however: the Eagles didn't put themselves in a good position by getting off to a cold shooting start; there were too many times when easy rebounds fell into Lion hands or were stripped away due to soft hands; and Williams could not be contained in the fourth, where he put up 15 points and closed the game out for University City. But I digress. I say all this to conclude with this statement: the loss to UCity doesn't bother me in a nagging way. I guess the loss to Gateway Tech doesn't either.

What does bother me is how the two games were lost. And these same reasons relate back to one thing: you guessed it, the Winfield loss.

The first problem I've seen in this 1-3 slide is probably pretty apparent to most of you. If you follow the Twitter account, then you probably got about 10 tweets about it on Friday night. It's a nine-letter word that starts with t and ends with urnovers . The Eagles have averaged two turnovers more in this past four game stretch then they did in their 4-0 beginning to the season, a start that featured wins against Timberland, Winfield (yes, the same team), Fort Zumwalt North and Clopton (the blood donor.) Okay, so two turnovers may not seem like a big difference. But let me ask you something: which number seems larger in this context?

The Eagles had 15 turnovers in the game.

The Eagles had 17 turnovers in the game.

Anyone else see what I mean? It may not seem like much. But seventeen turnovers is way too many. Heck, fifteen is too many. And these aren't just a few mistakes. These are travels. These are double dribbles. These are baseball passes over the heads of everyone on the court. In other words, these are fundamental problems that the Eagles shouldn't have problems with. But for some reason, they are. Instead of dictating the pace like they often did in the early part of the season, the Eagles are letting opposing teams run the floor, putting the Eagles in pressure situations where the ball needs to move faster. This is where the Eagles get out of control. Even still, the guys need to be smarter mentally, even when they find themselves in a bit of a hole or a rut. This is an explosive offensive team that can get steals and run the floor with most teams. Deficits shouldn't last long when the Eagles are playing their game and not someone else's.

The second trend is one that I find puzzling, but coming with an easy fix. The Eagles are almost exactly a 33.34% team from beyond the arc. The Marcksman leads the team with a 47.14 percentage. That's not great, but for a high school team, that's perfectly fine. Especially when you have a sharpshooter like Evan. Does anyone care to guess how the Eagles have shot the long ball in their past three losses? Anyone? Bueller?

13-48

27%

Yikes.

Breaking it down, Evan is 7-22 in the past three losses. The rest of the team is 6-26. I can forgive this lower-than-average stretch for Evan, especially because he seems to come up with his biggest shots when they're most needed. In the Winfield game, he hit a few big treys when the Eagles were making a push to broaden the gap. In Friday night's matchup, he hit three consecutive long balls to take the Lion lead from 12 to 3. He is a key cog in the Eagles' offensive strategy and has more than proven his ability to hit big shots. What I take issue with is the 6-26 from the rest of the team. Now, I don't want to tell anyone how to play their game, especially not a guy who averages more than 20 points per game. He seems to know what he is doing. But I wonder how much farther Adam Glenville's game would go if he wouldn't rely on the three so much. I guess rely isn't the right word. Maybe expose is. Not expose as in show weakness. More of a "letting the cat out of the bag" type of thing. Adam is a good shooter. He has range and that is what makes him a dangerous player. However, the strongest part of his game is around the rim. He is a tenacious forward with a great touch around the basket and a slashing drive. He has the ability to grab rebounds, get fouled and make his shots from the charity stripe (he is shooting 76% on the season, the best on the team.) When he demonstrates his ability to drive, teams will start giving him room, opening up the jump shot. This is where his range becomes dangerous. His multi-dimensional game doesn't have time to develop when he looks for the three.

Also of note is Lance Lehmann. Lance is a good shooter as well. His issue, however, lies in two areas. Shot selection and aggressiveness. With his jumper still developing, Lance needs to look for more spot up jump shots, a shot he has shown that he can hit with some consistency. He also needs to have some more confidence in his drive. Lance, with his long wingspan, has the ability to handle the ball and make his own shots in the paint and a little ways out. Lehmann's big games have come when he aids the Eagles in running the floor, making transition shots (which he has quite a knack for) and making his own shots off of his drive. When Lance plays well, the Eagles seem to be on a whole new level.

Yes, the Eagles are in a bit of a rut right now. And yes, the guys have some reason to be frustrated. But this is still the same team that started the season 10-1. This is still one of the deepest and most talented teams in school history. This is still a team with intensity and heart to match any team in Missouri. And after all is said and done, the Eagles are still the favorite to win this year's district tournament, which is being played on the CHS home floor. All they need to do is find the form to match the talent. And if I've learned anything from watching this team and Coach Meers, the answer shouldn't be too hard to find.

Bold Prediction of the Day: The Eagles will enter districts with a 20-5 record and the number one seed. In the Eagles last ten games, they play two of their tougher opponents on the road (Whitfield and Westminster.) But the Eagles tend to step up for big games and this stretch of losses points to good times ahead. The Eagles will finally get the Westminster monkey off their back and take down the Wildcats. However, if they want to knock off Whitfield for the second year in a row, they're going to need to have a near-perfect game. The rest of the schedule isn't easy, but the Eagles are the better team in the other eight match ups. Look for the Eagles to have their third 20-win season locked up when districts rolls around.