Coaches Corner: Steve Curtis, Ladies Basketball
Coaches Corner: Steve Curtis, Ladies Basketball
2-4-08
Hello again from Centenary!
Thursday night after practice we loaded our bus and took off to Kansas City. Our bus has enough beds for everyone to sleep comfortably so we decided to drive up overnight rather than spend the day in airports Friday. We pulled into our hotel around 7:30 am, grabbed some breakfast, and headed over to Kemper Arena for practice at 11. I was looking forward to playing there; it is a historic old stadium like many others around the country. There have been numerous big tournaments in that building, including the Final Four won by Danny Manning and Kansas in 1988. While I remember watching that championship game with Oklahoma pretty vividly, a majority of our players here at Centenary hadn't been born when the game was played. I guess I'm getting old.
The game itself was like too many others lately. We got off to a decent start and were within a point a few minutes into it. Then we had breakdowns which cost us and we went into halftime down by a good bit. Coming out of the locker room we had a stretch of very good basketball and were in the game until the last couple of moments. We ended up losing by 11 - our inconsistency cost us again. Ashley played well offensively and Leslie had a very good game defensively, but all in all it adds up to another loss.
We left our hotel in Kansas City on Sunday at 4 a.m. heading for Southern Utah. I was disappointed the fountains outside the Bellagio weren't going as we drove over to the Forum Shops adjacent to Caesar's Palace. We had a long flight into Las Vegas and I wanted to let the players walk around for about 45 minutes to shake off the effects of the plane ride. From there it was over to Paris to hit the buffet. The architects did a great job of making the inside look like the streets of Paris, and of course there were lots of pictures taken by the Eiffel Tower.
After lunch we were back on the bus and off to Cedar City, Utah. It was raining so the sky was a mixture of grays; in fact the mountains gave the impression of a giant marble Bundt cake. Just above the desert floor was a layer of black, followed by the white of the fogs and clouds mixed in, with other layers of black, white, and deep gray. The top of the mountains were above the clouds, which added to the illusion.
About an hour north of Vegas you descend into the Virgin River Gorge, which the "river" carved over millions of years. Actually it's more like a creek �- when I think of a river I think of something more like the Mississippi where I grew up. As I thought of how long it took for the water to carve through the mountains and create the chasm my thoughts turned to our program. There are no shortcuts to building it successfully. We have to forge ahead, constantly keeping the pressure on to improve, and eventually we will shape Centenary Women's Basketball into something grand. We need some urgency because we don't have a million years to get it done.
The game with Southern Utah was one of the worst of the season for us. We started slowly and never recovered. There is a sign outside of the visiting locker room there that says "Welcome to Centrum Arena �- A mile high where the air is rare." We talked with our players about how it was put there to influence weak minded teams. In reality the altitude was not a factor in the game at all. During the first few minutes of play we made several defensive miscues to give them easy shots. A few weeks ago we were at the top of the conference in three point percentage defense, but in two of the last three games we have given up numerous wide open looks behind the arc. Consistency is not our strong suit, to say the least.
The rest of this column should be titled �'Another Glamorous Day in the Life of the College Athlete'. We met in the lobby of our hotel at 3 a.m. Tuesday morning after the Southern Utah game. Our flight was scheduled to leave Vegas at 7:15. I was trying to sleep on the bus around 5 a.m. when my phone rang. It was the airline letting me know our flight was delayed until 8:30. Not a problem, we had a two hour layover in Dallas so we should make our connection. As we checked in Bethany's bag was overweight so she put some of her school books in Bojan's suitcase. We boarded our plane but as we sat on the runway the pilot came on and said "They are shutting down several runways in Dallas due to high winds, so we will have to sit here for a few minutes and see what happens." After awhile we taxied back to the gate, and eventually we got clearance to take off.
DFW was down to two runways �- one for flights coming in and the other for flights going out. We felt pretty good about making our connecting flight since most flights in Dallas were delayed as well. After a bumpy landing around 2:45 p.m. we rushed to see about our flight - it had just left. There were five more flights scheduled for Shreveport later in the day but one of those had already been cancelled. We got onto the standby list for the next flight out and began weighing our options. There was a flight to Longview with a few seats on it; could we find anyone to pick up a few people there? It was about to leave so we had to find someone soon. The airport workers said we would probably get a few people on flights to Shreveport but not everyone would make it, certainly not on the flight that was about to go out.
We began calling rental car companies to see about possibilities there. Most were sold out because of all the cancellations. I gathered the team and gave them the plan. We would send one coach with as many players as could get on the next flight to campus. We would choose based on seniority; our only senior, Brittany, would go first followed by Karolina, our only junior. Bethany, Leslie, and Monique, the three sophomores, were next in line. With that they headed down the corridor to grab some food �- it had been a long time since breakfast. After a moment I looked up to see Britt walking toward me. She came back to say she wanted to stay behind. Her first class was late the next day and some of the freshmen had class before hers. If there were a Hall of Fame for great people Brittany would be a unanimous first ballot selection. She never ceases to amaze me. I sent her back down to eat and suddenly a voice behind the counter shouted "OK we're ready. Give me the names of the ones who are going." I called Bojan and told him to quickly send the older players back before they gave their seats to the other travelers on standby. KC boarded with all the players except the freshmen and Britt. Then the gate attendant said "We have room for one more. Do you have someone ready?" I looked up to see Anne strolling back to the gate so she was the lucky one. She grabbed her backpack and headed down the runway.
My phone rang: it was KC calling to say there were several empty seats on the plane. I rushed over to the counter to ask about it. The attendant looked at me like ..... well I guess it was a long day for her as well. She explained with all the cancelled fights there were extra bags on board and the plane was over the weight limit. The remaining flights were overbooked so the chances of the rest of us flying home that night were remote. We decided our best bet was to catch a shuttle to the rental car area. There were no vans available so we rented two cars and hit the road - just in time for the five o'clock traffic in downtown Dallas. KC called about 5:30 to say the first contingent had made it home safely along with a few of our suitcases. She gathered all the bags that were there and left them in the locker room for the next wave of travelers. I stopped by the Shreveport airport around 8:15 to see if any other bags had made it in. All were there except two �- Sarah's and Bojan's (the one with Bethany's books).
There was a nice moment as the ones left behind walked away from our gate area. A lady who had been sitting nearby walked over to Brittany and Ashley. She noticed us when we came in because she knows someone who works at Centenary. She told them she was very impressed by how well the girls behaved as we scrambled around trying to find a way home. She also said she was going to call her friend to let her know she should be proud to have them representing her school. I just smiled because I know what a terrific group of young ladies we have in our program. I am very proud of them. As our program develops and we begin to stack up victories, I hope we never lose sight of the importance of behaving properly and representing our school, teammates, and families in a first class manner.
See you next week.
Go Centenary!
1-24-08
Hello again from Centenary!
The travel schedule in our conference is challenging to say the least. One of the things I like about the Summit League, however, is the different places we get to visit. The first paragraph on the Centenary home page is a statement with three words highlighted (explore, invent, connect). Our student-athletes definitely get to explore. I have always believed travel is an important part of a person's education. It is one thing to read about different places, but quite another to actually visit them. Last week we were in Northern Indiana and Detroit, and our girls got to experience snow and temperatures in the teens. That's a little different from Louisiana. This week we are headed to Kansas City and Las Vegas. Down the road we will visit Chicago, Indianapolis, Tulsa, and the Dakotas. Seeing America is one of the best things about being a college athlete at Centenary.
Of course there are two sides to the story. While it is good to visit these places, we also have to compete with the schools we are visiting. The days are long and arduous; it's not unusual to spend 10 hours on buses, on planes, and in airports. One of the challenges is trying to work in practice around all the time on the road. This year we are going to try something different; we are going to practice on Tuesdays after the Monday night games. This will allow us to use Wednesday as our day off. Usually coaches like to take the day after a game off then get back into action after that. Our problem is that Tuesdays are travel days for us. Last season many of our "off" days were spent traveling all day. We would pull into the Gold Dome parking lot as late as 9 pm. Then on Wednesday they would have to catch up on the class work they missed and get back on the practice floor. So employing this season's idea we headed back over to the gym at Oakland Tuesday morning at 8:30. We had a decent practice before bussing back to the hotel to shower, pack, and ride to the airport. We got home around 8:30 pm. Monday was the first day of class for the spring semester, so they spent Wednesday going around meeting with their professors in addition to going to class.
After two good days of work we had a game with IUPUI Saturday at 3 pm. We went back and forth early, but soon we were done in by our turnovers. This has been a constant problem in the last few games, and it is not getting any better. It is not just one player struggling with them; it has run throughout the entire squad. IUPUI played a defense we hadn't seen before and we didn't handle it very well. The frustrating thing is there were openings we didn't take advantage of. Individually there were some bright spots, led by another good game from Anne. The bottom line is we let an early lead get away, which resulted in another loss.
Sunday we spent time watching film and practicing. We have so much to learn, and this film session seemed to go pretty well. The missed reads and assignments were there for all to see. I know we are young but we as coaches have to teach better and the players have to learn better. There are a lot of things we are missing that would make a big difference for us. Monday night we hosted Western Illinois, who came into the game undefeated in league play and sporting a two-game lead in the standings. They are another veteran team �- almost all the players in their rotation are juniors and seniors. They shoot the three-point shot very well, as we found out late in the first half. We got off to a good start and grabbed an early lead. About midway in the first half we were tied but then the floodgates opened. They made three after three, ending the half making seven for ten. That's 21 points on ten possessions, which means if we had made ten consecutive lay-ups we would have been outscored by one. They did a very good job of spreading us out, and they moved the ball extremely well, but hand in hand with that we didn't do a good enough job of getting to their shooters. They were up big at halftime and went on to a victory that was far too easy. I can see us struggling with our confidence. All the signs are there �- the missed shots around the basket, the dribbles off our feet out of bounds, the errant passes and missed catches. So here we are; a very young team at the crossroads. My main concern is that we keep improving and grow into the team we can become. It won't be easy �- and it shouldn't be. Competitive athletics is about what you do when things are going against you. It's fun when you win: everyone tells you how great you are, you have friends everywhere, life is one big smile. But the true test in sports, as it is in life, is what you do when things get tough. That's where we are. But I know our players are not happy with that, and they are going to do what is necessary to build this program into what we want it to be.
After the game with Western Illinois I was driving home with my dad, who was up for the weekend, and John, who recently celebrated his eighth birthday. While in my usual post loss sulk I looked back at John and asked, "John, what did you think about Daddy's game?" Without missing a beat he responded, "It was pretty good Dad. You just needed 30 more points." Aren't kids the greatest thing in the world? John, just like our team, still has a lot to learn. See you next week.
Go Centenary!
1-16-08
Hello!
I'm sure you are familiar with the saying "it's a small world". We had living proof of that one day after practice last week. Michael Bastian, former softball coach at Centenary, is now coaching the Chinese National Softball Team. He was in Shreveport for a few days and stopped by the Gold Dome. As most of you know Sarah was born in China and lived there until she moved to California a couple of years ago. When Michael saw her walk by he said hello to her in Chinese. She stopped in her tracks and her face lit up hearing her native language. They began to talk about her home town, life over there, the Olympics coming up in Beijing, and even some people they both knew. She signed a media guide for him to take back to his team. They spent some time with Bojan in his office (when Bojan was in college his team took a tour of China). As I walked by listening to three people talk about their experiences on the other side of the world, in stepped Karolina �- from Poland! Five people, four countries, and one passion �- to compete in athletics at the highest level. I guess it really is a small world.
Friday was one of the typical Summit League travel days. We left the Go
