Open Gym

What a great open gym we had today! The opportunity that the players got to improve their game was just outstanding. Today we reviewed our new offense "Drive" and added options, patterns and opportunities for them to understand, in order to succeed in this brilliant, new style of play. The whole Morris Catholic coaching staff is excited about tweaking our style of play. We are doing this in order to complement the strengths of the players we have in this program. For example, if we had 3 outstanding big men who had incredible post moves that were 6 foot 4 and above, but were slow. We would be in a situation where we would be trying to play a slow up, half court game in order to try and expose mismatches on the post. BUT.... that's not exactly the situation. We have some good guards who have good perimeter and full court skills. So the coaching staff is trying to put them in a situation where they can be successful, which is our new "Drive" offense. Although we are tweaking our style of play, we are not forgetting about what we have developed over the last 2 years. And although I talk about not having giant size big men, do not be mistaken that big guys do not exist in our program. Jeff Rogers is not exactly huge, but the kid plays big and plays his tail off every single play is never afraid to put his body in harms way in order to help the team win. That in itself, makes him an invaluable big guy (so unselfish). Jeff is averaging almost 2 charges per game in summer league games.

We also had 2 incoming freshman workouts this week at the open gyms. I was very excited that I got to work with them and see them perform, but like all freshman, they seemed like dear in headlights. Mostly because we introduced them the baseline (flex) offense. Which is not an easy offense to understand in 2 days. With that being said, I am excited to work with them in order to improve their game.

But we had an excellent person show up, who was a senior last year, to get a workout in with them. (MC Bball alumni are always welcomed back with open arms to get a workout in ANY TIME they want.) His name is Ryan Smith. Just a great, natural leader who led his team on and off the court last year. We had a successful year, and a big reason for that was him. He was vocal, told other players what they should do better and had a knack for having everyone on the team understand that it wasn't about them....It was about what was best for the team! Ryan will be missed.

Lets move onto the next topic....You might call this old school because there are not enough people that buy into this concept in todays society....but you wanna talk about HARD WORK...There is no shortcut to being successful.....All it takes hard work!!! If you want to be a PLAYER, get after it!!!


The Morris Catholic future is bright and I am incredibly happy to be a part of it!!!


LETS GOOOOO!!!