If the task at hand was daunting before we left Indianapolis, it was scary after scouting that game. Pecks All-Stars were a team with credentials. Several College Freshman and All-State team members from Kansas and Missouri. They had two girls about Karen's size and a lot of quickness. They were good.
They were the tournament favorites.
They got killed.
The French team dominated them.
This was the French Junior Olympic Team. They attended the same high school in Paris to facilitate their training, and there were many more players at that school. This was France's traveling team.
They were all older than any girl on our team, and their two smallest players, their point guards, would have been the second tallest players on our team. They had seven girls over 6 feet, and four of them were taller than Karen: 6'5, 6'6, and two at 6'8. The guards and the 6'5 forward were quick, and the other three big girls were not weak sisters. This team played a lot and played a lot together with professional coaches and trainers.
We gave up an average of six inches per player. Karen was giving away at least ten pounds to every girl on that front line. Forwards Monique and Paula were going to have to guard and rebound against players almost a foot taller!
As we watched the game, everyone was kind of quiet. I took notes and pointed things out, and either the girls were listening or were scared speechless.
On the drive back to the hotel, it started quietly, and then Karen started talking about how big and slow the big girls were and how they never left the ground when they shot their jumpers.
She was 'gonna' smack their stuff.
Miranda started making fun of their uniforms. They didn't wear 'boxer' type trunks like basketball players but briefs. She kept referring to what today we would call 'muffin tops.'
Someone suggested tickling the big girls before rebounding because they exposed their midriffs when they raised their arms.
I think it was Monique who commented about how much the big girls perspired, and they better not lean on her.
It was on.
When we got back to the hotel, I pulled the van to the far end of the parking lot, and we unloaded. Then I put the girls through a team-building exercise. Something like those shared confidence games where someone stands on a chair with their eyes closed, they are then instructed to fall back into the others' waiting arms. It seemed to be a positive exercise, but only the girls could tell you if it helped. Read about the 'Puri.'
I went over the game plan with the captains after breakfast, and then we conducted a walk-through practice in the parking lot. The captains liked the game plan, and everyone soaked it up at the walk-through. In coaching sports, adults, boys, girls, etc. I never had a team execute a plan as well as this team did that day. It probably paled compared to most game plans, but it proved that a mediocre game plan's excellent execution was better than the lousy execution of a great game plan.
The game plan:
Offense: We didn't change our offense for this game. We knew it well, and it served us well. The French team played zone the whole game against Peck's All-Stars, a 2-1-2 and some 1-3-1. Naturally, we were going to push the ball and run. Speed and quickness was our strong point, and after their guards and one forward, we felt we could get numbers on them before the big girls got back and set up. As always, the perimeter girls were to look inside-shot-back inside-rotate. When inside, everyone was to look shot/rebound. When looking shot, no one was to pass up an open one. We couldn't afford to be passive. Monique, Canandra, and Miranda were to penetrate at every opportunity, and when Karen touched the ball, she was to get her shot. We felt their size couldn't match our speed, and we could get them in foul trouble. Even though they had so much depth that there would be little drop-off if we got them in foul trouble, we felt the bonus free throws and the psychological effect would help us.
We usually liked to attack zones with the low post popping up to the free-throw line or the point penetrating and dumping. But we felt the French team's zone shifted too slowly, so when the ball went to the wing, Karen [or Rocky or Kim] was to flash from the weak-side low post to the ball side, high or low, and Miranda or Rocky was to flash to the area that Karen didn't. Monique or Paula was to roam the weak side and look for position on the weak-side rebound.
Defense: We felt that we gave up too much playing man to man. They could post up anyone they chose, and if they went at Karen, while she, Miranda, and Monique could have played any one of them one on one, they had endless size to throw at us, and it would just be a matter of numbers before we got in foul trouble.
Their coach played them in typical European style; everyone, including the big girls, had a perimeter shot. They liked to penetrate and kick it back out with two big girls in the corner, two guards on the wing, and the 6'5 forward, running the baseline and popping to the free-throw line for jumpers. They would routinely rotate it down to the corner and look for a big girl to take the outside shot or drop it down to another big girl flashing in the post or the 6'5 forward popping up.
1. We felt that the guards would kill us with their outside shooting and their penetration. But they tended to shoot set shots, and when they penetrated, they weren't particularly effective in traffic. They managed to beat Pecks guards with a big first step, and when the defense collapsed to help, they kicked it out to the big girls in the corner. So priority number one was to stop the guards out front. In the walk-through, we changed our normal 2-1-2 zone to a 2-2-1 with Karen under the basket. None of our players had played a 2-2-1 before, so I instructed the guards and forwards to play it like a 2-1-2, but their areas would be about 2-3 feet higher than usual. Same for the forwards. Karen was to stay in the lane and protect the basket. When the French team's guards had the ball out front, our guards were to play 'hit and recover.' In shooting their set shots, all the French girls' stepped into' it. We felt that we could play off of them to keep from being beaten by that first step, and whenever they started to step into their shot, we could jump at them to disrupt their rhythm and recover to where we could 'catch' that first step.
2. Like most European centers, the big girls tended to have outside shots but not nearly as good as their guards. The drawback of this is that they tend to favor it over playing inside. Just look at all the European seven-footers who have come into the NBA as highly touted players only to fail because they never adjusted to inside play. This has changed in the decades since the 90s. Everyone wants to be a guard at heart. At the time, international rules had a three-point line, and the percentage these girls shot from the corner might have made those shots acceptable, but that percentage for a two-point shot makes it a bad shot. The French girls were used to playing international rules and weren't adjusting to the lack of a three-point line. We were comfortable giving them that low percentage shot in the hopes that they would neglect their inside game, which we felt was how they could hurt us most.
3. Our third defensive priority was stopping the 6'5 forward. We felt by giving the big girls the corner shot; we could stay in and pick-up the forward when she popped up. Simultaneously, by 'hit & recover,' we could keep the 'lane' congested.
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