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BENNETT'S MINUTES: A few tidbits from holiday tourneys
Holiday basketball tournament action can sometimes be really good, and other times really bad.
For the players, the thought of preparing for games without having to worry about the stress of classes, tests or other projects makes the time period appealing.
For coaches, it’s the chance to often hone their skills on having limited preparation time for the next opponent — which is valuable at sectional time.
Girls’ teams rarely schedule games on back-to-back days, but such tournaments normally require either multiple games in one day or games on consecutive days (which also helps them at sectional time).
Six of our varsity basketball teams played in holiday tournaments last week. Our invaluable correspondent Gary Hazlett covered the boys’ and girls’ events at Monrovia, while I took on the others.
Here are some odds and ends from mine:
Deaf School methods prove interesting
Last Thursday, I went to Speedway for the four-team tournament also involving North Putnam, the Indiana Deaf School and Rising Sun.
There were numerous reasons to go to the tourney. North Putnam had a legitimate chance to win its first tourney of any kind in 16 years, and my other two experiences in the Speedway gymnasium (South Putnam girls’ regional losses the past two springs) were not all that great.
It sure wasn’t because taking photographs is easy there. Eagle coach Brian Gardner told me last year that after playing in the gym two years ago, he actually turned off half the lights in the South Putnam gym in regional-week practice last year to get ready for the dungeon-like atmosphere.
One other anticipated highlight was the chance to see the Indiana Deaf School play basketball for the first time. I had seen the Orioles play football a long time ago, when they struck a big drum (like the one the Purdue band has) on the sidelines to indicate to everyone on offense when to begin the play.
Basketball is obviously structured much differently, and the transition from offense to defense happens much quicker and more often.
I was impressed at how well the IDS players were able to function in a sport where audio communication is so vital, but in their case is not possible.
The IDS coach (Amanda Huser) was predictably very adept at sign language, and got along several messages during the allotted timeout periods. She had an interpreter, through which she could communicate with officials or scorekeepers.
At halftime, she was quite displeased with the officiating and (through the interpreter) really “gave it to them.” I wondered if she had gone too far overboard which one of them would have been ejected....
Huser and her assistant coach used a technique not usually seen in varsity competition. During timeouts, one of them would go out onto the court and demonstrate where they were supposed to go and what they were supposed to do.
I wondered if play would sometimes continue beyond a whistle, but the girls seemed to have no trouble knowing when to stop. Probably through a combination of looking around at everyone else, and the fact that not all students at IDS have a 100 percent hearing loss. I imagine the piercing whistles of the referees can be heard at least by some of the players.
The two games played by IDS were understandably quieter than normal. Not only was the crowd smaller, due to being a weekday tournament with morning and afternoon games, but there seemed to be less noise overall among the crowd.
I don’t know sign language, and it was interesting to see if I could identify some of the gestures as they related to basketball. One obvious one was the signal for a charging foul, which the IDS coaches seemed to explain to their players at one point by hitting their open left palm with their right fist.
North Putnam defeated IDS relatively easily in the first round, and eventually lost to Speedway in the finals. IDS met Rising Sun in the consolation game, the game went down to the wire with the Shiners coming out on top.
The only time that communication seemed to be detrimental to the Orioles came at the end of the consolation game, when Rising Sun inbounded the ball and threw it out of bounds without anyone touching it. A few seconds ran off the clock, and the coaches were unable to tell the officials what had happened.
Overall, though, they handled the situation well. The Orioles only dressed five players for each game, and did not seem to tire in either game.
I saw by the North Putnam players as they were waiting for the consolation game to end, and they seemed to have developed empathy for the IDS players. Despite having no rooting interest in either team, they were cheering for the Orioles. That was cool.
Two of their players were talented enough to play for most teams I’ve seen this year, and their record this season is still 9-4 after losing two games that day.
The Orioles were 12-12 last year, but in the seasons before that they were 19-5, 15-8 and 17-9 under Huser.
Many fully-functional teams seem to have trouble communicating. Those teams could learn a lot from these girls.
Eastern Greene trip simply nightmarish
On Friday, I embarked on a trip to see Cloverdale’s girls play in the Toby Yoho Classic at Eastern Greene.
I had been there once before to cover a football game several years ago, but I wasn’t sure how I got there so I relied on my phone map.
Mistake No. 1.
If you’ve talked to anyone from Cloverdale who made the trip southward from Indiana 46 on Indiana 43, they are not exaggerating about how awful the path there was.
My phone sent me a on a series of smaller roads, a tactic which rarely results in being drastically lost and in fear for my safety. I can’t make that claim this time. I spent a lot of time on Newark Road, and I could not totally rule out the possibility that I was in New Jersey.
I knew things were bad when I inadvertently went into someone’s driveway due to an unpredictable road shift, and my phone told me that I had arrived at my destination. I had not. Not even close. I lost cell service soon thereafter, and at one point the little blue dot came back on (somehow) and I managed to guide myself down roads (many with no names). It really wasn’t much different than Sandra Bullock’s river navigation in “Bird Box.”
The travel through the countryside of northern Greene County provided me what I was sure were ample opportunities to buy meth, if I had chosen. The informal nature of the area was depicted in a sign crudely posted at an intersection saying “Missing three black cows.” No phone number or other contact information. People around there just knew.
To further complicate matters, a skill I have finely honed over my lifetime, I did not fill up with gas after going through Spencer since my phone told me I was 22 miles from my destination.
Potential mistake No. 2.
All came out well in the end, though. Cloverdale won the game (even though I got there two minutes after the scheduled starting time and they were already in the second quarter). I found a gas station, and a different route home.
How remote is this place?
I called one of the Cloverdale parents in trying to find the gym (because, of course, they play at the elementary school) and left a voice mail message. That message was not received by the parent until late Wednesday afternoon.
Next year, if my schedule takes me there, I’m finding a different route, printing out the directions before leaving and also getting a full tank of gas.
FFWVC provides surprise winner
The First Financial Wabash Valley Classic has provided many great moments over the years, as the organizers try to keep alive the underdog vs. favorite theme with schools of all different sizes.
I only saw two games this year, with two of the pre-tourney favorites (Linton-Stockton and undefeated Casey-Westfield) meeting in the second game, which was just before Cloverdale vs. South Vermillion.
Linton-Stockton won the first game, and most observers predicted the Miners would play defending champion Edgewood in the other bracket.
The Mustangs had risen to No. 3 in the Associated Press rankings, but hadn’t played as well lately.
They wound up losing to Terre Haute North in the second round, and were eliminated by Robinson in the first consolation round.
Terre Haute North, which had entered the to tourney 0-6, pounded Linton-Stockton 66-36 in the finals.
Other winners
South Putnam’s girls lost to University 64-43 in the Monrovia finals, while the host Bulldogs beat Greenwood Christian 65-41 in the boys’ finals at Monrovia.
Owen Valley edged Brownstown Central (the only team to beat Cloverdale at Eastern Greene) 46-43 in the finals of that tourney.