Bro. Neal’s Chat with Coach Biehl #4

“The Crusaders played four district games since our last chat. They edged Holy Cross 46-45 before losing to Shaw 52-50 the next night. Curtis fell 58-46 three days later. The lone away game came last Friday when the Crusaders won a surprisingly easy 58-30 victory at Rummel. 

“The loss to Shaw was a tough one,” says Coach Chris Biehl. “We led the game for 31 minutes and 57 seconds but found a way at the end to not finish the deal. We have to use that as a learning experience and make sure it never happens again. We were up 21 at the end of the third quarter, and they knocked down a three as the horn sounded. It seems like a little thing, but that got their momentum going. We have to grow from it. We’ve been practicing hard to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

“The team was really down. After a game like that, you’re not a coach as much as you are a psychologist. You have to choose your words correctly and wisely. I wasn’t trying to draw roses on an ugly picture. But I told the team that Shaw is universally believed to be the best team in the district, and you were up 20 on them after 24 minutes of play. That tells you what you’re capable of doing. But at the end of the day, when you get outscored 24-6 in the last quarter, that tells you how bad you can be too. It was self-inflicted wounds more than anything that hurt us. I don’t recall them scoring more than six points in their half-court offense. It was a matter of us turning the ball over, and they scored off of it.

“It was a mess at all levels. When we did break the press, we didn’t run an offense. We were rushing like we were the team that was losing. When they pressed us, we showed zero poise. Corey Skillman is our primary ball handler. When he fouled out, it became even more of a mess. At some point, younger guys have to step up. We’re practicing it even more so now than we were before, trying to learn from our mistakes. We saw a little bit of a press from John Curtis who, in my opinion, is a more athletic team than Shaw. And I thought we handled Curtis’s press extremely well with the exception of one possession.”

The Holy Cross game was another nail-biter. Clayton Lonardo hit a jump shot with five seconds left in the game to put the Crusaders in front by one. Holy Cross called a timeout. With the Crusaders applying full-court pressure, the Tigers got the ball to midcourt but instead of continuing and taking a long shot, the player called timeout with less than two seconds on the clock. They barely got the ball inbounds, and the shot was blocked to seal the victory.

“I’ve been in that scenario a couple of times,” says Coach Biehl. “As a coach at the end of the game, you want the opportunity to have more control of the look that you got. But the timeout also gave us an opportunity. In the 60-second timeout (after Lonardo’s basket), we put in a brand new defense that I don’t think I’ve done in the last 15 years at least. Our kids played it perfectly.

“I was not surprised it was a close game. Coach Kirkwood and I have coached against each other for the last 25 years. I know him, and he knows me. We know what the other’s tendencies are. They have a real young team that plays hard and confidently. They’re the type of team that will knock off someone who’s really good. We got an early lead, and I thought we took our foot off the gas way too early. We let Holy Cross hang around, and teams like that can be dangerous.”

Coach Biehl was surprised by the margin of victory at Rummel. “Rummel is a much better team than the score indicates. For that reason, it’s our best win since late December.”

The coaching staff was concerned about Rummel’s postman, Ja’Mard Jones. “He has some of the best post moves I’ve seen a kid have in a long time. They’re very post-play centered, which you don’t see a lot of these days.” But the Crusaders held Jones to just one basket as Ray Lotten “played the best game of his career. The irony is that it was his career-low in points. He was one-for-one for two points. I don’t coach shot-blocking very often, but we’ve turned him loose. Defensively, he was phenomenal. He’s the most improved player on our team.”

Unfortunately, Lotten will not play against Jesuit this Friday night because of an injury.

“It’s a big adjustment. You can’t replace Ray Lotten, who’s 6’6″ and 225 lbs. and jumps extremely well. Clayton Lonardo will fill in for him. He’s played really well for us. He’s still getting his basketball legs under him after football season. But we are confident that Clayton will be able to do a lot of things we need to do against Jesuit. I hope he comes out and clears the boards for us and scores a lot of points.”

What do we have to do better against Jesuit this time? “We have to cut down on turnovers, especially unforced turnovers. We were just careless with the ball in the game at Jesuit. We also did a miserable job of blocking out. The last few days of practice this week, blocking out has been a premium. If we don’t block out after the week of practice we’ve had, we never will. Defensively, we did a lot of good things in the first game, but we can do a lot better.”