Coaches Corner for January 14th: Kelvin Adams, Madrid Girls Basketball

With us on Coach's Corner here in KWBEG, going to talk some Attred Girls basketball, Kelvin Adams joining us. Tigers had a rare Tuesday night off.

Don't get a lot of those once the season gets rolling, but it just kind of worked out that way where the boys were on the road last night. So Kelvin, you had a chance to, I don't know, what do you do on a Tuesday night when you're not coaching?

I'll tell you what, we made the best decision, Ryan, that I think we could have made and we had a good practice. Got a lot of shots up and then we had a team meal at Pancho Villa and mattered. So we hit the local Mexican establishment for a little Taco Tuesday action.

So if it's not a game, I think that was the next best thing we could have done. Boy, if there's nothing that I know you like more than basketball, it's a nice Taco Tuesday night. Now, did you go with the right amount a little bit too much? I mean, it's Tuesday night.

What did you do there? I'll tell you what, we had platters of quesadillas and tajitos just in the, so we had, we had a bunch left over, but I made that, I made sure to send them home with Coach Dvorak and his family. So that way they weren't sitting in my fridge.

I had, I had plenty. So I know the best part is I don't have to work it out to practice today. No, you don't at all. No, you don't at all.

Well, we're in that time of the season where midway through January, I always say this is kind of, well, this can be a rough time of the year just because it's still getting dark early. It's still cold.

It's still, you're getting after, you know, a tough schedule as always with the West central activities conference. But I tell you what, Kelvin, the last time I saw you guys was back on January the fifth. You had a beautiful win against Ankeny Christian that night. Yeah.

We've had kind of an interesting schedule layout this year with nine games before break. And then came back and kind of the way Christmas break fell this year opening with Ogden on a Friday with no school was a little bit different.

So we had, we had a busy stretch there with a lot of practices and then right into a Friday and Monday game. But the girls responded well and played well both at Ogden and really played well.

But Ankeny Christian on that Monday just did a great job of taking care of the basketball and defending that night.

Well, and something else that I know we've talked about this year is we're got, we, we got to get games for us offensively, somewhere in the upper thirties to in the forties. You know, if we do that, we're going to have real good chances to win.

I got to tell you what Kelvin, if you keep holding teams around 30, 23, you know, 35 points, you're going to have more than good chances to win. That's a pretty good defensive team that can bring it in any given night. Yeah.

And we're still, still trying to find consistency on the defensive end. So we have some games like that Monday night of Ankeny Christian that, that show us we're capable. And then, and that's been our focus in practice.

We hit shell drill every single day and try to make it as competitive as possible because we still have lapses at times and games.

But when it clicks like that on a Monday night against Anthony Christian, it's fun to watch and fun to reiterate with the girls that this is, this is what they are capable of when they really lock in on the, on the defensive end.

Well, we're also getting to that time of the year where, you know, postseason pairings will be coming out. And I know schedule coming up with Des Moines Christian Friday, Greene County, Woodward Granger, West Central Valley, Panorama, heck I can even throw Erlam in there as well.

I mean, this is a stretch Kelvin, and it's probably been a while for us to be able to say this, but this is a big stretch where there's a ton of winnable games. And I guess there's also a ton of usable games in there as well. Yeah. It's you're right.

It is looking at the back half of the schedule and years past, we definitely haven't been able to sit there and circle, you know, games that you know, you need to take care of business or, you know, coin flip type games, but we definitely have a lot of those left on the schedule on your Friday night with DMC.

It's, you know, they're top of the conference for a reason. They're a really great team, but you know, that's a, that's a great opportunity for us to, to work on ourselves and compete and challenge against a really, really good basketball team.

But then that following week's a big week for us where we go Monday, Monday, Thursday, Friday. That's the time of year two where you start seeing teams the second time that you played on the front half.

And so making some adjustments to things that didn't work the first time and, and honing in on some things that maybe did. So we'll take it one game at a time. But yeah, we, we like some of the opportunities we have on this back half.

You might've just answered my question, Kelvin, but I was just going to ask you about that. When you start seeing teams the second time, do you go fresh scouting report or do you look back at what you did to see, did that scouting report kind of come true?

We definitely referenced and just kind of edit the previous scouting report. So we have a coach Smith, like coach with the baller who was on a bench with us this year and kind of held behind the scenes last year.

And I would argue that there's not a better guy in the state for scouting. He spends a lot of time and is locked in. So we got a lot of trust in the work he does for us there. So we'll make some tweaks to it. And we go back definitely and watch the previous films.

So our clips when we plan this time, we'll include some of what of our last game. And so definitely don't scrap it all together. For time's sake, especially when you got three game leaks and stuff like that, you got to, you got to salvage some of it.

So we'll, we'll definitely make some changes, but we'll keep, keep the base of it. Kelvin, I know you have some, some experience, some, some kids that were part of varsity last year, but she also got a pretty good chunk of kids that did not play varsity.

And some of them weren't even in high school last year. How are they right now with the amount of games that they're playing? Because obviously that, that number is definitely eclipsed what they probably did last year.

Well, and even for our, for our sophomores, you know, last year we didn't, weren't fortunate enough to have a JV team.

So, you know, this year getting the opportunity to play a JV schedule has been huge because for our sophomores, it's the most basketball they've played since they were in eighth grade. And so just that game experience is what, what our young kids need.

They need to get on the court, put on a jersey, make mistakes, learn from those mistakes.

And so our freshmen and sophomores have done a great job of that and got into some competitive games and some, some learning situations, which we haven't been fortunate enough to have in my previous years here. And so, so they're growing, they're growing every day.

And for some of them, you know, the playing time is different still. So we look at practices as their opportunity to get better. And so yeah, we're just happy with, happy with their progress and I wanted to see them keep turning that way the rest of the season.

Calvin, final thing for me. I know last time we talked, you were getting super excited for Christmas. You said you couldn't wait to open up the presents and watch all the movies and, and, you know, maybe get a couple of ugly, you know, sweaters or not. I don't know.

But my question is, A, did you get enough socks for Christmas and B, any ties in there as well? I tell you what, I was, I was ties early. My dad and I both have probably close to 200 ties. So each, I know I'm going to inherit those. So, so ties are off the Christmas list.

My mother-in-law always buys a pack of like four socks, pairs of socks and splits it between my nephew and my brother-in-law and I. So I got my one pair of socks for my mother-in-law. And so I'll wear those till there's holes in them next Christmas and wait for that new pair.

Very proud of you. Very proud of you. Calvin, as always, thank you so much for some time. We'll see you Friday night. Thanks, man. Appreciate it. You bet. Calvin Adams again joining us, Madra Girls Basketball here in Coach's Corner.