Coaches Corner for January 7th: Brian Surratt, Madrid Boys Basketball

With us on Coach's Corner here in K to B B G going to talk matter of boys basketball. Brian's rat joining us. Tiger's coming off. Couple of nice wins to start the second half of the season, Brian. And I know you guys had a chance to get into the gym during break.

Maybe we'll just kind of touch on that a little bit. Then we'll talk about the two games after break. But did you feel like the kids got a lot of good work in while you guys were on break? Yeah, it was nice to get a full week off and to get some reps with the kids.

We had several guys that were kind of nursing some injuries that needed a little bit of time off to hopefully help with some of that.

And then lots of things that we needed a little extra time to work on over break, which is hard to do when you're preparing for games and during regular season where when you start games, your practice schedule reduces a little bit just to reduce the load on everybody.

So yeah, we got a really good break. Saw a lot of positive things over that time. And then the last couple of games that we've had, we've seen that growth continue. And really pleased with how that turned out. Well, never an easy time.

I've always said whenever you take kids schedules and you mess around with a little bit, I know coaches that makes you a little bit nervous. How did you guys approach the Augging game when you guys weren't in school?

Yeah, I mean, one of the benefits, I guess, that have been to a state tournament is that you kind of have some of these where you're playing and maybe you're not in school all day or things like that. And so we kind of approached in that same way.

And so we had a little bit of a short practice shoot around in the morning, just to get everybody up and moving around. And then we came back for the bus left and got some more shots up. And then we went and played the game. And that method seems to work.

Had a little experience with that. So that I think helped us. We weren't just laying around all day doing nothing, waking up at noon kind of thing. So we came out. We played pretty well to start. And so I was very pleased with that, too. All right.

So I know you love to get after defensively, but I also know you love to see the team when they're getting up and down and knocking down shots and layups and whatnot. So you had 45 points in the first half against Augging.

You had quarters where you gave up 14 and 8 in that first half. So what was more fun? What was the defense getting after it? Or did you enjoy the offense kind of flowing well that night?

Yeah, I mean, that's kind of like the hard part where you're enjoying it, but you're not enjoying it. The offense is great because we need more consistent offense. Hitting some shots definitely helps. And we've done that a little bit more the last couple of games.

But still defensively, I've told our kids, we need to be holding opponents under 45 points. Right now, I think we're giving up 53 or 54 a game, which is way too much. It puts you in a lot closer games.

You lose some games that maybe you wouldn't lose if you were a little bit better defensively. So that's something that we're trying to focus on. And quite honestly, that is the biggest difference from being a good team to a great team is your ability to defend.

And last year's team, that was really the difference for us. Yes, we had a ton of offense. But the defense was there pretty much every night holding the opponents down, which made victories look bigger than they would look when you're just a good team that plays good defense.

So it's something that we're going to continue to focus on and look at. And I'm glad that offense is there. But I would rather seek some more consistent defense. Well, I'll tell you what.

You go from having a Friday night where you don't have school, then you go right back to a Monday game against a high quality opponent, Ankeny Christian. And I got to tell you what, Coach, I thought that was a real nice team, number one. Boy, oh boy, what about Logan Bogardus?

I'm just going to fast forward to the second half because this kid just ice in the veins. I mean, there were free throws that he had to step up and hit because Ankeny Christian just kept hitting shots. This kid goes eight for eight in the second half, Brian.

You talk about Logan a little bit. Yeah, Logan, he works so hard. He's by far the hardest worker on our team and our best defender. So he expends a lot of energy on the court during the game, taking care of the basketball and bringing it up.

But on the flip side, he's guarding their best, usually their best player, their best guard. And he's up in their face and getting after them. He competes. That's probably the biggest compliment that I can give Logan is that he's a competitor.

He's not going to lay down for anybody. He's not going to go half speed. He's going to always put everything that he has into it. And he does. And then part of that, you know, it takes a little toughness to be able to go that hard all the time.

And that toughness rolled over into those free throws. When you're a tough kid and you're mentally tough, you put in situations that, you know, some people don't want to be put into. And for you, that's, you know, to be where you thrive.

And Logan did a great job of stepping up and making those free throws late in the game and icing it for us. And, you know, something definitely that'll give him some confidence. Hopefully he can continue to build off of that.

Well, your sophomores, I'm not trying to group Logan, even though he's a sophomore with everybody, but I mean, I thought Max Fowler defended well. I thought Colby Owens gave you great minutes.

And I haven't even talked about Zach Newell yet who hit three threes in the game, which you go, okay, that's a pretty good night, but they were huge threes at the time, Brian. Yeah, they were big threes. And Zach is probably our best shooter.

He's just been a little persistent this year with it. We've been working on some mechanical things for him. My expectation was, you know, I thought he would shoot it at a pretty high clip and it just hasn't quite translated that way yet.

But, you know, he's had a couple really big games that have saved us a pressing game early in the year. He hasn't yet four threes in that one.

And then the three threes here at Ankeny Christian were really huge, especially the two that he had in a row in the second half, you know, propelled us to a pretty good size lead that we were able to hang on to.

And again, it's just, it's one of the things where, you know, you need people that can stretch the floor. We obviously have the inside game, which Evan and Emerson, Max, and even Zach, some.

But we need to be able to consistently hit outside shots to get more space for those guys to work. Ankeny Christian was really packing it in. So that's kind of one of the things I thought, well, you know, we're gonna stick our shooter in the corner and make them come out.

And if they don't want to come out, we're just gonna sit out there and shoot. And he did a really good job of knocking those down. And, you know, shooters, once they see one go in, they, you know, feel like they can make them all.

And Zach feels that way too, you know, sometimes maybe need to make a little bit better selection of what he shoots, you know, the shot that he's taken. But he did a really good job of stepping up in those minutes.

Well, I hate to say this next number because I hate making basketball season ghosts that aren't quick, but coach 11 down, 10 to go. ACGC next on the docket.

And this is a team that lost a lot from last year, I'm sure, probably used Christmas break to try to get, you know, kids, maybe a little bit more accustomed to here. This is what we kind of expect, varsity wise. But what are you seeing from the Chargers this year?

Yeah, you know, they did lose a lot and they've got a lot of young players playing, which will serve them well in the future. But it is difficult to play with young kids and they're trying to work through it.

They don't have a ton of size, but they got a lot of guys that can shoot from three. So we got to make sure that we're getting out on them and not giving them any second chance opportunities to hit those shots.

But yeah, they're, you know, developing and getting better and just trying to improve every week. And they're definitely going to be a tough out. There's no easy games whenever you play ACGC, they're very well coached. And so, you know, I expect that one to be a battle.

Should be. Brian, as always, thank you so much for some time. Best of luck coming up on Friday. We'll see you for Des Moines Christian next week. Sounds good, thanks, Ryan. You bet, that's Brian Stratt joining us. Matter of boys, basketball here in Coach's Corner.