Coaches Corner for March 24th: Jared Adreon, Ogden Girls Basketball

With us on Coach's Corner here on KWBG, get a chance to put a wrap on the Auden Girls basketball season as Jared Adrian joins us. The Bulldogs tell you what, I think from where I saw you guys at the beginning of the season, coach, to where I saw you.

And I'm trying to think what game for sure. I think it was. It was somewhere in the middle, probably the West Central Valley game, where I really felt like you guys competed well there on the road.

Glidden Ralston, I thought was a game that on paper looked like, oh boy, this could be a rough one. I thought you hung around real well that night too. And you did some stuff toward the tail end of the season, Jared, that I know you had been wanting to get done.

Cut, cut down the turnovers, get better shot looks. That stuff was starting to happen. Unfortunately, we ran out of season.

Yeah, I think it was one of those things where even early in the season, we were playing, you know, at times and pretty good defense and keeping games close, it was just kind of the scoring, consistent scoring is where we got hurt and he had some close games there, even with Perry and Pleasantville as well earlier in the year and Woodard Granger, we had a nice battle with them.

But we were kind of stuck in the twenties and then the other teams were in the thirties and forties, kind of like what you had on there at turnovers and just losing possessions of chances to score, but also given the other team more opportunities to score.

And I think kind of later in the season where we did start to improve taking care of the basketball and getting into our sets and running our press breaker, I think was something that we did better at the end of the year.

Kind of turned into other problems where we were lacking some physicality and consistency on the rebounding side of things too. So, but the girls definitely battled and improved throughout the year.

That's a common theme that I heard from other coaches in the conference as we were competing, as they watched a lot of film and at our all conference meeting, just talking to a few of them. That's definitely something that we heard as well.

Well, and I'll even give you the radio guy compliment too.

And I mean, obviously with watching a bunch of basketball throughout the season and different teams and whether it be Boone one night, Ogden one night, Matt, and that, I mean, that was the one thing that I definitely noticed from the, from the girls is never a game where I watched them play, got done and went, wow, they did not want to be in this gym tonight.

Like I'm not sure what happened in pregame, but it was not good. I mean, they always looked prepared. It was just, man, there are so many things and you know it, you've coached enough basketball.

You know, as well as I do that when it comes to, okay, up and down the court, all right, this possession, all right, we didn't get a shot. We turn it over. This possession, we didn't get a shot. We turned it over.

When that starts to compound and starts to go together and we get it over and over and over again, I mean, all of a sudden it's 10 zip. You're calling a timeout and going girls, we got to relax a little bit here, but it still 10 zip. Yeah.

But I remember a couple of years ago hearing a quote from another coach about how you can't win a game in the first quarter, but sometimes you can, you can definitely lose a game in the first quarter. Kind of put you behind the eight ball a little bit.

But this group, when you would do that, when you'd call that timeout after an eight Oh run or whatever was, and they were a group that were able to respond to that.

And yeah, I think attitudes is something that was definitely pretty consistent throughout the season where, you know, we could pull a girl to the side, you know, during free throws or, or whatnot, a dead ball scenario and get them back on the same page or, you know, there's a time or two where they maybe have to sit for a minute and just kind of reset themselves, talk with their teammates and talk with coach Lake and get some things figured out.

But then they're right back in there and responding in the way that we wanted them to. So I was just really proud of them to keeping their attitude and effort always at a premium and being really consistent in that area.

Cause those are the things that you can control on a daily basis where you can't always control a ball fall on your way. But I did a nice job in those two areas.

Well, and you had a couple of seniors that had been there with you throughout as well with Lauren Matthews and also with Anna Wilson. And, and we always give you an opportunity. I know Jared to talk about seniors at the end of the season.

When you, when you think back about those two seniors, what do you think that you'll think about them here five, 10 years down the road? I just something that I've kind of always took, took from my own experience.

And it's a lot of my coaches, but especially Dick Smith, always wanted to appreciate your seniors that spend four years in your program. And these two were definitely at the top of the list for that.

They, they were just two kids that they just have that presence of calmness when you know, maybe things aren't going exactly the way you want it to. They weren't somebody that's going to turn and scream at you.

They're somebody that's going to put their arm around you and just kind of let you know what you need to do and give you the right tone and the right message at the right time.

And I'd also say too, to point out with those two, just two kids that kind of had some injuries throughout their careers. So it was kind of tough, I know for Lauren last year getting into rhythm with her shoulder injury and then Anna this year with her hip injury as well.

Both of those two battled through those two things really well. And I think that's something too that serves you for after basketball too, is just working through those injuries and being a good teammate, working in that area as well, just being a good person.

I think those are two people that just really stand out at that. But then obviously they brought us some nice things on the basketball floor too. I have to compliment them on that as well.

Well, the neat part is, is, you know, having two girls like that go through the program and through the wars and everything. And now I look at what's coming for next season and we've got, you know, obviously it's the bigger junior class. It'll be seniors now.

It'll be one of the bigger classes that goes through Ogden. When you talk about girls that'll graduate and you've got obviously the sophomore class that has been, you know, very important for Ogden girls basketball.

You also got some help from Layla Wells this year as well as a freshman. And I know that was a difficult thing. And I remember when she first came up and I thought, Jared, why hasn't this girl been up for a while? She's, she's played extremely well.

And I remember you told me something. You said, listen, if Layla had played, you know, varsity all season long, we probably wouldn't have had a JV team. He just didn't have the numbers to bring her up.

So when she did come up and did start getting some meaningful varsity minutes, it feels like she's, she's got a real high ceiling to the next three years. Yeah, for sure. And you know, coach Lake and I talked a lot about that.

We talked a little bit in the preseason about where she would be placement wise. And I think JV was the correct route there so she can build some confidence and start to see some things on the floor at that speed.

And then, you know, she completely earned that spot through practice time and just her overall work ethic, her coachability.

She's definitely something that when something happens and she thinks that maybe she messed up on something, she's looking to us to see what, what was going on.

But then throughout the year, she was able to figure those things out on her own, on the fly, because that's what you have to do in basketball is you have to be able to figure out things during the game and not always look into the coach.

And she was able to do that nicely there through the first half of the season. And then we got her uniform there right before Christmas break. And she really did some nice things for us in the second half of the season.

And I think that just helped her adjust to the varsity game speed, which is quite a bit faster than the junior high season that she was at the previous year. Yeah, we probably were in our efforts. We forget that, Jared.

When I see freshmen girls, when it comes to postseason or when it comes to state basketball, and I think these girls were in junior high last year, I mean, that really gives, I think the spectrum of how quick it goes from being an eighth grader to a freshman, that's a whole new world, isn't it?

Yeah, I think you get some pretty big eyes with them sometimes, but it's really exciting too, because yeah, you just don't know where that ceiling is, but you know that she's definitely going to be one that has a high ceiling. So really excited to see what the future brings her.

No question. Final thing, Jared, I know that this has been out now for a couple of weeks.

We just hadn't had a chance to wrap up this season, but you made the choice at the end of the season to have this be your last season and for Augging Girls basketball and just doing some different things, I think, for the future of Jared Adrian, and I know you're looking forward to that, but I know that you'll definitely miss your time in the gym and I know that was a tough choice for you.

Yeah, that was something that at the end of the year, I just had to sit back and reflect a little bit and then once we came to that decision, we brought the girls in that following Monday and Coach Lake and I brought them in so they could hear it from us first.

We thought that was really important is making sure the girls were the first ones to find out and not finding out from other people because we do appreciate them and all their efforts this season and we told them we had a fun season.

It was an enjoyable season, but it is something where I had to make some decisions here about the future.

So overall, just really grateful for the opportunity to coach the last four years as head coach with Coach Lake, Coach Oskins and Coach Smith and then also being an assistant for the program as well with the other four years with Van Wike and John Barbier.

So just really, really lucky to be a part of the program for the last eight years, but it's time for a change and I will move on to the next thing. Jared, thank you so much for some time. Always appreciate the coaches corners. Always appreciate chatting beforehand.

It's always funny. I always forget and I do this all the time with my coaches. I always forget that you guys are teachers too, because when you and I would talk before games and I've told this story, I don't know if I ever told you, but I'll tell you on the air right now.

But whenever you and I are talking before games or something, there is always about 10 or 12 or 15 little kids that are coming up, Mr. Adrian, Mr. Adrian. I don't know how you know all their names in like a heartbeat, but my friend, that is a skill.

And so I will give you a big compliment on that because I don't know if we ever had a conversation that lasted more than five minutes without a Mr. Adrian, Mr. Adrian. So that's at the tip of the cap for me to you.

But thank you so much for all the time for coaches corners and all seriousness and interviews and everything else. You did a great job for Ogden girls basketball. And I appreciate you. And I appreciate your time and celebrating what these kids do for Boone County basketball.

So just appreciate all your coverage and time and efforts. So thank you. You bet. Jared Adrian again joining us on girls basketball here on coaches corner.