5-0........Barely

We just avoided a major set back with a sloppy 66-64 home win vs Hungary last night. I know all the sayings, "a win is a win", "take it anyway you can get it" and "there are no ugly wins". But after the game last night were we just escaped a horrible loss those sayings really don't seem true. It WAS an ugly win. We had control of the game early having a 15 point lead at halftime 37-22. We should have been up by 20 points or more but we failed to put our foot on the gas when we had Hungary on the ropes. We held them to only 22 point at the half but that was fools gold as they missed 10 layups and they had 8 unforced errors turning the ball over for no real reason. We let them go on a 7-0 run to start the second half and now we had our hands full.

As I have said before basketball is a game of runs and confidence. Anytime you have the chance to put away a team early you need to take advantage of it. Let them know that there is absolutely NO way they can get back into the game! Because in the game of basketball if you give a team hope or a reason to play it will more than likely come back to haunt you. And we were one lucky shot away from that happening. We were up by 2 points with 5 seconds left as they came down the floor with the ball. One of their guards was dribbling the length of the court and I had visions of him pulling up for a 3pt, one leg, bank in jump shot to win the game. But he dribbled too deep and took an off balance 2pt shot that hit the side of the rim and fell harmlessly to the ground. After we all took a deep breath we looked up and we were 5-0! The only undefeated team in our group and in the whole competition.

I am not one of those people who think you can learn more from a loss than a win. I think you can do just as effective teaching after a win as after a loss. Especially after a scare like we had last night. Coach Finch did just that as he talked in the very quiet locker room after the game about how we have a once in a lifetime opportunity, playing for your country and working hard to qualify for the 2012 Olympics in you home country. We cannot afford to take anything for granted. We must play every possession of every game like it was the most important play of your life. We have 3 games left and they will be the toughest games of the group. It's starts with our next game on the road against Macedonia the second place team in our group at 4-1.

One last point to make that was brought up at our team meeting today. In FIBA competition all points can count. What I mean by that is if there are any ties in the group the team with the best point differential moves on. That means that our 2 point win last night can come back and cost us. There is a huge impact of 20 point blow out wins in group play. If we take care of business in our next game there will be no worries.