Coaches Corner with Lucas Chapman
The ReSporter: Your thoughts on this team before the season and now…what is something
Tyler Clark drives for the basket as Andrew Riali looks on
you have seen that you did not expect?
Coach Chapman: “I think we are finally shaping up to be the team I expected in the pre-season. We are getting up and down the court a lot more and using our athleticism to our advantage. We are steadily improving and for the first time maybe in the history of our program we are playing our best going into district. I don’t know if things are happening that I didn’t expect, I am just glad that we are starting to play like I expected.”
The ReSporter: What has happened that you thought would be better?
Coach Chapman: “I thought we would be better with our man defense, which has been our calling card the past few seasons. Fortunately, we have found an alternative (our zone) that has worked really well for us and has allowed us to play more of the style that we would like to play. Now that I have really looked at it and studied it, our personnel is better suited for a zone defense because it allows us to scramble around and get more steals and deflections. We will still play man defense, but the zone has really saved us this year.”
The ReSporter: How will you game plan your minutes of players going into your District schedule?
Coach Chapman: “When you start thinking about minutes and rotations, you are always conscience of the combination of guys you have on the court. You always want to have some scorers along with some guys who will get after people on defense. Usually in district play the game slows down some because teams are more familiar with each other and game plan to stop specific things or specific players, so we will have to adjust to that. For most of the season we have rotated guys pretty regularly, and we will continue to do that to some degree; however, basketball is a game of match ups, so we will focus on that side of it a little more. We are still going to use all 11 guys on our team. We may just use them a little differently.”
The ReSporter: What light needs to be turned on with your players that would make them a tough team to beat?
Coach Chapman: “We just need to understand that we have to give maximum effort on every possession in order to successfully compete with the teams in our district. We are good and tough to beat when we fly around on defense and get up and down the court. When we play slow we struggle at times. I think that is what has turned our season around the past two weeks, is that we are figuring that out. Once we consistently do it for 4 quarters, then we will be really tough. Also it usually helps when you makes shots.”
The ReSporter: You mentioned the other day that CL did not match up well with Llano, what would need to happen to be able to turn that around?
Coach Chapman: “We didn’t match up with Llano well because of their size at the top of their press. We have some vertically challenged guards on our team, and it is tough to break a trap when a guy is much taller and longer than you. We have moved some people around in our press break to give us more height in the backcourt, so hopefully that will help against teams that will press us in district.”
The ReSporter: Thanks Coach, we wish you the best as the real season commences this Friday.
