Graceketball

Great Day! GraceAnne, Remi, Blake and I went to the Maggie Dixon Classic yesterday afternoon at Madison Square Garden. It is the second year we've gone. Last year we Saw Brittany Griner, Kim Mulkey and the Baylor Bears beat Boston College in the first game and Pat Summit, Kelly Caine and the The Tennessee Lady Vols beat Rutgers in the second. This year was even better than last! The #1 ranked UConn Huskies played the #11 Ohio State Buckeyes in the second game for their 88th consecutive win, a collegiate record. In the first game the #8 ranked Texas A&M Aggies blew out the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. It was VERY cool for us to be there to witness history and for GraceAnne to see some of the girls that she has worked with play in such an important game. Tiffany Hayes was just amazing scoring 26 points on some absolutely spectacular driving layups. I never thought about it before but Tiffany, a junior, has NEVER lost as a Husky. Lorin Dixon got big minutes subbing out Bria Hartle...

Had a great time last night at the St John's v Seton Hall basketball game! GraceAnne and Grace Stone watched intently while the Red Storm rolled over the Pirates. Getting the girls out to games like this is great for them. They learn a lot but they also get a love and appreciation for the game and the hard work that goes into becoming a good player. Coach Duffy and Coach Arico both waved to the girls from the bench which was very nice. Makes them feel like they are a part of things. On Monday we went to see the Glen Cove varsity girls play. They beat Sewanhaka and both the Glen Cove eighth graders, Taylah Hudson and McKayla Hernandez, had good games leading the team in scoring. McKayla led the team again last night with 17 points in another win but... Taylah broke her pinky finger. Hoping for a quick and painless recovery, very nice kid, great player.

Interesting week so far. On Saturday 12/4 GraceAnne worked with Brittany Hunter. It was a lot of fun to watch Brittany take her through a whole progression of post moves, jab steps, pull up jumpers, reverse layups, etc.. I recorded enough so that Grace will be able to do the workout on her own. Brittany explains everything in a very clear and accessible way that Grace seems to understand easily. Its one thing to be told to do something, execute a move, and another to understand why you are working on what you're doing, why there is a right way to do it and why it matters. I'm kind of amazed at how much of what Brittany is teaching Grace she immediately applies in a game. Hard to know if she's thinking it through or if the repetition and muscle memory just kicks in, probably both. Whatever it is its great to watch. Later Saturday we came back to Glen Cove for an open gym with Storm teammates at the high school. Only four of our girls showed up but it was the core playe...

Monday evening Grace's Hudson Storm CYO team played Christ The King of Commack. Very good team, well coached tough, aggressive players. Grace had a very good game especially in the second half. She got into foul trouble very early which took her out of the game for a bit but recovered nicely playing most of the second half with four fouls. She eventually fouled out with a little over a minute and a half remaining. Storm won by 3 in a back and forth game with a number of ties. Storm is now 9-0 and has a tough St Pat's team this Sunday 8:15pm in Smithtown... yes, 8:15 at a gym an hour away on a school night. Great practice Wednesday night. Bigs got a lot of work in. Coach Hudson is trying to get them to be more aggressive around the basket. The team also had an opportunity to scrimmage the 7th-8th grade boys team. That was lot of fun to watch! Grace was very aggressive and really banged around with the bigs, grabbing rebounds, blocking a couple shots and scoring twice. Tomorr...