Graceketball

Maggie Dixon Classic was fun. The games were both pretty good through the first three quarters. Madison Square Garden sold me obstructed view seats and then moved us to crummy seats when I called them on it. Ordered the tix in the first minutes they went on sale during presale, we were supposed to be third row. Not nice. Very, very deceptive. Madison Square Garden is shady. The whole place is now set up for corporate/sky boxes and there aren't many good seats at all. We probably will not be going back next year unless there is a very good reason to do so. Too bad, this is the third year we have gone and it's been fun up until now. It was nice to see Pat Summitt get the Maggie Dixon Courage Award, she deserves it. It was also great fun to see Brittney Griner again. She played well scoring 17 blocking 6 and pulling down 13. St John's gave Baylor a hard time for much of the game. We've seen St John's 4 times already this season and this is the best they have play...

Hard to believe GraceAnne is finally playing High School ball. Seems like it's been a long time coming even though I have to keep reminding myself she's only 12 and in 7th grade. So far so good. Corinne Turner, as it turns out, is a VERY good coach. Clearly she knows basketball but that's not all there is to it. Only 3 games in and three wins so how do I know she's so good? The kids are going bananas in every practice and every game... they have bought in . That's the hardest part. Knowing plays or anticipating what your teammates are doing is one thing, that will come, diving for loose balls, banging under the boards and getting back on defense? They're already there. The effort is there. Every kid on that team feels invested in the team, the coach, each-other and the outcome... the eventual success or failure of their endeavors. You can see it. Pretty cool to see something come together so quickly. They beat Friends Academy on Monday. They play Cold ...

GraceAnne played her very first game of High School basketball this past Saturday. She did very well and the team won in a come from behind thriller. They started off very slowly but ground out the win taking the lead for good in the fourth quarter. The four 7th graders are the heart of the team but that's not to say the rest aren't contributing in a big way. Interesting thing is this team can only get better. Many of these girls have not played real basketball before and non of them have had a coach that played DI ball. From Sewanhaka High School we went straight to West Hempstead Middle School to play the same St Thomas team the Storm CYO team beat last weekend. This time the Storm took an early lead and were up by as much as 14 before panicking late in the fourth yet again against a weak press and half court trap. They held on to win by 4. Sunday it was out to St Agnes in Rockville Center to meet a team we have not seen before. This was an absolutely crazy game. Crazy ...