Rams Need To Do The Little Things To Continue To Get Better
NEPTUNE, NJ–Over the ten years that I have been running this web site, I’ve had many talks with one of South River’s biggest fans about the state of its basketball program. One of the most recent discussions that occurred toward the end of the season, I found myself trying to point out the positives in a Rams season that didn’t look so bright. South River won 11 games this year. True they were below .500, and won only one game in division this year, but they did notch a GMCT victory in the Play-In round, and beat many of the teams that they were supposed to beat en route to its first state tourney berth since 2005.
The Rams almost had as many wins as it did over the past three seasons combined. In addition, they’ll be moving down to the GMC Gold next year, where they will have a better chance at being more competitive. South River is losing the likes of forward Shawn Fenton, and guard Brandon Walsh, but they do have a great deal still coming back including Xavier Foster, Larry Smith, Tyler Harris, Gavin Campbell, and Kyle Majewski. Head coach, Rodney Harris is continuing to make steps to improve the program by placing his team in this year’s Spring League at the Hoop Group Headquarters. He still feels that his program needs a feeder program established to get things rolling. Things like that have worked in places such as Monroe, which has an excellent traveling basketball program.
Right now is a key moment in South River basketball because the program is still learning how to win. While many may view this past season’s 11-16 mark and 1-11 record in division play as a failure, I don’t. I feel that it is a step in the right direction. However, South River has to learn to acquire the ability to do the intangibles, the little things, that add up to victories more than scoring and making shots. There are some fundamental issues with the Rams such as free throws. In the 50 minutes of basketball that I’ve seen the Rams play this spring, they are 1 of 16 at the foul line. They need to work on that in order to improve in the win column. Foul shots can be the difference, especially in close games. It cannot be overlooked. Now, some of that takes talent and technique, but it can be done with a good deal of practice.
However, things such as drawing charges, playing good defense, and hustling (especially after making a mistake) takes something else. It’s more of a philosophy or a mental approach to how you play the game. Tyler Harris has done a solid job of hustling in the two games that I’ve seen him play. This is despite the fact that he came into the spring off an abscess on his tailbone that kept him out a month. The one thing that I’ve seen happen at certain moments over these two games, is giving up on a play after making a mistake. It happened against the Sabertooths in the 53-36 loss when a South River player dribbled the ball off his foot, and didn’t go after the ball. Consequently, the Rams gave up a layup. Last week, a similar thing happened when a player lost the handle on the ball, and got upset with himself rather than try to get back on defense to stop the G-Force Black from scoring.
One big mistake that I made in high school was that I always got down on myself when I made a mistake. I also valued scoring and shooting more than doing the little things like hustling, getting rebounds, playing good defense, and drawing charges. There are plenty of other statistical categories to make your mark in. More importantly, if you do those other things, your teammates will see that, and try to give you some scoring opportunities. On top of all that, there is the most important stat of all, a win! So, Rams, you got to do those little things because they do add up to a lot. Once you embrace that as a philosophy, winning games will become commonplace.