Professional Preparation

It is very important for players (especially ours) to understand what professional preparation is. On this level of basketball, EVERY possession matters thus you must have maximum focus and concentration to compete. To be able to do this you have to be prepared mentally as well as physically. This means eating the right food, studying the game, and getting enough sleep the night before a game. Our BC1 team lost a game by 2 points in overtime because of their preparation (or lack there of). Key players on this team were up last night to 2:30 in the morning, consequently they were sluggish and made poor decisions (A 10 PM curfew has now been implemented. Anyone who breaks this curfew will be suspended for the next game and a second offense will result in suspension for the remaining games while on Tour). They had 41 TURNOVERS (I've never seen a game with this amount of turnovers by one team) and still had a chance to win.

I am VERY disappointed with the players on this team because if they were prepared they would have won this game by at least 20 points. Now instead of playing in the championship bracket, they are playing in the consolation bracket.

This is a tough but important lesson that these young men to need learn and the only way they can truly learn this lesson is through experience. Hopefully they have already learned what it means to be professionally prepared through their experience today and approach the game in an appropriate way moving forward.