HARRY JARVIS BLOG: WEEK 5This weekend has been really long. Saturday night we met with team responsibles, GM and owner included, and they were too frank to us. They asked the team to be more consistent, to show respect for all our fans, and to put our hearts in every play. Tyler Kane was called apart by the GM, and coach called me for a private meeting at the end. Some young players like Walter and Caldwell were frigthened to lose their jobs, while the veterans knew this is part of bussiness. Juwan Bixby was very vocal in that meeting too, and he promised the situation would turn around.
After the meeting, coach told me that he was changing the offensive schemes, and at that moment I was going to lose my primacy as the top offensive player in this team, and the flow of the game would look at Juwan Bixby as a first option, while Rafael Park and me would share the second looks. He was really happy with our defense, but he needed me to lead by the example and the young guys to follow me. He expressed that I was losing my speed but I was still a very important player for the team, and he hoped that my demise as the top player would no make me to lose the illusion.
I dont want to lie. I knew it was coming, and I really dont have any problem with that. I just want to keep playing playoffs, so I offered all my help to coach, and even to explain it to my teammates.
So, the next step was clear, we had to train the new schemes, and we had three seasons in Sunday, and we are training every morning with or without game at night. The results will talk by themselves
DAY 25: ALBACETE at FRANKFURT (W 114-102). We started the week with a winnabe game, but it was on the road. I tried to set the pace from the start by renouncing to some easy shots, expressing that we needed to go inside and tolook for Bixby and Park more often. The results were clear since they combined for 40 shots while i took only 9. Juwan needed to show that he can lead us, and he destoyed Frankfurt with precision, witha performance of 27 points, 14 boards, 4 assists and 3 blocked shots. Park had a good all around game too with 20 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists. The bench production was really appreciated, with MIsha, Caldwell and Robinson combining for 28 points.
DAY 26: ALBACETE vs MIAMI (W 107-89). God blessed us with an easy schedule this week to adjust our new game book. It was a must-win game, so we played with some pressure. Once again we gave the ball to JUwan, and he won the game by himself, scoring 16 of his 26 shots for 34 points. Matt Archer contibuted with a double double, and Kane, who is playing better feeding Bixby first, gave 10 assists for the first time in a while.
DAY 27: ALBACETE vs OMAHA (W 88-74). When you lead by 25 at the mid of 2nd quarter, there is no game and you try to becnh your starters most of the time. The total time played for the starters in this game averaged 20 minutes, so you cant wait a great performance from anyone. Bixby scored 14 points in those 17 minutes he played, and we tried to keep playing in the zone without Bixby and Archer, and we had mixed results. Reuben Sax shot 2 of 17 from the field, but he scored 8 of his 10 free throws. Besides he cotributed with 12 boards. Rookie ower forward Tyris Mayes was really colse to a double double with 9 points and 10 boards, and he keeps showing that i a pair of years he will be an important player. The best of all was our defense, it was what gave us the game because we managed to get an easy win while shooting under 30 % of our shots
DAY 28: NO GAME SCHEDULED. No, youre not allowed to think we had time to rest our bodies. We spent all day in training facilities, in a triple season with some video included. We were called at 6:00 AM, and got back home at 9:00 PM. I think we need to train the execution of our new plays, but we are really tired, and that could be against us in the next hames
DAY 29: ALBACETE vs NEW YORK (W 103-98). We hadnt got our legs for this game, but someway we managed to end with a win. We owe it to Juwan most of all who lead the way with another top notch performance of 28 points and 10 rebounds, and Tyler played as the great PG he should be every night with 14 points and 12 assists. PArk and nme contributed with 14 and 17 pints too, and we got our 4th straight victory even turning the ball over in 25 possesions
DAY 30: ALBACETE at COLORADO (W 84-70). THis was destined to be the first real test in our brand new schemes. Colorado was really playing a good basketball, and we were being terrible on the road. Coach told us that he was really proud of our change of mentality, and that we had nothing to lose in this game, but he wanted us to be the aggresors from the start. When a starting five make only 21 of 63 shots, you think you are going to lose that game, when a rookie playing 16 minutes from the bench lead the scorers, you know you are losing the game. But when you defend like youre betting your life on it, maybe you have a chance. COlorado starters combined for 20 shots made an 70 attenpted. And ateam averaging 103 points per game was reduced to a miserable 70. So, the week has been really good for us, the change has resulted in 5 consecutive wins, and now, repeating the playoffs once again is a hope with some reality into it
HARRY JARVIS BLOG: WEEK 4Nothing like a bad week to start the panic mode. Things are getting uglier, and some of our players are underachieving big time. We have been capable to get just a win this week, but the worst part of it is the sensations im having right now. We can play well at some moments, but we are very unconsistent for the whole game. That makes our chances to disappear in most of the games.
DAY 19: ALBACETE vs BROOKLYN (L 101-107). We managed to stay in this game until the last minutes, we knew it would be real hard for us to take over Brooklyn, but Rafa and Juwan had real good games. While they shot better than us and outrebounded us, we fought rerally hard. Tyler was letargic again and I have to say that it was not my day. I remember the days where Omar Jefferson was warming our bench, and the team did not try to keep him. Now, hes an impressive player, and gave us a good showing about what is the biggest mistake in Albacete's history...well, that and Tony Alfonso. The fans were great, and they were cheering all the time, even when it was clear we had no option.
DAY 20 ALBACETE at BOSTON (L 85-91). We had a good option to start winning games as visitors this week. That was just options. OF course we are a young team, and have some difficulties to stay focused, but we werent the youngest team on the court that night, so i dont want to hear that excuse anytime soon. Juwan and Park had good games, and I seem to have found a very deep shooting slump. We did whatever we needed to lose a game were we shot better, took more rebounds, but lose 24 possesions and missed 10 free throws. What a contrast with Boston, that failed just 2 of their 24 attempts. They only relief of hope is the re-emergence of Rafa, who seems to start finding his niche in this team
DAY 21 ALBACETE vs ARKANSAS (W 103-79). A weak team to have a fun game was needed, and Arkansas came at the best moment for us. We took command from the start, and we stablished a good difference and coach was able to play the bench and give some rest to starters. Anyway, i asked to be kept on the court to regain some confidence in my shot. Young guys like walter walter and Tyris Mayes had more minutes to learn the game and Park scored 16 points in 17 minutes. NOw we are headed to a road trip, where we will be tested. Losing all that games would be terrible
DAY 22: ALBACETE vs PARIS (L 97-105). Paris is one of the least desirable teams to play against when you start to question your team. Competing against Paris is like a visit to the dentist. You know you wont enjoy the moment whichever the result is, and we lost . Not a bad game, but they were too much for us.JUwan was really solid and hes starting to improve his game. Archer was really solid, same for Rafa, but maybe i should start to reduce my importance in the game.
DAY 23: ALBACETE at MEXICO CITY (L 78-98). NOw we can panic. I cant remember a game played with less passion in my whole career. The ball was not distributed, Tyler was not taking care of the ball, i shot terribly bad, Juwan was nulified by Dasing and Park airballed the ball so often that we asked him to look for a pair of glasses. To add fuel to the fire, we outrebunded them by 15 boards, and we got a 20 points loss against the worst team in the league. We should be really afraid about how our crowd will receive us once we come back home.
DAY 24: ALBACETE at SALT LAKE CITY (L 88-91). After an humilliating loss, a 2 hour meeting where coach expressed his willingness to make make some changes without taking care of anyone, playing in SAlt LAke was not a good idea. I dont see union around the team, hte moments where we are together, the sillence is reining, and then we realize there is a game of basketball. The threat of changed did not help us, and everyone started to play the game in an individual basis, there was no team play, as Tyler tried to attack the rim, so the rest of the team found problem to take easy shots.Even with all that we had a 13 points lead at halftime, but we came in the 3rd really relaxed, and SLC attacked us with no mercy. It was devastating, we scored 6 points in 12 minutes and we lost the game from that point. There is a rumour that GM wants to address all those problems, and we are headed to a minicamp
HARRY JARVIS BLOG: WEEK 3One other week has passed and everyone around the team starts to think about the same question: can we win games out of home? This week has been a good indicator with 3 home wins and 3 away losses. As a young group, we were expected to struggle without the support of our fans, but this is starting to be too much. We have lost against some really bad teams, like Concinatti, Seoul...and he have had some injuries, but it cant be an excuse, we were better that these teams, and while i understand that we have to develop our young players, my tank has not too much gas left.
DAY 13: ALBACETE vs ANDORRA (W 111-88). This was an easy game for us, but it had a terrible cost. Ending the first quarter, Rapfael Park felt hardly to the ground and he had to be helped off the court. When we were down in the scoreboard, Nick Adams emerged from the bench to rescue our team. Andorra was driving to the basket and drawing a lot of fouls in the first half, and we were being not aggresive enough. The second half was a different history. We played with passion, and Nick started to distribute the game from the wing. Juwan was scoring at will, and i was finding some shots due to some good screens. The trird quarter was enough to close the game, but the bad news were not ready to end when Walter Walter separated hs left shoulder while aptenting a dunk. So, we had a win, but lost two key players, and Nick Adams, who was being barely used, was our MVP with 20 points and 7 boards in 28 minutes
DAY 14: ALBACETE at CINCINNATI (L 97-98). This game should have been in our WINS column, and we have not even the excuse of being young. We were missing a pair of ballers in Park and Walter, but they were some of the youngest players in the team, so, there were more minutes for veterans. NIck Adams started in place of Raplael Park, and Walter's spot would be replaced by Tyris Mayes. Juwan and me were asked to improve our scoring, in order to avoid missing Rafa, but while we shot more than we usually do, we were constantly doubled and our shots were contested. That was the main reason of our loss, that and being outrebounded by a team like that by 13.
DAY 15: ALBACETE vs SACRAMENTO (W 104-100). One thing that i sawe in this game is how unselfish this team is...maybe too much. Everyone in the starting five took between 13 and 15 shots and i had a really good night from beyond the arc, making 4 of my six tries, but the start of the game was really disappointing,losing by as much as 18 in the first half, in part due to the constant turnovers we made. We made Bobby Egan a candidete for the Hall of Fame in this game with his 29 points and 7 steals, but with Archer's unexpected aportation with his 20 points and 5 blocked shots, and Tyler dishing 12 assists, we got a come back victory.
DAY 16: ALBACETE vs BALTOMORE (W 88-87) This should have been easier for us.. Juwan and me tried to stablish a good pace from the start, and we played very good defense, but he allowed 20 offensive boards and that almost costs us the game. It looks like Rafa has been slowed by his recent injury and hes very hesitant to shoot the ball. Some fans booed us when we allowed 4 offensive boards in the same action, but then Juwan Bixby made them cheer when he blocked 2 consecutive shots. With 1 minute remaining, Baltimore was with 1 point advantadge, But Juwan scored 2 consecutive possesions, and made us to keep a positive record, a good thing considering the hard games we have ahead of us
DAY 17: ALBACETE at ROCHESTER (L 93-99). Finally this team showed some character in a hard game. WE knew we had little options in Rochester. Simply they have more weapons, and that night, Dave Williams was unstoppable. Out of him, we made a good work defending Rochester, and i tried to compete, getting 27 points, and Juwan tried to overcome a bad shooting night with 8 boards, 5 assists and 6 blocks, while PArk competed a very good all around game with 16 points, 7 rebounds and 8 assists. Maybe with a better game of Tyler, we could have had an option. TYler is having problems this season. He is shooting at a really low percentage, and his attitude is not the best one can have when you sign a 28 plus millions contract.
DAY 18: ALBACETE at OREGON (L 86-93). One other impossible mission, but once again we did our best to try to stay in the game. We played a hard nosed defense, but had problems in the other end. ANd we really executed well our plays, but when you face Oregon, all your shots are going to be contested. Lou GOnzales killed us in both ends, while Juwan and me were unable to reach the 20 points mark. As a sign of relief, Tyler had a good game with 15 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists. Maybe some public critisicism could help him in the long run
HARRY JARVIS'BLOG: WEEK 2This has been a weird week for us, since our young players are finding problems to permorm on the road, we are struggling to compete in our games as visitors. I know that the team is trying to make one more movement to try to get a new player, but they say we are almost over the cap, and its hard to find a good player with a decent salary, so we will hve to wait and see what happens.
DAY 7: ALBACETE at NEW YORK (L 102-114). When you find yourself losing by 20 points in the first quarter its time to start asking what the hell youre doing. We spent that morning in Central Park, and some of our guys were still wondering about `Alice in Wonderland' whem the game started. Tyler Kane crashed against a camera in the first minute, and he was limping the whole game. HE was unable to jump all night but he managed to shoot 15 times...he made one for the matter. MAybe coach should have made a substitution, you cant have an injured player jacking his shots that way. Out of Tyler, the rest of the team shot over 50%, with Rafa, Bixby and me combining for 26 of 42 shots, so the problem was the defense. 20 points of disadvantadge are hard to recover, but we found a way, just to fall short in the fourth quarter. Missing 12 free throws is a good thing too, if you want to be in the lottery.
DAY 8: ALBACETE vs CHARLOTTE (L 92-108). We were informed before this game that Tyler Kane was not dressing up for this game. So much for that camera. Without him Geoffrey Caldwell moved to the starting lineup, but the experiment failed in the moment he was fouled out, our team collapsed without our two point guards, and we sucked since the 2nd quarter. Its not just the ball distribution, but we were outrebounded by 21 and while i had a good shooting night, some players never showed for the game. Juwan stablished a new record of blocks, but he lost the battle against Paul Spagnoli, so the night was really hard for us.
DAY 9: ALBACETE vs CANCUN (W 98-79). With Tyler Kane with us again, the game plan was as easy as stopping Parker Mason. Tyler is a great defender, and when focused, he can be a pain for any player in the league. And that was oneof those nights. Mason was well defended, in fact he was pushed out of the game. A shooting night where you make 3 of 22 shots, you cant be proud of that. We limited Cancun's backcourt to 10 of 45 shots and the whole team to a 33% shooting. If you defend like that, its easier to win a game, we just needed to help Juwan, who was unstoppable in the zone. Tyler with 5 steals showed that he is a better player when he plays with a chip in his shoulder, and that trade rumours that flote around him are bogus
DAY 10: ALBACETE at LONDON (W 94-83). Finally a win on the road. London was playing really well, and being in the same division, we needed to win this game. RAfa was our saviour that night, and we all saw that from the start, so Tyler and me started to pass him the ball and we accumulated 19 assists together. Matt Archer was really dominating in the boards with 16. Walter Walter showed how grateful he was with his first chance in years to have meaningful minutes with a good showing with 7 boards and 3 blocks in 23 minutes of play
DAY 11: NO GAME SCHEDULED. After 9 games in a row, im just grateful to have a day to spend with my kids
DAY 12: ALBACETE at SEOUL (L 82-98) A great rival to end the week. We should have won this game. A expansion team with a losing record...al was good vibrations but then the game started, and no one was ready. We shot 36% from the field, and just Matt archer scored half of his shots. We allowed their players to collect more rebounds than us and Lamaitre showed us some lessons
HARRY JARVIS' BLOG: WEEK 1Hi, my name is Harry Jarvis, and if you don't know me, i have played SG for the last ten seasons in ALbacete. GSPN asked me to write a weekly blog talking about my team and the news and gossips around the league. Being one of the top veterans in the league, i couldn't refuse to show all those youngsters who think they own the WBA what is this league about.
I have seen this offseason with mixed feelings. I want to win the championship again before my retirement and it was clear that our team was not ready for it after season 11. The team chose to part ways with two of our most important players basically for picks, and i saw we were taking a step back, not what i needed at that point in my career. They kept saying that hte team shouldn't resign a player like Leo Rice for that amount of money and Whitehouse was 31 and we couldnt rely on him any more. I will really miss Gordon, we have lived a lot together in our years in Siberia and Albacete, but in the end i had to agree with the team. Besides, scouts were raving about unknown adquisition Raphael Park, so i decided to hold on all my criticism. We have some of the best scouts all around the league, and they took an option in free agent Matt Archer a younger and cheaper version of Leo Rice with whom i see we have improved while going younger. Besides the training campshowed us that scouts were not wrong about Raphael Park, this guy is for real, and he works very hard, in fact he told me that being waived by Alaska was a wakeup call and he had to show he had the talent to excel in the WBA. Im very proud of the effort that our big men Walter Walter and Juwan Bixby have put on this summer, and i only pray to extend my career some more seasons to live the blossoming of Walter. In the other hand, i dont like at all how our PGs have worked. I have to talk to Tyler Kane because we expect him to lead us on the court, and his latest outings are not what we need.
DAY 1: ALBACETE vs MEXICO CITY (W 103-85). The schedule has been nice with us to start the season against a bad team at home. We talked about a strong start to take command in the scoreboard early in the game. Bixby took the command of the operations with a monster game which included 20 points and 16 rebounds, but there was a team support. Archer, PArk and me scored 13, 16 and 18 points, while the unexpected scoring punch from the bench was provided by Walter Walter who made 7 of his 8 shots for 15 points. While Mexico interior duo combined for 48 points, thir frontcourt combined for just 14 boards while ours got 37, you can talk about a difference.
DAY 2: ALBACETE vs FRANKFURT (W 106-98). One other easy game, where the fans could boo Tony DiMateo back in Albacete. That guy never received any love here but i think it was his fault. JAcking 3 pointers doesnt involve you in a team. You can have very good nigths, but at the end you have to make more on the court. We invested a lot of money on him and he never paid off. Tony was booed from the start but that had a negative impact for us. He had a great night from long range with 9 three pointers made of his 13 attempts. But this is a team game, and we showed him what that means. Park and me combined for 49 points and Caldwell showed us his quality from the bench scoring 16 points with 7 assists. The hilarious note was the 4 blocked shots of Misha Krisnetsov some of them to Dimateo
DAY 3: ALBACETE vs CAPETOWN (W 91-89). First game against a good rival. And it was at home. And it was really hard. A game where we never trailed from the 2nd quarter, but we never were able to build a confortable lead. WE knew that we had to play a hard nosed defense to have a shot, and distribute our offesne against them. We tok advise from our coach and moved the ball very well. 5 of us scored in double figures, and we dominated the boards 50 to 38. That was the key of the game. I had a good shooting night converting over 50% of my shots for the first time this season
DAY 4: ALBACETE at MIAMI (L 97-116). First game away and first loss. I will take all the beating for this one. We played a very god first half. We were leading at the halftime by 4. After that, things started to work poorly. I was fouled out with 6 minutes remaining in the 3rd, and Caldwell took my place, but 5 minutes after that he felt injured, so, coach had to use some players out of their position to play SG, and Miami destroyed us in the 4th. I still feel that some of the fouls called were wrong, and Troychack loves flopping, but i should have been less active with my hands. I have to show the way to our young players and thats not the way.
DAY 5: ALBACETE vs LONG ISLAND (W 115-97). This was a great win for us. Long Island has a lot of quality in his team and they will find a way to win games. We know we cant stop every player LI have, so we decided to press their backcourt to difficult their ball distribution. We held their backcourt rotation to 10 of 30 shots, and here we started to win the game. Park (or Rafa as we call him) led ud with 24 points and 9 boards, and Juwan Bixby collected another double double, his 5th in five games. Tyler Kane is starting to play as we expect and dissed 12 assists and got 5 steals
DAY 6: ALBACETE at BUDAPEST (L 82-97). Playing this team is going to be hard for any team. They defend like ninjas. We really shot like crap, but all our shots were contested and with a hand in our faces. Its hard to extract any positive comments about this game, unless losing by 15 is not too much if you shot 34% and are outrebounded 55-31. My game was awful, with just 3 of 20 shots made
BTW, i love MAths. Im a fan of stats, and my blog will show some of my calculations. THis week you will see this week's valoration of our players attending to MMF, Aproximated value and VORP Index
|
MMF
|
Juwan_Bixby
|
117.40
|
Raphael_Park
|
108.40
|
Tyler_Kane
|
80.30
|
Harry_Jarvis
|
79.40
|
Matt_Archer
|
69.05
|
Geoffrey_Caldwe
|
56.55
|
Walter_Walter
|
38.55
|
Nick_Adams
|
21.85
|
Misha_Kryznetso
|
21.50
|
Tyris_Mayes
|
12.55
|
Vincent_Robinso
|
12.05
|
Reuben_Sax
|
3.05
|
Kolby_O'Rourke
|
2.45
|
Scott_Jacoby
|
1.00
|
|
VORP
|
Juwan_Bixby
|
28.645
|
Raphael_Park
|
28.135
|
Geoffrey_Caldwe
|
17.545
|
Harry_Jarvis
|
15.981
|
Tyler_Kane
|
11.971
|
Walter_Walter
|
10.970
|
Matt_Archer
|
9.332
|
Tyris_Mayes
|
4.924
|
Vincent_Robinso
|
4.361
|
Nick_Adams
|
3.242
|
Misha_Kryznetso
|
1.241
|
Kolby_O'Rourke
|
-0.105
|
Scott_Jacoby
|
-0.850
|
Reuben_Sax
|
-1.328
|
|
AV
|
Juwan_Bixby
|
1.92771
|
Raphael_Park
|
1.70487
|
Tyler_Kane
|
1.34479
|
Matt_Archer
|
1.33305
|
Harry_Jarvis
|
1.18925
|
Geoffrey_Caldwe
|
1.02658
|
Walter_Walter
|
0.77156
|
Misha_Kryznetso
|
0.54829
|
Nick_Adams
|
0.51634
|
Tyris_Mayes
|
0.34465
|
Vincent_Robinso
|
0.32602
|
Kolby_O'Rourke
|
0.10855
|
Reuben_Sax
|
0.10855
|
Scott_Jacoby
|
0.00000
|
As you can see, They all say that Bixby is our top player, closely followed by Rafa. I dont show too much in these index, but my issue is winning