Chapter 13

He put the JV players to shooting foul shots and had his varsity sit in the stands. He had been told that several people had applied for the JV job.

"OK, two things. Starting today we are playing some zone defense as well as our switching man-to-man. Understand? And we are pressing when we score, every time we score. We press, scramble, but it's kind of loose. Nobody gets behind us, center stays all the way back and guards our basket. The defense is two out front, one in the lane, that's Larry, and two in the back, two-one-two it's called."

In his mind lay the trapping 1-3-1 but that was much more complicated. He had Dwyer's book on it. He pushed the thought aside and concentrated on the present; it was problem enough. They still looked unhappy, like they expected to lose.

Larry James, a junior, was six-six and now by far the tallest boy on the team, skinny but eager, he would be the middle man for sure. He was right-handed and, unfortunately, only right handed. He stepped on his own feet when he went left.

"That's one more thing." He raised his voice. "Joe," he yelled, "come here." The boy ran over. "This is Joe Shorts, and we are going to do an experiment. Joe is a hell of a shooter. Watch. Mike, go out and feed him. Joe, do the arc, all the way around like we talked about."

The boy nodded and started on the right sideline. He shot, swished it and moved to his left. The other player caught the ball and passed it out to him. He shot and moved to his left. Another swish.