Semi-Finals

Jaythiev Davis slicing through our defense.

Last week we faced off against reigning champ San Ramon in the semi-finals of Clausura, and I got picked on by the Federation. A quick recap of the week:





Semi Finals Game 1: Sanatura Escazu 65 San Ramon 75

In what was billed as a rematch of the National Finals, we had to face a streaking San Ramon team in the semifinals. Early in the season, San Ramon was coming off a title hangover and a crucial injury to big man Daniel Simmons. For the last six games or so, San Ramon has been playing the best ball in the league. By virtue of finishing in second place, we had home court advantage in the series, which meant we had to travel to San Ramon for Game 1.

Chris Giles getting to the rim.

 In the second game of the season, we had surprised San Ramon by breaking out to a big lead and then hanging on for dear life. It seemed that San Ramon had that game on their minds,  as they flipped the script and San Ramon broke out to an early lead. We had a few turnovers early on, and even the quality shots we were able to get led to misses at the basket. San Ramon was relentless in its attack, crashing our defensive glass from every angle, leading to a 16 point lead by the end of the first quarter.

In the second quarter our second unit (Fafa, Huesos, Dwayne Grant, David Carnegie, John Chappell) led the comeback. John locked down the defensive end with timely blocks, while Carnegie controlled the boards. On the offensive end Dwayne was able to get inside their defense to do some damage; Bustamante then came off the bench to score four straight baskets. We went on a big run and even took a small lead before San Ramon tied the game at the halftime buzzer.

In the third quarter, San Ramon scored two quick baskets and defended that lead all the way to the end of the game. We were able to get inside, but only converted 50% of our free throws (we picked a hell of a time to revert to poor free throw shooting). With two minutes to go, we were still down by two possessions until San Ramon finally made a big basket to seal the game.

Battle of the bigs: Anderson vs Chapell.

Semi-Finals Game 2: San Ramon 76 Escazu 74

With our backs against the wall, the series moved to Escazu. Going back to last year's playoffs we had dropped five straight to San Ramon at home. The game was intense from the beginning. Fueled by the home crowd and Carnegie's hot shooting, we built an eight point lead in the second quarter. San Ramon, however, closed the gap in the last three minutes.

Dwayne Grant getting to the rim.

The game was tight in the third quarter. Down by 2, Jeff Dixon got called for his first techincal of the season, leading to two free throws and an eventual three point basket, suddenly giving San Ramon a seven point lead. San Ramon managed the game, maintaining that gap until late in the fourth quarter. Abel Garbanzo (more on that below) switched to a zone defense down the stretch, which led to several defensive stops. An unsportmanlike foul on Jaythiev Davis gave us some crucial free throws to make it a one possession game.  Reiner Little tied the game with less than 20 seconds to go to send it to overtime. In the extra period the teams traded baskets and defensive stops. Jefney Anderson made the go ahead basket on an offensive rebound, while Dwayne Grant missed our last shot on a floater inside the paint. Reinner got the offensive rebound, but an apparent foul on his subsequent shot was missed by the officiating crew, leading to the San Ramon win.

Licence to Coach, Denied

Banned from the bench, behind the green bar

So earlier in the week we get a message that the rules would strictly be enforced from now on (wouldn't that be a refreshing change). One of the items on the list was that coach's licenses would expire January 31st, and that coaches with expired licenses would not be able to coach after that date. Now mind you Game 1 of the semi-finals was Tuesday January 29th, while the second game was set for Friday February 2nd, which meant that if you had an expired license, you wouldn't be able to coach after Game 1.

To renew your license, coaches have to take two league sanctioned seminars per year. Thing is last year, they only offered two courses, so if you missed one you were out of luck for a seamless renewal.  Like many coaches, I had taken only one seminar last year: the federation has a knack for scheduling seminars during the workweek, making it virtually impossible for coaches who have a regular job. The Federation thankfully scheduled a make-up seminar...expect that they scheduled after the expiration date. So until you took that course, you couldn't coach in any games...even if they were the biggest games of the season.

So there I was Wednesday, being informed that I would not be able to coach the second game of the Semi-Finals. All that hard work, and I was getting banished from the sidelines. The Federation President apologized, but said it was time to go by the letter of the law even if they have conveniently decided to ignore other irregularities in our league. To say that I was livid is an understatement. The worst part was that here I was right in the middle of a critical juncture of our season, and my team got thrown this terrible distraction.

It's no secret that I have been the biggest critic of coaching licenses. Aside from my philosophical differences (and I have many, but I will save that for a separate entry), it is a requirement that is poorly planned, poorly executed and poorly communicated.  So last week the Federation decided to make an example out of me.