Tonight at Brookville high school, the Rustburg Red Devils and Liberty Minutemen will meet for the Division 3 share of the Seminole District title, before battling the winner of E.C. Glass and Amherst on Friday.
I had a chance to catch up with both coaches, one by audio, one by print.
Jeff Monroe joined me on "The Sports Buffet Podcast", to check out that interview, click here. Brantley Shields and I caught up via e-mail to talk about tonight's match-up with the Minutemen.
Bob Alvis: Anthony Reynolds is a stand out player for them, what all do you guys have to do to make sure Reynolds doesn't kill you all tonight?
Brantley Shields: We have to limit what he can do with the ball and where he catches it. A player like that it is impossible to stop. You just have to try and limit them and force them to catch the ball in positions where you can defend them.
BA: Who are some of their other players that you are worried about, and why?
BS: (Darius) McCoy and (Thomas) Clark because they can flat out shoot it. (Gaitlin) Wright gets solid penetration for them and we have to take away his drive.
BA: A lot of times coaches say that they know can't contain superstar players, but want to limit their touches. How important is it that you not only get the ball to Marshall (Wood), but put him in a good position to where he doesn't have to do a lot of work getting his shot or getting to score. Or is it a situation, where give Marshall the ball and everyone else get the heck out of the way?
BS: A little of both. I think it is impossible to limit touches for great players. They are going to get touches. Marshall has averaged the same shot attempts for just about every game this season with the exception of the last Glass game, and that was just because he got into foul trouble. What Liberty will do is try to turn him into a jump shooter which will do two things. 1. Take him away from the boards 2. Force him to take a lower percentage shot. They did a great job of that in the first game, in the second game Marshall did a better job of catching and reading. Marshall has matured tremendously in the past ten games and the key for us is to get him the ball in spots where he can be successful.
BA: What went right and who stood out for you guys against Brookville on Monday night?
BS: We played really good defense, especially in the second half. We also took really good shots and got to the basket, which allowed us to get to the foul line. That is the formula we try to play and we executed really well the other night, better than we have all season. Hopefully we can do it again tonight.
BA: We have talked about this before, but with the postseason comes a new level of play, what change have you noticed in you guys in terms of mindset and intensity coming into this game?
BS: Really, mentally I haven't seen much of a change. We really stressed consistency, focus, and poise all year. One game isn't more important than the next. Every drill, every play, every practice, every game is just as important as the next. Our kids really bought into that from the beginning. What I have noticed, is our players comfort level in our system increasing. That allows us to start playing through developed habits rather than having to constantly think through everything. This allows us to play faster and make adjustments quicker. I think that it is a big reason why we have played a lot better the past 6 games.
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