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Jared Meyer dives for a loose ball in the Buccs' win over Miami East.
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Team
Covington
Bethel
Tri-County North
Tri-Village
Twin Valley South
Newton
Franklin Monroe
Arcanum
National Trail
Ansonia
Mississinawa Valley
Bradford
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CCC
9-2
9-2
9-2
9-2
8-3
6-5
5-6
4-7
3-8
2-9
2-9
0-11
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ALL
16-4
16-4
16-4
14-6
15-5
10-10
9-11
5-15
5-15
4-16
3-17
0-20
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February 2, 2002 – COVINGTON
Oh how a week changes the shape of High School basketball. Last week at this time the Buccs were licking their wounds from back-to-back losses to Bethel and Twin Valley South. The talk of the town was…"What's wrong with the Buccs?" How can this team loose back-to-back games? Everybody had an opinion which many didn't amount to a hill of beans.
Well, here we are a week later and the Buccs just handled two tough teams in Tri-County North last night and Miami East tonight. Bethel, on the other hand, is in the same position the Buccs were last week. They have lost back-to-back games against two teams the Buccs have beaten, Tri-Village and Tipp City. South also lost last night to Newton who the Buccs trounced earlier in the year.
What does all of this mean? It means that it's a long season and every team has bumps in the road. With the tough schedule the Buccs have it is virtually impossible for a team to win every game…even on your home floor. The kids are still maturing and it's hard for them to be on their game every night especially when every game is a big game. The best a team with this kind of schedule can hope for is to be playing their best basketball when the tournament starts and right now, the Buccs are on their way thanks to a big win tonight over the Vikings.
Miami East has built a solid program over the years thanks to some awesome talent and the coaching wizardry of Covington alumnist, Allen Mack. Mack brought with him tonight a 14-3 team with size and aggressiveness.
The Buccs jumped out of the gate on fire while East had a hard time finding the bottom of the net. Jason Meyer and Jarod Meyer scored 13 of the Buccs 20 first quarter points while the Buccs' defense held East to only two buckets in the period.
The Buccs never let up in the second period as they continued to take the ball aggressively to the hoop. Jarod Meyer knocked down a jumper to start off the period and Jason Meyer scored a bucket to put the Buccs up 24-6. East managed to find the bottom of the net on three occasions to cut the lead to 28-12 but the Meyer boys pushed the Buccs' lead to 23 points by half-time, 37-14.
On most nights a 23-point lead is usually safe but not against Miami East. The Vikings outscored the Buccs 20-6 in the third to get back into the game. Covington missed it's first 6 shots of the period before a Jarod Meyer jumper with 4:23 left in the third. The only other buckets the Buccs would get in the period was another jumper by Jarod and a lay-in by Jason Meyer. As the period came to a close the Vikings had cut the Buccs' lead to 43-34 which brought their crowd into the game.
The fourth period was more of what was expected of this game between these two great teams. Solid defense controlled the quarter as each team had difficulty getting open shots. East managed to close the Buccs' lead to 45-42 before a Jason Meyer lay-up stopped the bleeding with 1:23 left to go in the game.
In a strategic move, the Buccs spread the floor out and controlled the ball down the stretch. They were not shooting well and East was on fire so they used the time to their advantage by making East run the floor on defense. As seconds ticked away, the Vikings started to send the Buccs to the line by fouling Josh Burelison. Burelison made his first attempt to make the score 48-42. His second attempt was off the mark but Derick Brumbaugh was their to grabbed the offensive board and kick it outside to Jarod Meyer who was fouled. Jarod went to the line and his attempt bounced off the side of the rim and was headed out of bounds. Jason Meyer chased down the loose ball and bounced it off of a Viking player to save the Buccs' possession.
The in-bounds pass to Bert Roeth forced another foul which Bert converted into two more points for the Buccs to give them a 50-42 lead with 50 seconds left. East went down the floor and canned a critical 3-pointer to cut the Buccs' lead to 50-45. East continued to send the Buccs to the line and Covington made them pay by pushing their lead to 54-45 with 6 seconds left. East scored the final points of the night with a lay-up at the buzzer to make the final score 54-47, Buccs.
Jared Meyer Can't Be Replaced...
How do you describe the importance of Jarod Meyer to the Buccs' basketball team? In a way, it's easy but in another way it's very hard. The best way I can describe it is comparing him to Ahman Green of the Green Bay Packers.
Ahman who?...you ask? Well, I'm a big Packer fan so I can see some similarities in the importance Jarod has to the Bucc and Ahman has to the Packers.
See, both play second fiddle to a more high profile athlete. Ahman has Brett Favre and Jarod has Jason Meyer. Brett Favre racks up all of the yards and gets most of the attention but the Packers are more successful when Ahman Green is running the ball with success and controlling the clock. This takes pressure off of Brett Favre and he doesn't have to try and win the game by himself.
The same thing with Jarod Meyer and the Buccs. The Buccs do much better when Jarod is handling the ball and controlling the flow of the game. When Jarod is on, which is almost every night, Jason Meyer doesn't have to shoulder the load. Jarod sets everything up and Jason can let the game flow to him. Jarod does the subtle things that make him a great player and perhaps the Buccs' most valuable player.
Tonight was a perfect example of Jarod's importance to the team. There were two plays that stand out that make Jarod Meyer what he is. Neither of them will be on the stat sheet but both plays can be archived on tape and shown to upcoming kids on how to play the game.
The first play came early in the third quarter. A Buccaneer' pass was off the mark and Jarod chased it down as it was headed out of bounds. Jarod sacrificed his own body to try and keep the ball in play. As a result, he smashed into the padded wall in an awkward position. As he bounced off of the wall he kept his eyes on where the ball went. It was only after he realized the ball never stayed in play that he recognized his personal pain from the collision with the wall. The fact that he was more worried about where the ball went then if he was hurt shows he is the ultimate team player.
The second play may have been the play of the game. Miami East had just closed within 3 points at 45-42 and the Buccs had the ball. Another Buccaneer pass was off the mark and Jarod managed to make a heads-up play by putting his body between the defender and the ball. He managed to get his hands on the ball which resulted in a 4-point swing because he found Jason Meyer open for a lay-up instead of allowing East to go in for an easy lay-up of their own.
– By Ben Robinson
Can Coaching Be That Tough?
Eighteen games now are in the books for the "Basket-Buccs" and as Roger Craft sat watching Friday night’s freshman game he looked like he had lived through an NBA season...instead of high school. Having the flu most of the week didn't help, but regardless of the the flu, basketball coaches show the stress of the season come tournament time. Roger Craft can talk to you about stress.
The Buccs are currently 14-4 for the season, a high-water mark for most programs, but not necessarily for those with high community expectations. In Covington, like other small communities around the state, athletics becomes a focal point of the community and everyone either has an opinion or develops one as they get caught up in the excitement of a winning season.
"Expectations are part of the game, and realistically...I’d rather people have them than to not care at all," said Craft early last fall. "We’re fortunate here to have such good players and expectations come with good personnel. That's far better than the alternative."
If expectations are the "children" of basketball, as John Wooden once said...the second-guessing that comes with it is certainly a cousin. Take every loss on a team’s schedule and ask around and you’ll get plenty of reasons why they lost. Oddly, most are directed at the coach...and coaches take the criticism as a matter of course.
"I think you have to understand that consistency is not a normal part of a teenager’s makeup," commented Oliver Purnell during a recent 5th Quarter interview on WPTW. "The performance you get on Tuesday night may not even resemble what you get on Saturday...but your coaching strategy must be based on what you last taught and saw in the execution of your players. Let players lose focus, or confidence...or worse, be intimidated by the circumstance they're in...and your effectiveness as a coach is seriously threatened. The fans expect consistency, but you can't coach consistency. It comes as part of the maturity process of young players..and it can sure make you look bad as a coach."
Richard Cline, boys head coach at Arcanum...and formerly at Franklin Monroe...understands that the expectations of a community when you come into a position is not always the same as what's prevalent while you're there.
"I think everyone understands that you're a "teacher" of the game when they hire you. Unfortunately, when you are 4-12 you're no longer teaching the right thing...or playing the right kids," says Cline. "Then it becomes a matter of your being hired to win...and that's not always realistic."
Coaching success and failures often comes as a matter of experience and instinct...of being able to think outside the box. A case in point occurred during the Buccs’ win Saturday over Miami East. With four minutes remaining in the 4th quarter Miami East had the momentum and had cut the Covington lead to three points. East's defense and rebounding had stymied Covington's offense and a change of plan seemed necessary for the Buccs to regain control of the game. Roger Craft and his staff called a timeout and implemented a four-corner offense, a look seldom seen from this team...and a risky one against an effective, trapping defense. It worked. The flow of the game changed instantly and Miami East had to foul to get possession. Covington's experience put the game out of reach from the foul line. Coaching, and knowing what to do at a critical point, had won the game. This time fate was kind to Roger Craft.
Every coach has one constant. You're only as good as your last success...and memories can be short. No one knows this better than Steve Fisher after Bethel's back-to-back shockers last weekend. But oh...there's one more constant!
"Some guys are only appreciated twice," says Dave Zeller, former Piqua coach. "Once is when you retire and they don't have to see you again...and the other is when you die...and they don't have to see you again!"
– The FanFile
