Incarnation Hoops Update - 29 December 2009

Thirteen players showed up last night to work off the holiday egg nog and chip dip. This reporter arrived home in NJ at 6:25 PM after a 6 hour drive, leaving a scant 35 minutes to unpack the car, grab the gear and get to the gym. Priorities, people!

The match ups changed all evening, but most games were relatively close. Well, they were when Brian DeVaney decided to slow down to our pace! Brian had his way from inside and out, drifting further away as the night wore on to try to keep things competitive. One game winner was launched from 3 miles away in the parking lot of a dry cleaners. But Brian rarely takes a break on defense, which made the impressive drives by sister Erin Reynolds and Lawson McElroy even sweeter. Erin drives on anyone, almost always going left and banking in floaters from high off the glass. But in close her up and under moves are deadly, and she juked Brian for an easy score on one notable possession. She also played good defense on speedy Pete Reynolds. Lawson arrived a little late but rather than dive in without any warm up as we usually make him do, he had time to get some shots and loosen up. As a result, his inside spin moves were generally falling and he dropped in a couple from outside as well. Pete runs the floor well, and after some time away he seems to have regained his inside touch, converting every breakaway drive but one. He also took a few mid range shots to mix things up.

John Stracquatanio the elder handled the ball and delivered his usual number of assists, plus a few rainbow shots from outside and a handful of drives. He seemed to especially enjoy driving on his son John the younger when they were matched up. John Stracquatanio the younger played well, delivering one nifty alley-oop pass to Brian at the rim while on a fast break, making another touch pass to this reporter from the left block for an easy assist, and making some other outside shots. The 3rd John, John DeVaney, used his cunning to turn up on the floor on every defensive rebound and converted several fast break points as his defenders slacked off. He also drained his usual complement of hook shots and 3-pointers. One of his breaks was started with a full-court pass from son Brian, which Caitlin Grant touch passed to John for an easy finish. Caitlin has gotten more aggressive in recent weeks, showing the old guys what she's got as she drives, shoots and dishes rather than defers. She was blocked on one drive but otherwise put up impressive numbers.

Lou Perrochino played well last night in the paint, putting in his usual complement of bank shots off the glass after his stutter-step move to his left. When we play run and gun as we did much of the evening Lou's half court game is minimized, but luckily there were enough half court sets for him to get his shots. Hank Van Slooten, in his second week back after a lengthy absence, played both the half court game and ran the floor on offense and defense. Anyone not accustomed to Hank's game and who therefore assumes this elder statesman isn't a threat learns quickly to respect his post moves, particularly his passes from the paint, and his ability to hit a pull-up jumper in the lane after trotting up the floor trailing a fast break.

Tom McManimon played strong all night, and he's really turned his left-handed flip after a cut into the paint into a go-to move. On nights when we have good spacing Tom's good for a few savvy cuts for open looks, and on other nights he'll take turnaround jumpers from anywhere on the perimeter. He also plays solid defense, if by solid we mean immovable object! Mike Slom arrived plenty early, which apparently threw him off as his outside shot was not nearly as reliable as those nights when he dashes in late! He warmed up after a while, but called it an early night after tweaking something.

As for this reporter, I had little time to stretch but having played only once in the last week (shout out to nephew Jeremy Conte for inviting me to join him at the Pittsford Community Center over the holiday!) I wasn't as stiff as I usually am. Despite imbibing copious amounts of unhealthy food in recent days, I had the energy to run most of the night. My breakaway layups were about 50%, however, due to an uncharacteristic inability to spin the ball into the hoop. Anyone who played with me ten years ago knows I couldn't make a full-speed layup to save my life, so I've worked hard to add a little "English" to the ball from either the right or left side and my conversion rate is substantially higher, but last night I lost the touch and missed several that I usually make. However, I made enough to count, including an around-the-back-to-finger-roll shot between Brian and Pete that had no right going in, except that it's so unconventional it's hard to defend, and a few good assists, particularly to Caitlin and Erin who always drift to the right spot in transition. With the holiday schedule I'll probably play Tuesday night, Thursday during the day and again Friday. My youth team has practice on Saturday so I'll miss that run, but I'll play Sunday morning, and start another week with a Monday evening session. All I want for Christmas is the health to keep playing, and maybe, occasionally, to get better at the game I enjoy!

Note to all: We WILL hold our annual Hangover Run on New Year's Day at 11 AM. ALL are welcome, including veterans we haven't seen in a while, and guests. Many of us will be up until the wee hours celebrating the arrival of the new year, which just has to be better than this one, but rather than sleep off the hangover we encourage you to come out and play some ball in the sunlight. There will be several varieties of body spray on hand to mask the alcohol-scented sweat!

I'll see some of you at 11 AM Friday morning. The rest, I'll see you Monday evening at 7 PM. Classes will have resumed, so please park along the tree line again.