A tough preseason for the Lady Balers
Presentation. Skyline. Oakland Tech.
The San Benito girls’ basketball team’s preseason schedule,
aside from the obvious divisional factors, could very well mimic a
difficult stretch through the Nor-Cal playoffs.
A tough preseason for the Lady Balers
Presentation. Skyline. Oakland Tech.
The San Benito girls’ basketball team’s preseason schedule, aside from the obvious divisional factors, could very well mimic a difficult stretch through the Nor-Cal playoffs.
After compiling a still incredible, still hard to believe 24-6 record last year (compared to the 8-15 mark from the previous season), a record that included the Tri-County Athletic League crown and the Central Coast Section Division I title, many would figure the Lady Balers have no where to go but down.
But head coach David Kaplansky has peppered the preseason slate with enough contenders, each of whom could win their respective leagues this season, with the hope that each battle will only make San Benito stronger in the long run.
With any luck, you expose the weaknesses now and reap the benefits later.
“It’s working out great,” said Kaplansky on Sunday after the Lady Balers went 1-1 at the Skyline Shootout, a record that included a 69-34 rout of Skyline. “It’s gonna make us better going into league and when we play other teams in the future.”
Figure the game against Presentation, a school only slightly less scary than Mitty when it comes to Division II opponents.
The Lady Balers traveled to San Jose and lost 72-31.
They had difficulty with the pressure, trouble with the run-and-jump, and problems keeping pace with a team that delivered a similar lockdown defense like the one they usually implement.
“The reason why we’re challenging these teams,” Kaplansky said after the game, “and the reason why we’re scheduling these teams is so we can get our weaknesses exposed so we know what to improve on as we get toward league and get toward the playoffs.”
Better now than in the CCS playoffs, right?
But sometimes coaches will throw out a difficult preseason and fill their schedule with a bunch of weaker opponents, perhaps in order to build a confident team, one that believes it can beat anyone because it’s pushed aside each pushover that stood in its way.
Fair enough, but San Benito is far past the pushovers. Winning the CCS can do that to a team.
“I honestly feel in a way it was a good thing,” leading scorer Vanessa Farias said after the Presentation game. “This is getting us prepared for our league … We’re gonna face teams like this along the line. This is getting us ready for that.
“Even though we lost by a big margin, I really feel it was good because we learned more. I would rather have taken this game than play against some team that we might have killed.”
The one downside to the difficult schedule is the mental aspect – how will the team respond from a tough loss? When a coach loads up his preseason with playoff contenders, and the team takes its lumps with each loss, it’s impossible to ignore the mental side of it all.
The coach is testing his team to make them better, but too much of a test could have its negatives; it could wear on a team, especially one that is used to winning.
But so far, San Benito is immune to this. Following the Presentation loss, the Lady Balers welcomed North Monterey County to Hollister and proceeded with a well-timed shellacking.
San Benito 62, North County 20.
The Condors, which have worked out to a 4-3 record and recently lost to Notre Dame by a measly 41-35 margin – in other words, they’re no slouch – were held to just a single point combined in the first and fourth quarters against San Benito.
That worked out to one point in the first and zero in the fourth, which is simply an astonishing feat, especially against a team that is averaging nearly 48 points per game.
The Lady Balers have since routed Skyline, which qualified for the Division I Nor-Cal playoffs last year, and lost to Oakland Tech by just 10 points.
Up next for San Benito is Orinda’s Miramonte, which went 27-4 last year with wins over Mitty, Northgate and St. Ignatius. They lost to Berkeley by just seven points.
“You’re always gonna play better when you play up,” Kaplansky said after the North County game. “You’re gonna suffer from a loss, but you’re gonna learn from a loss.”
