like everyone else, we were shocked at the outcome of the last game of the 2010 1st Nitoy Matugas Basketball Tournament between NEMCO and SEC. We were more shocked than the SEC players themselves. We thought it would be tough and close, it was easy and wide.
We have to agree with the SEC sports official who described their teams loss like an animal facing the headlights of a car on a highway at night. – the SEC players froze, with eyes wide
and stood there and waited for the car to run them over.
We think it is the coaching that made the difference in that game and leading to the finals. Clint Mondano , the NEMCO coach, is once again making the difference for NEMCO. The Warriors squad in the past few years and most specially this year usually starts hot and gets colder as the season nears the end and this year is different.
The NEMCO team specially this one kept on improving game after game. The NEMCO team had the same players now as the start of the season, the difference lie in the adjustments coach Clint Mondano makes game to game. It is these adjustments in play and strategy that allowed the NEMCO team to win over SEC which had previously beat NEMCO twice during previous season.
Listen to the NEMCO players after their games – all of them talk about practicing hard before the game. That tells us they do change their plans when they go into a new game and they practice it well.
NEMCO’s team this season do not have the stars it used to have in the last two years. They seem to be all even across the players. Look at the games they have played and you will see that different players star in different games. That tells you this team operates on specific strategy of play rather than being central to one or two players. Different players come out as the star of the game as the plays work and evolve during the game.
SEC on the other hand must have set their plays on their two stars – Mollanida and Nier as they have done in most previous games. Unfortunately, their coach did not adjust their plays and strategies when it did not work. Either the coach failed to adjust the play or if the coach did, the players did not respond to the instructi0ns.
What is going to happen on game 1? NEMCO for sure will adapt most of the game plan they had in the previous game and probably come up with a few new plays to anticipate adjustments that SEC will make on friday.
We think its important for NEMCO to employ the same strategy of piling up the points on fastbreaks very early on. It is important not just on the point building standpoint but more importantly on the psychology side.
SEC players seem to be psychologically vulnerable. They fold when ravaged in the mind and that is what NEMCO’s play will be on game 1.
>shared by a friend via email.