CHS Girls basketball coach candy wilson's favorite saying: 100% passing

Tom Keegan
onwardtrojans.com
 
Five guards, including guard/forward Allison Van Kley, are in Chesterton girls basketball coach Candy Wilson’s nine-player rotation, and only one is a returning varsity player.
Two-time All-DAC point guard Kenedi Bradley has freshmen Lindsi McGuffey and Reese Dilbeck, sophomore Novea Brandon and Van KIey joining her in the backcourt.
The knee-jerk reaction to that reality is that the young backcourt explains why the Trojans have been plagued by turnovers. That certainly has played a part in it, but it doesn’t tell the whole story.
It takes a passer and a receiver to complete a pass, a reality that somehow seems to be overlooked more in basketball than football.
Sectional host Chesterton will need to have both ends working better Friday night in its semifinal vs. Merrillville, which won the DAC game on the same floor 51-40 on Jan. 10. The Trojans turned the ball over 29 times that night.
“We froze up on their press last time,” Wilson said. “They had a 2-2-1 and we were very awkward with it. I feel like we’ve gotten better at that. Taking care of the ball, the guard skills, not dribbling too far into it. We’re getting better at it.”
In one practice drill against pressure, the players aren’t allowed to dribble.
“It makes the girl who’s receiving the pass have to move toward it, make a better angle, step to it, don’t stand there and stare at it,” Wilson said.
Wilson emphasized that guard skills amount to just the front half the turnover equation.
“Our big marquee saying is 100% passing,” she said. “It can’t be like shooting where 50% shooting is great; 50% passing is terrible. You have to be 100% passing. So that’s what I’m looking for with our passing, 100% passing.”
Statisticians don’t have the option of giving a receiver the turnover if a defender intercepts a pass before it’s touched.
It starts with the guards making better decisions regarding when and where to pass it.
“I tell them if someone’s not sealing for you in the post, I don’t care how much they’re screaming for it, you can’t pass it to them,” Wilson said. “It’s your turnover. It’s not theirs. So, if you really want the ball in the post, you better seal them, you better step to them, and you better secure it.”
Few things deflate a guard quite the way that doing everything right to collapse the defense and delivering an on-time, on-target pass, only to see the recipient not move as the defender steps into the passing lane and goes the other way with it. Seeing their passes dropped doesn’t make the guard feel too swell either.
The 100% passing motto has been emphasized even more in recent practices and it will stay that way into the offseason, even though in summer games opponents don’t make players pay for mistakes as regularly.
“You’re not scouted as much,” Wilson said. “Now, by this time of year, everybody knows your blood type. There are no secrets about anything.”
Wilson and her assistants identify tendencies of opponents and drill them into players who at the same time are trying to shore up their own deficiencies.
“They’ve been very, very coachable, and that’s when you can make progress,” Wilson said of her players. “They’ve all done that together. They’ve really stepped things up. They’ve watched film, and they try to do the things that we’ve been critiquing. I feel like Novea, the last several games, she’s been more like a point guard. She’s not our point guard yet, but she’s taken on that role of handling the ball and doing the offense, and Lindsi and Reese too, and that’s not an easy thing to do. I think Kenedi is a really good example to those girls.”
Chesterton went 2-2 against the five-school field, defeating Hobart and Portage and losing to Valparaiso and Merrillville.
The random draw for the sectional all but guaranteed the Trojans won’t face either of the teams they defeated in the regular season. If the Trojans get past the Pirates, they will face Valparaiso in Saturday’s title game, barring Portage scoring a major upset in the semifinal, scheduled for a 7:30 tip Friday.
Valparaiso  (16-7) advanced to the semifinal round with a 66-34 victory over Hobart (3-19) Tuesday night. Lillian Barnes scored a game-high 21 points for the Vikings, who took a 32-5 lead after the first quarter and then spread the playing time throughout the roster.
Sectional play resumes Friday when Chesterton (14-8) faces Merrillville (15-6) at 6 p.m. Estimated tip time for Valpo vs. Portage (10-12) is 7:30 p.m. The championship game is scheduled for a 6 p.m. tipoff Saturday.