The Ref: Team Camp Blog – Day 1

Well day 1 is in the books for what I believe is the final high school team camp for WSU basketball. 6 games in all today, 9 tomorrow, 9 thursday and a final tournament on Friday which will be double elimination and made up of games only spanning a single half of ball per game. What does that mean you ask? A whole lot of ballin’, or in my case, a whole lot of whistle blowin’.

Interesting notes for the day: Met Coach Bone and coordinator Jeff Hironaka for the first time in person today, along with a few members of the team (including Devonte Lacy, Mike Ladd and Damaundray Woolridge) as they were our scorekeepers at the gyms I was at and will continue to do that for the remainder of the camp. I was immediately impressed with how approachable the entire staff and all of the players are. I’ve been around teams and individuals in the past that were just not that accessible in one way or another, even here at Wazzu.

Coach Bone talked to my partner and I for probably 10-15 minutes about why the camp is so much smaller this year (50+ teams last season, 18 this season) to different stuff that has to still be done with recruiting to the team’s planned summer tour through Australia in the next couple months. 11 days they will be traveling Australia (though I can’t remember exactly when right now), “pretty much all the big places” he said, including Melbourne, Sidney, Hobart and Brisbane I believe. Coach told us he has only been to Aussie nation for a day and 1/2 in his life and he didn’t get to enjoy it, so he’s of course looking forward to the trip along with his team as a first time experience.

It was funny to me his answer when we asked if he was ready for the season, he shook his head emphatically and said “no, not even close”. It was mostly funny because I have never got an answer like that one before. Religiously I always get the old “Always ready” routine from coaches, but I can understand why they’re still worn out after the season went long and now they’re in at least their third straight week of evals and camps.

Anyways, my foot is sore, but other than that the first 6 are successfully out of the way and I’m back at it tomorrow. More to talk about then.

Signed,

The Ref

March 7, 2012; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Washington State Cougars head coach Ken Bone during the first half of the game against Oregon State Beavers during the first round of the 2012 Pac 12 Tournament at the Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE