“Focus” and “Patience” Propel Bladensburg
Ron Bailey, Publisher
February 3, 2007 – According to sophomore Wallace Judge, the Bladensburg High School (Bladensburg, MD) Mustangs had two very distinct practices recently. “That’s just what our coach said” recounted Judge, of head coach Jim Butler’s recent stressing that team members need to play their roles. To effectuate the message, he elaborated, the Mustangs “had one practice where we stressed focus and another where we stressed patience”.
Those sessions paid off big time last night, as Bladensburg took apart Henry Wise, 71-53, at the latter’s palatial new facility in Upper Marlboro, MD. If not for Wise’s second half effort, their defeat would have been significantly worse.
During the first 13 minutes of the game, Butler’s team raced to a 35-11 lead, methodically attacking Wise on both ends of the floor. Roscoe Davis (14 points) was the initial defensive target: A 6’9” junior forward/center with multiple skills, Bladensburg not only challenged Davis with the equally tall Judge (16 points, double digit rebounds), but also utilized smaller players to collapse on him and either strip the ball or disrupt his timing. He was clearly a target of the Mustang’s man to man defensive deployment. In a word, the effort was focused.
Raymar Watson (2 points) #22, was one of the players that assisted Wally Judge (only head visible) with Roscoe Davis (right). The Mustangs played cohesively on both sides of the floor.
Offensively, Bladensburg’s players not only functioned in their predetermined roles – as Judge did scoring on the blocks and snagging rebounds, while junior Jeffrey Mack (14 points) early on repeatedly hit long jumpers after being fed the ball by kick outs or ball reversal. Fueling the onslaught was – patience.
“They were focused and patient” said Butler, pleased by his team’s dominating run. “If they do that, we will be hard to beat”.
“We’ve never been that far ahead” he continued later, upon reflecting whether this was the most lopsided score his team had rung up in 2006-2007. They have now won 10 of their last 11.
Wise assistant coach, Ken Johnson called the contest “a humbling experience” as “We had been on a run - (winning) eight of nine games. Our coaching staff tells them about being focused and consistent”.
But with such a young, inexperienced team - it is the school’s initial year of existence, the player’s first year playing high school ball together, the team has no seniors and none of the players had prior significant varsity experience - these lessons have to be learned. As such, Johnson believes “It (the loss) could be a blessing for us. We’ve had had our successes, we had our failures”, and now the challenge is to continue improving.
With that philosophy in mind, the Pumas of Wise started the second half, down 47-20 but still competing. Using a scrambling, pressing, trapping defense – which included a 2-2-1 press – they outscored Bladensburg 33-24 in the second half.