This item is courtesy of Steve Finamore.

A former St. Peter’s College Men’s assistant, Steve is now a head coach in Michigan. He constantly searches for and enjoys reading coaching clinic material and articles concerning coaching. This one was both a shocker and quite sad when you think about it.

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McDonald's announced their list of 24 high school All-Americans on Thursday and here's a brief glimpse of the squad breakdowns.

One of the first things that jumped out to me as the fact that the West has a quite obvious height advantage, with two Californians combining for over 13 feet of length. Candace Agee at 6-6 and Imani Stafford at 6-7 will have at least three inches on everyone from the East, and will tower over West teammate Jordan Jones (the shortest selection at 5-6) by over a foot!

Other than that, the proliferation of Big East commitments on both teams was something definitely noticed as I looked down the line. Seeing multiple players heading to Connecticut and Notre Dame are not all that surprising, but Syracuse, Rutgers and current member West Virginia also got nods. That means nearly a third of the ladies in the game will be playing with and against one another at the culmination of their prep careers!

Both the boys and girls games are slated to be played March 28 in Chicago at the United Center. The girls will play at 6:30 p.m. CT on ESPNU.

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Verona, NJ- "Thank you. You guys did a phenomenal job tonight."

So said assistant coach Mark Criqui to us following his team's 5-4 loss. There is no misprint. In a fifth grade Suburban League travel game this past Friday, Verona defeated Essex Fells 5-4.

"You have to be kidding," said my assignor Rich Mattesky when I told him after getting home.

An officiating veteran of the Suburban, thought Rich saw it all. Evidently this was news even for him.

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Thursday, a trip to Union City for a freshmen/JV girls doubleheader.

The first game would have the Union City freshman with coach Courtney Ruane who was chronicled in this area back late December. The opportunity to work one of her games as a coach was indeed exciting. Union City has a relatively new facility. The court is spacious, well lit and a pleasing surface. Just a pleasant place to work. As a bonus AD Dave Clauser always cordially takes care and even provides the officials with water.

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Monday Evening. A recreation 5-6th grade girls game at West Essex Middle School in Northern New Jersey.

Running clock excpet the fourth quarter. No full court pressing at any time. Lawrence Frank, who preaches the importance of learning half court as a young player, would be especially proud.

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North Bergen, NJ- The officiating calls for a girls doubleheader, freshman and JV, on Thursday at North Bergen High School.

These are two Hudson County schools and in this county it is almost rare to find schools with two sub varsity programs in girls basketball. North Bergen is hosting Kearny and both programs have enjoyed success and own a solid tradition.

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During a high school girls' holiday basketball tournament I watched just before the New Year, I saw a coach whose team was rapidly falling behind call a timeout and introduce a full court trapping scheme in the huddle.

He spent the majority of his 60 second timeout diagramming where he wanted his players - which included for in the rotation who I found out hadn't practiced or played much because they had been playing soccer prior to basketball season - to trap, including how they should orient themselves around the ball handler at the point of the trap. But instructing his players to trap on the fly didn't help at all - they just got beat repeatedly in a variety of ways until they eventually fell behind by 30+ points. When they seemed to correct one problem, their opponent found another way to beat it. Undeterred, they stuck with the trap and lost by 30+ points.

However, it's not the final point differential that really made this stand out in my mind.

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JERSEY CITY, NJ - A high school girls JV game was on tap on Saturday afternoon.

No heat in the gym. No problem?

Mother Nature blessed us with a day in the low- to mid-60's. We have Randolph from Morris County (about 30 miles west) facing St. Dominic's Academy of Jersey City. St. Dom's does not have a home court so on this day they are at St. Al's Gym on West Side Avenue near St. Peter's College. My partner is Iris Garcia, one of my favorites to work with.

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