FGCU's Brittany Kennedy Day 2 journal: The post-game film study

Day 2: March 6, 2013

After our game we stayed to cheer on our men. They were playing North Florida who has one of the best shooters in the country. It’s always nice to be able to have both teams there to support one another; adds to the fan base -- we are fortunate enough to have made the trip up to Macon. The game was a tight one the entire game, our men finally pulled away with a huge second half from Bernard (Thompson). Bernard and Sherwood (Brown) were both playing with a little bit more of a chip on their shoulders -- after being named A-Sun Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year respectfully. It was pretty cool so see those awards go to our school solely on the men and women side. I’m happy, that both they and we get to play again; I’m looking forward to being able to cheer for them again Friday. Go Eagles!!

After the men’s game we headed back to the hotel to shower and eat dinner. We didn’t have much time considering we were going to watch Stetson and ETSU. For dinner we had pasta, chicken, veggies, garlic bread and a salad. Chicken was pretty dry so after one bite I left that on my plate but the pasta and garlic bread was on point.

The game was close pretty close the entire game. Stetson started the game off rocky even though they were the upper seed, kind of like we did. ETSU is a team that plays well late in the season, and they gave Stetson a run for their money. Watching other games always gets my competitive fire going, whether I’m watching in person or yelling at my TV back in my dorm. Both teams made some plays that I just didn’t understand, but I’m sure watching our game there were plays that irritated other people too. Mel (Thomas) had to remind me that seeing how both teams were playing -- if we took care of business, that those passes and moves they were making were actions I could use to exploit them if they are the team we play later in the tournament. Stetson started to pull away but a couple of big baskets by Destiny (Mitchell) and ETSU were only down by a few possessions. ETSU eventually had to foul to stop the clock, and Stetson made their free throws to close the game out.

Again we had a short amount of time back at the hotel before we had something else to do. I just chilled in my room before going to film in Coach (Smesko’s) room. We didn’t have a lot of clips to watch, this time, but the ones we did are vital for the next game. The first segment we had focused on the missed block outs we had versus Kennesaw (State). We gave up way too many second chance points, just because we weren’t ready to box somebody out when the shot went up. Not boxing them out without backside and probably most important not creating space on the box out by being low and strong. Good thing for us we do have another chance to correct it, and we will. The other segment was on how we guarded in the post. We are probably the smallest team in conference so teams attack us inside. As a team we didn’t do a good job of guarding the post. We allowed our bigger kids to guard one on one in the post and that isn’t how we play. All five on the court have to contribute to stopping the post which we will correct and do for Friday’s game. We’re prepared for the next team to pound it in to the post as well; we’ll be ready to stop them as a team! Not every team gets another chance to improve on their last game, especially in March, we are blessed to and we have to.

Best part about film is watching Top Plays from the game. An assistant coach always gets some music playing and we all relive the shot, rebound, loose ball, steal or block and get excited for one another. We have a good time and laugh at each other if we see somebody trips or when Joyce (Iamstrong) gets super excited for her own plays and nobody else’s lol. The girl is a mess, but I love her at least she can take when the team laughs at her. Watching top plays allows us to see what worked well and doing it again we will probably see it on top plays again. We did our “eagle” cheer after film and then everybody filled out our food orders for tomorrow before leaving Coach’s room.

Sarah and I chilled in our room talking about we have to turn it up, and both of us wanting Friday to be here so we could play again. Early night though. We are going to have two practices today, film and scouting the other team as well.

For more on FGCU's postseason journey, check out our A-Sun tournament storystream.