Published: February 27, 2008 11:40 pm            

Amey Takes Aim: Jones might have one more sectional title in his coaching bag of tricks

TERRE HAUTE — I enjoy watching Dana Greene’s Plainfield High School basketball teams play, although keeping statistics for the Quakers are a little problematical.

A heretic in the Bob Knight-inspired tradition of slowdown, never-ever-run basketball, Greene’s teams always figure that the best shot is the one you get before the other team gets its defense set up. At the end of each of the first two quarters Tuesday night, in fact, Terre Haute South hit what looked like a momentum-swinging 3-pointer in the last seconds of the quarter, only to have the Quakers race to the other end and score before the buzzer to quickly get momentum back on their side.

It would be a perfect scenario in a lot of years for a Jim Jones-coached team to bring that running game to a halt on Friday night in the Class 4A Martinsville Sectional semifinals, and it could happen one more time for the veteran coach.

When Jim’s final game is finally in the books, it will be the end of one of the legendary Indiana high school basketball coaching careers — and a nice gift for Joyce Jones, one of the all-time great coaching wives.

His program wasn’t for everybody. An immense amount of dedication was required, and playing time was never a given. I still remember asking him several years ago if every member of his 12-man roster was going to play in the upcoming jamboree to start the season.

“We’ll probably just use seven or eight,” he answered. Part of the reason for that, he explained, was to educate the parents of his players. “It’s not Little League,” Jones concluded.

Here’s some other basketball information.

n Fundamentals — Everyone who has ever played basketball remembers some of the drills at the start of the season that seemed boring and unnecessary at the time. I have a hunch Jim Jones has overseen those drills a few times.

Well, their importance was borne out to me last week watching Marshall play Effingham St. Anthony at the Illinois Class 2A Robinson Regional.

I’d had the impression watching the Lions earlier in the season that they were more an offensive team than a defensive team, but their man-to-man defense against the Bulldogs late in the game that night was impeccable, featuring great individual pressure without fouling — as good and as tough a defensive performance as I’d seen in awhile.

And one of my pet peeves watching basketball this season has been the number of good teams who have been guilty of playing flat-footed offensively. A defense like the one Tom Brannan’s team played that night would have torn teams like that apart.

But Effingham St. Anthony’s kids were taught the triple-threat position somewhere along the line from those boring, unnecessary preseason drills. Every one of them was strong with the ball, occasionally attacking defensive pressure with a quick step and a hard dribble. If there’s a game tape available from that fourth quarter, it would make a good lesson for a lot of teams, and would show two teams that worked hard in practice all season long.

• Found it — North Daviess hosts a boys tournament between Christmas and New Year’s Day each season, one I won’t ever get to see because I’ll be enjoying the Pizza Hut Wabash Valley Classic.

But I was interested in this year’s affair down there because after two rounds of play it appeared Cloverdale and Southwestern (Jefferson) would be playing in the fifth-place game — Pat Rady vs. Patrick Rady, in other words. Then I couldn’t find a score on the wire, so I figured maybe there was no fifth-place game.

Looking up scores to complete my sectional brackets this week, however, I noticed that a score of that game had appeared on the John Harrell Web site. Right now Patrick leads the Rady rivalry 1-0.



Andy Amey can be reached after 4 p.m. for comments or news items at 1-800-783-8742 or at (812) 231-4277; by e-mail at andy.amey@tribstar.com; by mail at P.O. Box 149, Terre Haute, IN, 47808; or by fax at (812) 231-4321.

        

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