FAIRLEA- Prior to the 9th ranked Greenbrier East Spartans home victory over Pikeview on Tuesday night, Jan. 14, Spartan head basketball coach Jared Patton talked a little about the effects a long layoff between games can have on a basketball team.
Before that win over Pikeview, the Spartans had not played since a 79-60 thrashing of their rival, the Princeton Tigers on Jan. 3 due to the winter weather that hit and, in some cases, continues to hit all over the state.
And on Tuesday night, East showed some early signs of rust against the Panthers before finally putting it all together and picking up an impressive 21-point victory.
East escaped what would have been a disaster if they had lost to Pikeview, but after they prevailed, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
Still, Patton did not downplay the long time between games.
“Yes,” he answered when asked about his teams’ rhythm being affected.
“We felt like we played pretty good against Princeton especially in the second half and was looking forward to building that momentum going into the CTC event (that was completely canceled),” he added.
Patton trusts his players to do the right thing when school is delayed or called off and gives each of them assignments to stay focused and prepared.
“I assign three players to write up a scouting report for their next opponent. The rest of the team is responsible for watching game footage on that team as well,” Patton stated.
As mentioned, with the team seemingly on the right track and now hopefully back to a consistent schedule, the head coach reminds them constantly to never be satisfied and to always look to get better.
“We have to stay humble and hungry as a team,” Patton said.
“We’ve had a pretty good start to the season. However, we talk about never being satisfied with our last win or where we are ranked in the state. I have never looked at those as being accomplishments. I always look at what’s next and do we have the will to prepare to win,” Patton concluded.
What is up next for the Spartans is a road trip to the Armory in Beckley this Saturday night where East will look to avenge their home loss a few weeks ago to the Woodrow Wilson Flying Eagles.
Tipoff is scheduled for 7:00 PM.
